Heathrow says business travel held back by economy, job cuts

The rapid rebound in air travel continues to be dominated by leisure passengers, while corporate bookings are held back by economic uncertainty and job cuts, the head of London Heathrow Airport said.

“When we look at demand, we haven’t seen business travel come back to the level it was pre-pandemic,” John Holland-Kaye, the chief executive officer of Heathrow, said in an interview. “We can all see that with a lot of economic uncertainty in the world, with cutbacks among some of the big users of travel — the banks, the tech companies — that it’s not surprising that it hasn’t fully recovered to where it was. I think it will get back.”

The aviation industry has seen demand swell after travel restrictions were eased and borders reopened. But a revival of high-yield business travel is crucial for the return to profitability for airlines. The technology sector has been hard hit by a wave of layoffs at companies from Amazon.com Inc. to Meta Platforms Inc. , while the banking industry is reeling from the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the bailout of Credit Suisse Group AG. 

Holland-Kaye, who has announced his departure from the biggest UK airport, spoke after Heathrow released earnings.