Business travel is slowing as a “pre-recessionary” caution according to United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby.
Companies, namely in tech, have turned to various cost-cutting strategies in an effort to alleviate future expenses. These include walking back on office leases, layoffs and slashing needless expenses like travel.
“It feels like business travel, and this probably is indicative of pre-recessionary kind of behavior, has plateaued even though our total revenues are still going up,” said Kirby on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Although business travel remains still, Kirby stated that the shift to hybrid work has led more workers to take part in more casual travel that isn’t necessarily tied to their careers.
Despite recession fears, United forecasted continued profits for the last few months of the year as airlines hike prices due to the labor shortage and demand grew overall.
“If I didn’t watch CNBC in the morning … the word ‘recession’ wouldn’t be in my vocabulary, just looking at our data,” Kirby added.
