2020 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $5.8 million
2020 Global T&E: $169 million
Consolidated U.S. TMC: BCD
Investment bank and financial services firm UBS in 2020 substantially decreased its U.S-booked air spending, according to a BTN estimate.
Companywide travel and entertainment spending declined from $378 million in 2019 to $169 million in 2020. UBS tallied about 124,400 flight segments companywide in 2020, down from about 218,700 in 2019. The carbon dioxide equivalent generated by UBS business travel declined to about 23,500 metric tons in 2020 from 42,900 one year prior.
While most of those declines are due to the pandemic and its accompanying travel shutdowns, Covid-19 isn’t entirely responsible. UBS had developed a network of remote conferencing options and worked to reduce air travel, with volume decreasing from 2018 to 2019. The company expects its return to business travel to be slow and gradual, and for now limited to essential business.
UBS since 2007 has offset the effect on climate of its business travel. The company at the end of 2020 had about 71,600 full-time employees, up from 68,600 one year prior. UBS’s 2020 revenue increased 12 percent year over year to nearly $32.4 billion