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JOHANNESBURG – FCM is urging South African corporate travel managers to act immediately to secure seats and lock in flexible fares, as the Middle East conflict triggers a severe capacity squeeze and unprecedented price volatility on key international and local routes.

With more than 30,000 flights cancelled globally since 28 February, the disruption has landed hard on South African businesses. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad – historically the backbone of long-haul corporate travel from South Africa – have seen ticket volumes collapse by 56% since the crisis broke. Qatar Airways has been the worst-affected, with ticket sales down 77%.

The knock-on effect has been immediate. As corporates scramble to rebook on alternative carriers, seat availability has evaporated and fares have surged. In some cases, FCM consultants have watched business class fares to Europe breach R200,000, and climb further within hours.

“The volatility is unlike anything we’ve seen in recent memory,” said Jaco Brits, Head of Sales and Account Management at FCM South Africa. “We’re quoting a fare, and by the time approval comes back, the price has moved significantly. Seats that existed in the morning are gone by the afternoon.”

Where the volume is going

FCM’s booking data reveals a significant shift in how South African corporates are reaching Europe and Asia. Ethiopian Airlines has emerged as the biggest single beneficiary, with ticket volumes up 21% and revenue up 29% as Addis Ababa becomes the most practical Africa-to-Europe and Africa-to-Asia connection that avoids closed airspace entirely.

European carriers are absorbing significant overflow, with Lufthansa recording a 92% increase in tickets booked and 74% revenue growth from FCM customers. British Airways is up 34% in tickets and 57% in revenue, while Air France has seen a 64% ticket increase and 89% revenue uplift. The message is clear: the shift to these carriers comes with a significant price premium.

Asia-Pacific carriers are seeing the steepest growth from a smaller base. Singapore Airlines is up 120% in tickets and a remarkable 228% in revenue, with Cathay Pacific up 159% in tickets and 147% in revenue, which shows that Asia-bound corporate traffic is being structurally rerouted away from Gulf hubs.

“Corporates are finding ways to keep travelling, but the cost of doing so has fundamentally changed,” said Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa. “Travel programmes built around Gulf hub connectivity are now exposed. The capacity simply isn’t there on alternative carriers to absorb this volume at pre-crisis prices.”

The death of the cheap, inflexible ticket

One of the most significant behavioural shifts FCM is observing is a move away from non-refundable, non-changeable economy fares. Where corporate bookers once defaulted to the cheapest available option, the current environment is forcing a rethink.

“We’re seeing customers who would never have considered a flexible fare now actively requesting them,” Brits said. “When economy class on an alternative carrier is sold out and the only available option is premium or business, a non-refundable ticket on a disrupted routing becomes a liability, not a saving.”

In several cases, FCM has seen travel managers decline trips altogether when requoted fares exceed policy thresholds, a dynamic that raises its own strategic concern for businesses with time-sensitive international commitments.

The advice from FCM is unambiguous: secure flexible fares now, book and pay in full, and do not wait for the situation to stabilise.

Not all travel is being rerouted, some is simply disappearing

Perhaps the most telling data point in FCM’s analysis is what is happening to travel destined specifically for the Middle East. Post-crisis, that number plummeted by 96%.  Crucially, FCM’s data analysts note that roughly half of this “lost” UAE volume was not rerouted onto substitute carriers. It simply disappeared, indicating outright trip cancellations.

“That tells you something important,” Mafojane said. “For some businesses, the combination of cost, complexity, and regional uncertainty has made travel unviable for now. When a company chooses to cancel a trip rather than rebook, that is a direct hit to business operations and deal-making. Companies need to be having these conversations at a strategic, executive level, not just at the travel desk.”

What SA travel managers must do now

FCM is urging South African travel managers to take three immediate actions:

1. Review budgets now. Travel programmes built before February are no longer financially valid on routes touching Europe, the Middle East, or Asia. Budget holders need to be briefed urgently on the scale of potential overspends.
2. Audit flexible fare and premium cabin policies. If your policy does not allow for premium cabin approval when economy is unavailable, you are creating a situation where critical business travel gets cancelled by default.
3. Check your insurance coverage. Most large South African corporates carry global insurance policies or bank-backed travel cover. These need to be urgently reviewed for war exclusions that may now apply to routes through the affected region.

