Skift Take
New shapes and sizes for 2022, certainly, but more importantly a new set of priorities that may be a cause for concern for the smaller agencies left on the playing field.
The pandemic left a frenzied 18-month period of restructuring, refinancing and acquisitions in its wake — or as one expert put it, an "arms race."
As a result, many of the bigger corporate travel agencies look vastly different compared to before the pandemic. They also have a new set of priorities, reflecting the altered and likely much smaller trading landscape that lies ahead.
But even with business travel volumes recovering to just 80 percent of 2019 levels by the end of 2023, Greg O’Hara, founder of private equity firm Certares, predicts they'll end up more profitable than before as the pandemic has forced them to become leaner, more efficient machines.
The Big Downsizing
How lean did they get? O’Hara’s private equity firm manages a fund that owns 50 percent of the world’s biggest corporate travel agency, American Express Global Business Travel. This agency had 17,000 employees globally before the pandemic, but today that number is 14,000.
It's not the only agency to have shrunk. As early as April 2020, Flight Centre Travel Group, which includes corporate travel brands FCM and Corporate Traveller, slashed its 20,000 head count by 6,000 people.
Fellow Australian brand CTM also cut costs, announcing 1,000 layoffs last year, although reports suggested overall it may have cut up to 40 per cent of its local and international staff. It wouldn't comment to Skift on exact pre or post-pandemic figures.
Meanwhile, U.S.-based CWT continually restructured during the pandemic. The company told Skift last year there were extended furloughs, changes to part-time roles and voluntary redundancies, but it wo
