US airline corporate travel outlook: business fare pricing traction rebounds; United grows capacity

The US major global network airlines American and Delta were offering bullish outlooks for the corporate sector before United Airlines outlined plans to growth its annual capacity as much as 6% during the next three years, spurring fears that a fare war would ensue in the US market.

American, in particular, has worked feverishly to close the gaps it had in corporate market share against its larger rivals, and has added more than 20,000 new small to medium sized corporate accounts in 2017. Delta is working with the position that many corporations plan to sustain or increase their travel spend during 2018.

Delta's optimism has also been fuelled by business yields rebounding from previous pricing pressure. For now, it is tough to predict whether United's capacity growth, designed to improve connectivity through is mid-continent hubs, will affect the momentum in business fare pricing traction.