BUSINESS NEWS Corporate Travel Summit 2026: Mid-East conflict dominates London event. Ian Taylor reports
Wratten applauds sector’s rapid response to war
Corporate travel leaders hailed the sector’s response to the war in the Gulf. Business Travel Association
chief executive Clive Wratten said: “It always impresses me how quickly members spring into action managing folks who are stuck.” Wratten noted: “A huge amount of capacity goes through the Middle
East. The knock-on effects are yet to be known.” But he said: “History suggests we’ll deal with this.” Advantage Travel Partnership
chief executive Julia Lo Bue-Said suggested liaising with the Foreign Office and Department for Transport had proved “so much more difficult than it should be” and urged member businesses to “engage with MPs at the local level”. She noted engagement with MPs
“is a key focus of the Outbound Travel Group” set up by Advantage and specialist travel association Aito. However, she acknowledged: “A lot of MPs we had engaged with
Clive Wratten
lost their seats [in the 2024 general election].” Wratten also criticised ministers
for the slow pace of rail reform, saying: “Opportunities are being lost every day because of the speed of decision-making.”
Ex-minister: Trump chaos very unhelpful for business
The travel industry is subject to “very inconvenient forces pressing on all of us”, former Tory minister Steve Baker told the Corporate Travel Summit last week. Baker cited not only the war
on Iran but also the rise of the populist right and the fact that Britain is “chronically broke”. He claimed the reason for the war
was “Israel’s view that if Iran had a nuclear weapon it would use it against Israel, and the world can’t allow that”. Baker noted: “Trump has said
the war won’t last long.” But he suggested: “We should take Trump seriously but not literally. He is manipulating [the media] for his own ends. When he doesn’t do what he says, it creates a negotiating position. “It’s brute power politics – a
‘madman’ strategy to unsettle his opponents, but it’s very unhelpful for business.” Baker added: “Trump is a big player, and there are three
travelweekly.co.uk
leaders: “You are a particularly vulnerable group.” Baker also suggested: “There
Steve Baker
characteristics of a big player – enormous power to move markets, little restraint in how to act, and little concern for profit and loss.” He warned: “Don’t be surprised
if it continues. Just expect chaos.” The former Tory MP and minister
for Exiting the EU, now a business advisor with The Provocation People consultancy, described the UK as “chronically broke” and warned: “The state will substantially default on welfare in our lifetimes.” He told corporate travel
is a major realignment of politics in progress and don’t be surprised if it continues. Unless the next government is some kind of rainbow coalition, it will be a right- wing government. Whatever the Labour government does will be unwound by Farage or Badenoch.” Yet he added: “If I thought Farage
was the answer to our problems, I would have defected to Reform.” A prominent advocate of
Brexit, Baker confirmed he has not changed his mind on quitting the EU, describing the bloc as “anti-democratic and protectionist” and telling the summit: “The EU is running out of road.” However, Anna Leach, chief
economist of the Institute of Directors, said: “The hit to the UK economy from exiting the EU was 5% of GDP – a very significant number.”
Iata reports ‘mixed demand’ even before war
Iata recorded a “mixed performance” by airlines at the start of the year, even before the war in the Gulf began, despite an outlook “more positive than it has ever been”. That is according to Iata
UK and Ireland area manager Lara Maughan, who told summit delegates “North American traffic didn’t really grow” at the turn of the year. By contrast, she said:
“Europe accounted for a huge proportion of growth.” Maughan noted airlines
saw “record numbers of passengers” last year, but she said most carriers continue to operate “on razor-thin margins”. She described the impact of
the war on supplies of jet fuel as “a huge concern”, saying: “The substitution of jet fuel is not happening at scale. We’re not seeing the volumes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) we hoped. We’ve had to downgrade our forecast. “We have to be at 10%
SAF [in the UK] by 2030 and the sector is starting to believe that is an impossible target. The government committed to having five SAF plants in production by 2026 and there aren’t.” Maughan added: “The
cost of SAF is far worse than expected. It’s a suppliers’ market and suppliers have been able to shift all the cost on to passengers. “In the UK, we’re seeing the
highest SAF prices.”
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PICTURE: Creative Commons/Richard Townshend Photography; Alex Maguire Photography; Shutterstock/Shutter z
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