Businesses cautious on travel spending as trade uncertainty looms
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According to new reports from the travel and expense platform, companies continue to spend a business trip, but they are strategic about how they allocate these dollars among the ongoing trade uncertainties. Navan And Global Business Travel Association.
According to a business index published on Navan on Tuesday, corporate travel expenditure activities increased by 15% annually in the second quarter of 2025.
Navan’s index supported by NASDAQ is derived from millions of institutional commercial transactions on the platform. Examines the amount and number of transactions spent on airline travel, hotel reservations and expense transactions from corporate cards.
Navan’s CFO Amy Butte said during an interview that corporate leaders have never completely stopped spending on their business trip from talking to other chief financial staff in the last few months. Instead, in “Wait and Look” mode.
Butte, “If you are making choices about where you are cautious, we do not see that people are cautious in the field of relations with their customers or teammates. We still see that any business strategy is allocated as an important component.” He said.
However, the global business trip is expected to reach a new highest level in 2025, according to the Global Business Travel Association’s Monday report, this total represents 6.6% growth compared to the previous year, which is less than the previously estimated 10.4% increase. GBTA mentioned trade tensions, policy uncertainty and economic pressures as the reasons for more moderate growth.
A series of emotion surveys conducted by GBTA show that corporate travel optimism looks silent for the rest of 2025. The percentage of the participants, who said that they were optimistic about the general appearance of the business industry in 2025, rose from 67% in November 2024 to 31% in April and this month fell to 28% again.
The findings from both reports grouping with the comments made from the airline CEOs last week show that C-Sauite leaders are still in waiting and vision mode between President Donald Trump’s liquid tariff policies, but companies now seem to have a better reading about how to manage uncertainty.
“Historically, corporate travel is the first thing, one of the easiest things, if you’re a company, to minimize,” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian added that the corporate trip in the airline is flat from year to year during the company’s call for earnings this month.
But BUTTE said Navan had not seen any decrease in a business trip. Instead, businesses change how they spend.
For example, BUTTE said that businesses continue to hold individual, face -to -face meetings instead of spending on large group trips. The Navan Index shows that the expenditures of personal dishes, which means one -to -one meetings on a meal, have increased by 9.8% compared to last year, and spending on team events and meals is the only category in the report.
At the beginning of the year, Navan received some compression with the share of higher -price airline tickets, the first -class or business class, but the BUTTE added that the platform has accelerated as uncertainty has decreased since then.
Aircraft information prices have also declined this year, so business and consumers spend less on flight tickets. According to the Bureau of Statistics, the flight ticket fell 3.5% in June compared to the previous year.
GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang said that during an interview, CFOs did not completely reduce travel expenditures, but they are looking for effective ways to set out employees. This may seem like reservation of multicultural trips, planning more than one meeting per trip, or less travel reservation per month.
Neufang said that the business travel industry has focused on making sure that every trip has a goal in the last five years and provides investment return.
Neufang said, “The days of really meaningless business travel are behind.” He said.
Weighing Airline Managers
New findings about business travel expenditures come with the fact that the airlines declare their three -month earnings.
When is delta Notified earnings on July 10, Bastian said that in the second half of the year, both consumer and corporate confidence expects to improve and created an environment for accelerating travel demand.
Delta and other airlines have seen that travel demand was weaker than expected at the beginning of the year, especially among the customers who travel at home. Bastian said Trump’s trade policies damage reservations in April.
Bastian received a more positive tone this month, and businesses had more clarity and confidence than it was at the beginning of this year, saying that CNBC was balanced. However, at the beginning of the year, 5 to 10% growth growth at the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, Delta President Glen Hauenstein said that this month calls for a profit, corporate travel trends were “wavy” and general institutional volumes were expected to be “straight” last year.
United Airlines Last week reported earnings. CEO Scott Kirby said that during the company’s call with analysts this month, the airline saw a double -digit acceleration in the demand for business as the uncertainty decreases.
United’s Deputy General Manager and Head of Commerce Andrew NOCELLA, business traffic growth is “throughout the board of directors” and reduces macroeconomic uncertainty, he said is not limited to a singular center or vertical.
Southwest Airlines– Alaska Airlines And American Airlines This week is scheduled to report their three -month results.
