United Airlines Chief Predicts Business Travel Demand Won't Rebound Until 2023

The CEO of United Airlines on Sunday said business demand is down even as leisure travel rebounds — and that it’s not likely to bounce back until 2023.

In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Scott Kirby said it’s hard to envision things ever going back to “normal.”

There’s “huge desire for people to get back out, reunite with friends and family and connect with the world, and that leisure demand is more than 100% recovered,” he said.

But, he noted, “business demand is still off 60%.”

“I don't think anything will be normal on the other side of this, but we expect that business demand is really going to pick up in September. as most of these schools are back in.”

“A lot of people are back in offices, but we don't think it really recovers in full until 2023,” he continued. “Europe, we expect to be as soon as the borders are open. That will come back largely in full. Probably next summer will be the biggest year in history for Europe. And Asia is probably another 18 to 24 months away.”

Kirby said he’s hopeful a mask mandate on planes will soon be lifted.

“One of the great things about flying on an airplane is it's literally, if you're going to be indoors with other people, it's the safest place to be, particularly because the air filtration on the airplane,” he asserted.

“My guess is that the current government order expires on September 13, and fingers crossed, my guess is it will expire on September 13. But we'll wait and see for sure.”

According to Kirby, there’s no concern about attracting staff back to work in the industry, but warned “infrastructure” is strained.

“There is infrastructure around the airports, the contractors,  all the vendors that support everything in aviation, even if they are TSA security screeners and they've done a heroic job on coming back up quickly,” he said.

“But it's been so fast, the recovery has been so rapid that there certainly… some rust and some strains of the system.”

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