U.K. Travel Agents See Bookings For Air Plummet, Rail Soar

Air transactions handled by British travel management companies plummeted 17 percent in the first quarter of 2009, but rail bookings shot up by 14 percent.

Figures from the Guild of Travel Management Companies, whose 31 members handle more than 80 percent of all business travel booked in the United Kingdom, provide further evidence that the downward trend for air reservations is accelerating. In the fourth quarter of 2008, air transactions were down 6 percent from the same quarter in 2007. Hotel bookings are also down. A fourth-quarter 2008 increase of 4 percent reversed into an 8 percent fall in the first quarter of 2009.

However, rail has proved a notable exception to this trend, and the GTMC's figures are backed by data from AirPlus that show rail transactions made through its payment system were up in January and February in several European countries. These included Germany, the dominant market for AirPlus, up 5 percent.

AirPlus attributed the increase in German rail activity to a gain in marketshare from air on account of rail being cheaper. In the United Kingdom, however, the GTMC's exceptional rail growth could well be an indication that corporate travel buyers are stepping up their active management of rail expenditure. British train journeys are only likely to be less expensive than air if business travelers abandon their traditional habit of buying tickets on departure to book in advance instead. This is increasingly happening through the use of specialized online rail booking tools, which corporations are introducing and managing in cooperation with their TMCs.

One of these tools, Thetrainline, estimates that 38 percent of corporate rail tickets are now purchased online, and the Institute of Travel & Meetings confirms their increasing use. "The capture of the business travel market by Evolvi and Thetrainline has increased dramatically," said chief executive Paul Tilstone. "A lot of our members are using them."

GTMC chief executive Philip Carlisle said: "The continuing growth in rail travel shows a change in business traveler behavior which may well continue when the U.K. emerges from the recession."