After a turbulent 2025, corporate air demand is poised to continue growing into 2026, according to executives from the three largest U.S. carriers who spoke in recent weeks at investor and industry events. Recovery to 2019 levels, after taking inflation into account, still seems elusive, however.
American Airlines
American CFO Devon May on Dec. 3 at a Goldman Sachs conference reiterated what the company's executives have said earlier this year, that the carrier is on track to regain the market share of corporate demand lost during its controversial 2023-24 sales and distribution strategy. As American heads into 2026, "we're not talking about regaining lost share," May said. "We're talking about gaining more incremental share."
May noted that the airline is "somewhere around our historical fair share," but that there were plenty of years when it had been above that. "We have a real opportunity to get back above where we were just prior to the sales and distribution change," he said.
As for margins, the profile is "probably exactly the same as it was previously," May added. "Maybe it's a little better in some areas and a little worse than others, but for the most part, it's very similar to what it was previously."
Factors May noted that could drive an increase in corporate share include American's "nice growth " this year in Philadelphia, where it did "exceptionally well," growth in New York after shuffling LaGuardia routes and frequencies and upgauging planes, and "meaningful" growth in Chicago.
The carrier also will continue to roll out new product enhancements, May said.
Delta Air Lines
Delta CEO Ed Bastian on Dec. 3 at a Morgan Stanley conference said of the carrier's corporate share, "The gap we've seen this year is the greatest we've ever seen in terms of our share—well over 30 percent of corporate travel comes on Delta, yet we only have a little over 20 percent share of seats in the market," he said. "Despite others saying that they're going for it, they're certainly not taking it out of us."
Still, Bastian added that while pricing has been strong the past couple of years, helping corporate revenue to recover from the pandemic, "volume is where we still have opportunities." He added that corporate volume is at or slightly under where it was in 2019.
The economy, in terms of nominal gross domestic product, has grown about 25 percent since then, "so there's maybe a 30 percent gap between volume of travel versus where we were in 2019 to where we are today," Bastian said. "And I think we will continue to chip away at that. I don't think we'll ever get that full 30 percent back, but I know we're going to continue to make progress."
United Airlines
United chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella discussed competitive pricing and corporate demand on Dec. 4 at The BTN Group's The Beat Live conference.
"All of our businesses are just so different than they were in 2019. That's painful for all of us, but I know every one of us sees the inflationary impact on our cost structures," Nocella said. "United is no different—we see significant cost pressures. We've done our best to craft an appropriate level of discounts or incentives, whether it's agency or corporations, that kind of make sense in this new cost world. We think it's fair and balanced, but I know it's different than it used to be."
When asked about United's corporate strategy and who is filling premium-class seats, Nocella said that "I wish you all were filling it at the same rate that you were in 2019, but you're not. I think you all know that. The world has changed, and … you know how your business travel policies have changed."
The premium leisure space has "accelerated a lot," Nocella said, and United now fills what once were corporate seats with premium leisure seats. "I think that's actually worked pretty well for us."
As for AI, Nocella said he worries that businesses will be "dramatically smaller from a headcount point of view, and you won't travel as much because a computer doesn't travel."
Still, though smaller, the corporate market remains "incredibly important," Nocella added. "I hope that internal meetings once again go out on the road. That's one of the key differences between where we were and where we are today. … It's so much better to be in person. I think the value to United is [it's] still a large segment of our business, not as big as it used to be, [but] I like to think it's going to recover."