London is currently Europe’s leading business travel hub, but Heathrow is an embarrassment, writes Andrew Crawley

While collaboration and virtual meeting tools have become commonplace, organisations are still profoundly aware of the value of in-person connection. People will always want to do business with those they trust, and there’s something about meeting face-to-face that cannot be replicated from behind a screen.

Most companies zero-based travel budgets after the pandemic, placing greater scrutiny on the justification for travel. As a result, business travel has become more purposeful; companies are only putting their people on the road if they need to. Today, most travel budgets are back to pre-pandemic levels or higher, and UK passenger volumes – of which business travel makes up around 17 per cent – are forecasted to hold steady.

London sits at the centre of it all and is already business travellers’ favourite destination in Europe for meetings and events. But if the capital is to maintain and extend this lead as the world’s boardroom (and drive economic growth in turn), airport infrastructure upgrades are needed.........

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