2020 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $44.2 million
Primary U.S. Online Booking Tool: Concur
Primary U.S. Payment Supplier: American Express
Card Program: Individual Bill/Central Pay
Primary Global Expense Tool: Microsoft Dynamics
Consolidated U.S. TMC: Amex GBT
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates famously said in November
2020 that he predicts more than 50 percent of business travel will disappear
when travel recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. That prophecy remains to be
proven, but in 2020, BTN estimates that the technology giant’s U.S.-booked air
volume was $44.2 million, down approximately 85 percent from its $275 million
2019 volume.
After the pandemic started, Microsoft made substantial
changes to its employee travel policies and cancelled or moved conferences and
other marketing events to virtual-only through fiscal year 2021, which ended
June 30. The company has its own virtual meetings product, Teams, which enables
users to chat, call, meet and collaborate. However, the move to Teams to reduce
business travel began prior to the pandemic, according to Microsoft’s 2020
sustainability report. The company is beginning to calculate the carbon
benefits of using Teams instead of travel.
Microsoft has offset all business travel emissions since
2012, and in October 2019 joined a partnership with KLM to support sustainable
aviation fuel production and in October 2020 signed a similar commitment with
Alaska Airlines. Employees can use the company’s TripTrackerLite tool, which
providers personal travel statistics including carbon impact from travel.
Microsoft works with Concur to provide estimated carbon emissions of flights
and help employees compare the carbon costs, as well as financial costs, of
their travel options.
In August 2021, Microsoft invested $5 million in Oyo Homes
and in September entered into a product and technology alliance with the hotel
company. In February 2021, the company partnered with global distribution
system Amadeus to enable faster delivery of new cloud-based travel solutions.
Microsoft reported $168.1 billion in revenue for fiscal year
2021, up 17.5 percent from the year prior. As of June 30, 2021, the company
employed approximately 181,000 full-time individuals, with 103,000 based in the
United States. The total represents an 11 percent increase over fiscal year
2020’s 163,000 employees.