Teleconferencing comes of age. And this time it will offer travel alternatives for many

The most valuable customer - the business traveller - has become the most savvy with alternative communication methods.

There are several components of the travel mix (the 'type' of passenger who boards an aircraft and why), the main ones by volume being the leisure (vacation) traveller, those visiting friends and relatives (VFR), and the business traveller.

To the airline the business traveller, who needs flexibility, seeks comfort, and who often books late in the day, is the most valuable, because they can be charged the highest fare. For full service airlines, business travellers, while smaller in number, often account for as much as 50% of passenger revenue.

What is not so obvious is how the impact of the pandemic will be measured once people start to travel in significant numbers again - or rather, are tempted to.

Will the leisure travellers opt for 'staycations' in their own country? Undoubtedly domestic travel will be vastly simpler than international for some time to come. Will the VFR traveller prefer to stick with Skype or Zoom? (The most common solutions for video conferencing today are Skype, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Slack.) Will the business traveller also (continue to) communicate by alternative methods, assuming those methods are sufficiently professional and beneficial?

One thing is certain, the pandemic has brought to a head the question of whether video conferencing can actually replace business travel - one that has been floated for decades, without being answered.

All this comes at a time when the traveller experience is changed - and not easy or pleasant for anyone, as the CAPA report on Istanbul Airport's preparations makes clear: Istanbul Airport's 'Safe Travel' illustrates airport challenges.