Post-Pandemic Industry Challenges

Apanel presentation, moderated by Mr. Tim Burke, SES, Director, Office of Travel, Employee Relocation and Transportation, Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), GSA, examined challenges facing the passenger travel industry in a post-pandemic world. In addition, the panel looked at bright spots and the ability of capacity to meet surge requirements.

QUESTION 1 | Where are travel numbers now? Are we back to where we were pre-pandemic? If not, what’s your prediction for when and how we get there?

The airlines have rebounded well according to Mr. Rob Lebel, Managing Director, Specialty Sales, Delta Air Lines. He shared that leisure travel has not just rebounded, but is actually at 120% recovered. He estimated that business travel is around 75% recovered. Military and government travel is around 75-80% recovered.

For the bus industry, many segments have come back said Ms. Trisha Fridrich, VP, Business Development and Marketing, All Aboard America! Holdings, Inc. However, several segments have yet to fully recover, including international travel. This raises the concern as to whether or not there will be enough buses when these segments finally recover. Buses may be in shorter supply because of reductions in fleet numbers, an approximate 20% driver shortage, smaller bus companies not surviving through the pandemic, and industry consolidations.

For context, Vournakis shared that between 2019 and 2020 the travel and tourism industry lost 62 million jobs. To his surprise, when the industry started to rebuild many of those displaced employees were not ready to return to the industry and were seeking greater stability.

Mr. Nick Vournakis, Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, CWT, said that he had seen close to a full recovery but with some volatility. There is also a surge in people wanting to tack on leisure travel to business travel. He also noted that hotel bookings were doing very well. Contributing to this are longer overall hotel stays—travelers are taking fewer but longer trips.

While the government’s travel spend is continuing to recover, Mr. William R.

Mansell Jr., SES, Director, Defense Support Services Center (DSSC), is not sure if it will ever fully recover. “I don’t know if it’s ever going to come back to the numbers we saw in 2019. I don’t know that it will,” he said adding that things such as collaborative travel, remote, and telework had changed the perceptions of what can be accomplished without the need to travel.

QUESTION

2 |

What skills are needed for travel workers now and in the future?

“The skill set for the future that we are looking for in the motorcoach industry is really in the trades,” said Fridrich. “We need to change the conversation around college being the only great place to go when you graduate high school, and make sure that becoming a CDL driver and a technician are really rewarded.” To this point, she added, her company has some drivers earning more than $100,000 per year. The company also works to train and grow employees within the business.

For context, Vournakis shared that between 2019 and 2020 the travel and tourism industry lost 62 million jobs. To his surprise, when the industry started to rebuild many of those displaced employees were not ready to return to the industry and were seeking greater stability. As a result, how to bring capacity back had to be rethought. In addition, there is a delicate balance between leveraging technology and providing travelers with the ability to be self-sufficient, paired with their desire to speak human to human when disruption occurs.

QUESTION 3 | How do the challenges that the industry is facing impact the DOD mission?

According to Mansell, whether or not travel industry challenges affect the DOD mission depends on the purpose of the travel. Being late to a conference may be frustrating, but it is unlikely to impact the mission. But disruptions when traveling to deployment could impact the mission or cause mission failure. He concluded that both scenarios are not good and could impact productivity.

QUESTION 4 | Weather impacts are nothing new, but seem to be getting worse and could take from hours to days to recover. How is your organization prioritizing customer care once the chaos begins?

Agility is key said Vournakis, who described this as the ability to surge the workforce when needed. While managing capacity had traditionally been a more stable task, he shared that within the previous five weeks, he had seen volumes change anywhere from 80% to 113% recovered. This delta necessitates flexibility.

Record flight delays and cancellations in 2021 and 2022 resulted in chaos for air passengers. To alleviate the risk of such issues—caused by weather or other events— Lebel recommends taking a proactive planning approach. For Delta, this means not overscheduling, increasing block hours, boarding planes a few minutes early, hiring meteorologists and have predictive analytics to help predict and monitor weather, and leveraging technology to proactively communicate with customers.

QUESTION 5 | Is duty of care a higher priority going forward than it was before the pandemic? What policy or service delivery changes did you institute during or just after the pandemic to address traveler health, safety, and wellness, and are they permanent?

A higher standard of cleaning and disinfecting is a change for the motorcoach industry that Fridrich thinks will continue.

In addition, she has seen an increase in the clarity and transparency of terms and expectations between her company and its customers.

With regard to traveler health and safety, Vournakis felt there was a good foundation of policies and procedures in place prior to the pandemic. One example is an organization’s ability to track its travelers. Moving forward, this and other aspects of duty of care will be developed further to do things such as enabling travelers to check in with their home office or to get safety information at the touch of a button.

QUESTION 6 | What technology strategies have been adopted for the future that weren’t here before the pandemic and what is the most significant technology do you see looking forward?

Lebel shared that the airline industry now has a seat at the technology table. From an operational perspective, he said that Delta has invested in technology to help the customers including free Wi-Fi for everyone. In addition, a new state-of-the-art technology called Delta Sync—which curates your in-flight entertainment experience— will roll out later this year.

QUESTION 7 | Do you view the government customer any differently than you did pre-pandemic and does the government need to buy any differently from industry?

“Speaking for the airlines, Tim, we love the GSA bid process,” said Lebel. “For the airlines, it gives us some predictability and that’s not a word that’s used a lot.” He added that it also provides the airlines with clear compliance requirements for the markets they win.

“This is a unique sector because it is very heavy workflow, it is very heavy process,” said Vournakis. “Having perspective on both government travel, as well as commercial travel (non-government travel), I think there’s an interesting potential tradeoff between simplifying and, ultimately, controllability—and specifically some of that cost predictability.” DTJ

Congratulations to the travel industry 2022 NDTA Corporate Distinguished Service Award winners: Choice Hotels International, CWTSatoTravel, Enterprise Holdings, IHG Army Hotels, Omega World Travel, SAP Concur, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. This award is presented annually to corporate members that have provided outstanding service in support of the Association’s goals and programs at the local and national levels.

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In conjunction with the GovTravels Symposium, the NDTA Exposition was also back in person this year. A major highlight of the week, the Expo provides a valuable opportunity for attendees to share ideas, network, and learn about new products and services. The Expo floor was bustling with excitement throughout the event, creating a truly rewarding experience for all.