For a variety of reasons, 2024 is a time for companies to recalibrate.
In so many ways the beginning of what’s sometimes called the post-COVID era has become a bookend.
All airlines have been forced to reassess their strategies. The competitive market dynamics have shifted, as economic conditions fluctuate and consumer profiles and behaviours change. Nowhere is this more evident than in corporate travel.
For Australia’s domestic aviation, what happens this year will significantly reshape its future.
Qantas is intent on restoring popular confidence in its brand, but at the same time there is a growing belief that its market power overly distorts competition in the marketplace.
More significantly, Virgin Australia begins a journey to decide what it will look like for the long term after collapsing in 2020 and (temporarily) moving into private equity ownership. This means acquiring new equity partners and a partial IPO sell down by 95% owner Bain Capital, if market conditions allow.
For each airline international partnerships will be very important – and, for Virgin, critical. Qatar Airways is already a strategic partner and surely an obvious candidate to be permitted to invest in Virgin, helping create a greater competitive balance, both internationally and domestically.
Then there are the big picture uncertainties. Against the backdrop of an unprecedented year of geopolitical change, the existential issue of climate change is alarming, a Sword of Damocles for the airlines.
And artificial intelligence promises extensive disruption, in ways we can only speculate.
We know AI will change the world, and potentially every aspect of airline and corporate behaviour. But beyond a handful of specifics, there is a “singularity” about its broader impact, that is to say, it’s a bit like a black hole, we simply have no way of predicting what will happen beyond a few months – other than it’s likely to be exceptional.
In short, it’s certain that disruption is on the menu.
The mission for businesses of all kinds must be to pre-empt that turbulence, to try to imagine beyond singularity and pre-empt that disruption.
Look forward to seeing you all in person at our inaugural Australia Corporate Travel Summit, 13th November 2024, at the Sheraton Grand on the Park in Sydney.
Peter Harbison
Director, Greener Airlines
Co-Founder, Australia Corporate Travel Summit (ACTS)
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