Flight Centre's Leiss on Increasing Business Travel Demand

Flight Centre's Charlene Leiss talks:

• Reasons SME demand for travel is on the rise
• How suppliers are reacting to market changes
• New ways of business travel ROI measurement

Travel management company Flight Centre Travel Group last month released a survey of 1,200 corporate clients of its FCM Travel and Corporate Traveler that showed 45 percent planned to increase their travel budgets year over year in the July 2025 through July 2026 period. Flight Centre Travel Group Americas president Charlene Leiss spoke to BTN managing editor Chris Davis about the current state of business travel demand, the effects of market uncertainty and changing perception of the value of corporate travel.

BTN: What's your overall view of corporate travel demand right now?

CharleneLeiss: I'm extremely optimistic and positive. We had a great September, especially in the SME business, which was up about 15 percent to 18 percent year over year. Definitely, travel volumes are increasing. Larger corporates usually tend to hold back a little bit more when there's uncertainty, and we saw a bit of that [earlier in the year], but in the last month or so even that has really picked up.

I think corporates have just become accustomed to volatility. They know they have to be out there seeing customers and winning business, and that's what we're seeing. October's looking strong too.

BTN: Did the market shift around Labor Day, after what some have called a sluggish summer?

Leiss: Yes. I think seasonality has changed quite a bit since Covid. We actually had a strong July and August, though we didn't have a really booming June. After Labor Day, business travel definitely turned up a notch.

BTN: What's behind that improvement after the slower spring?

Leiss: Despite all of the uncertainty in the geopolitical markets and the tariffs and everything else, I think that most companies have learned to adjust. Canadians don't really want to come to the U.S. as much, but we're really only seeing a year-on-year decline in single digits, and they're focusing more on some national projects and traveling to other locations, both in leisure and in corporate.

Overall, I think it's that we're not seeing a recession despite all of the news and the concerns. Even with the government shutdown, we're really not seeing a big impact as it relates to corporate travel.

BTN: How does SME activity compare with larger managed programs?

Leiss: Many SMEs tend to forego any sort of uncertainty or any concerns around that because they've got to grow their business very quickly. They are still in high-growth mode. We're seeing that market continue to boom. We're seeing more international trips, more transatlantic demand, and we're starting to see some more Asia-Pac traffic. Even with the uncertainty there, SMEs are going to manufacturing plants and so forth in other parts of the world.  

At the same time, we're seeing a lot more online self-service, AI-assisted of course. A lot of our SME customers are signing on to our proprietary products, and they're doing it themselves.

BTN: Are suppliers responding to that pickup in demand?

Leiss: I would say the suppliers for the most part are still very partnership-oriented. … Airlines are adding capacity back after pulling it earlier in the year when tariffs were introduced. We're seeing capacity come back domestically and internationally, and carriers are reporting solid earnings.

BTN: What about hotels? Are there availability issues?

Leiss: A hundred percent, especially in New York, where $700 is practically the new normal for a decent hotel. We're seeing a really strong market.

BTN: In the Flight Centre State of the Market survey, about 45 percent of the buyer respondents indicated they expected increased spend for next year. Of course, things can change quickly. What potential risks could jeopardize that outlook?

Leiss: Anything to do with world politics with any sort of international strife. What we've seen [recently] with some of the resolutions in the Middle East are definitely going to help business travel. But because there's so much happening and the pace of change is so heightened, it's probably leading a lot to corporate booking close in. We don't see the advanced purchase we used to see, and that's true in leisure as well.

BTN: In the survey, you were quoted as saying that corporate travel was increasingly seen as a non-discretionary spend, a critical component of business success. How is that reflected on the ground in how companies are adjusting the way they travel?

Leiss: I think it's pretty clear, and the data backs this, that for companies that choose to stop business travel, especially customer-facing business travel, it impacts their results in the months ahead almost immediately. … I think companies understand that. That's why SMEs continue to travel, and if anything, there might be a bit of an adjustment with internal travel, but if external doesn't continue, the companies won't grow.

BTN: Are you seeing more effort to measure or quantify that return on investment?

Leiss: Yes. That's more of the conversation now. Travel programs are far more strategic now. Companies are looking at what percentage of revenue they reinvest in travel to support customer engagement or acquisition. That's a metric that's getting a lot more play, and it's much more than companies looking in the rear-view mirror to see what they spend.

BTN: It's a tricky metric to pin down.

Leiss: It's getting better, though, because reporting abilities have advanced so much in recent years that it [makes it easier to] code trips by purpose and tie them back to sales outcomes or client retention.

BTN: Does all of this change the role of the travel management company?

Leiss: It makes the consulting role even more important, and that goes hand-in-hand with the fast-paced changing landscape. With so much change—NDC, content fragmentation—just means you need a trusted partner to navigate the complexity of this business.