The airline industry is one. Even those have proven to be insufficient, however, as the easing of initial restrictions against travel have largely failed to bring back the travelers. Business travelers in particular, who are the airlines’ most reliable and most lucrative customer segment, have not returned in numbers the airlines’ modeling suggested they would. Airlines will need to completely rethink their business models and growth strategies, with one inevitable result of that being that the airline industry is going to contract to some degree. As I said in last Sunday’s column, “bouncing back better,” which is the theme of our The Manila Times business forum today, is only going to be possible if we change our approach and bounce in a different direction, instead of trying to bounce back to a place that no longer exists.

Source: Manila Times October 19, 2020 16:07 UTC