“The businesses that will navigate this best are the ones that act now, not the ones waiting for Gulf hub operations to normalise,” Mafojane said. “A prolonged recovery is the most likely scenario. Build your travel programme around that reality.”

**ends**

For more information about FCM Travel call Sonnette Fourie on 081 072 2869 or email sonnette@bigambitions.co.za.

About FCM Travel:

FCM Travel, the flagship corporate travel brand at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), is the business travel partner of choice for large national, multinational and global corporations. We are an award-winning global corporate travel management company ranking as one of the top five by size around the world. We operate a global network which spans more than 100 countries, employing over 6000 people.

FCM are transforming the business of travel through our empowered and accountable people who deliver 24/7 service and are available either online or offline. Leveraging FCM’s negotiating strength and supplier relationships in conjunction with our tailored business travel programs, our expertise delivers more for our clients where it matters most to them.

Visit us at www.fcmtravel.co.za

Issued by: Big Ambitions

Contact: Sonnette Fourie

Tel: +27 81 072 2869

Email: sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

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JOHANNESBURG – When flights started being cancelled across the Gulf at the end of February, hundreds of thousands of travellers were stranded, exposing how dependent travel – particularly from South Africa – is on a handful of hubs. Among them were business travellers: senior teams on their way to close deals, inspect sites and run critical projects. High-stakes trips, suddenly on hold.

If one of those travellers had been yours, the price your company paid for the trip would have been less important than answering where they are, how safe they feel, and what the knock-on ramifications might be of delaying the trip. At times like these, companies experience the limits of a travel programme that is focussed solely on price, not impact.

Mummy Mafojane, General Manager at FCM South Africa, says unmanaged or purely price‑driven travel quickly becomes more expensive overall, once you factor in last‑minute changes, missed connections and poor routing. “We see clients who fixate on the cheapest fare, but by the time you add in longer routings, extra nights, changes and reissues, the real cost of the trip is far higher,” she says.

“The companies that cope best are the ones that treat travel as a managed investment, with clear policy, preferred partners and access to data to back their decisions.”

The payoff is measurable. A recent study by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) and the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) found that every 1% rise in managed travel spend corresponds with a 0.20% increase in revenue, and companies with strategically managed travel programmes outperform their peers by as much as 30%. Yet most lack the data infrastructure to prove the link between travel investment and performance.

That matters because business travel spend is growing, and scrutiny is growing with it.

Global business travel spend is forecast to reach around $1.7 trillion in 2026, up from $1.57 trillion last year, according to the GBTA. In addition, FCM’s State of the Market report showed that 45% of FCM customers planned to increase travel spend in FY26, with EMEA leading at 46%, up from 39% in 2025. Companies are spending more, but are they spending well?

Measuring what really matters

FCM Consulting’s Travel Impact Index is a structured assessment tool that helps companies and travel managers evaluate and clearly explain the value of their managed travel programme in business terms, not just in savings.

It scores programmes across six pillars, including governance, risk management, data visibility, supplier strategy, stakeholder engagement and traveller experience, and benchmarks those scores against similar organisations. The result shows where a programme is strong, where the gaps are, and where investment will have the greatest impact.

Financial impact is where the business case lives. Most programmes measure direct spend but miss the time lost to cumbersome booking processes, the cost of badly routed itineraries and the carbon exposure that sustainability reporting now requires. Without those numbers, a programme cannot give the business an honest account of what travel actually costs.

Risk management has become an operational priority. The International SOS Risk Outlook 2026, surveying 830 senior decision-makers, found 57% say new risks are emerging faster than they can manage. That was evident at the end of February, when more than 27,000 flights were grounded across nine countries in just a few days. Companies with access to real-time traveller tracking and predefined response protocols moved their people swiftly; those that didn’t were left scrambling.

Governance is what converts insight into action, through benchmarked processes, defined mandates and empowered teams that can respond when needed.

Alongside those three sit the pillars that make the programme work day-to-day, including stakeholder engagement and the traveller experience. Arguably one of the most important, because if the booking process is difficult, people book outside the programme and the company loses sight of spend, risk exposure and supplier commitments.

“Sort out your bookings, sort out the data, and sort out compliance,” says Mafojane. “After that, the numbers speak for themselves, including on the days when flights stop and your people need to come home.”

FCM Consulting’s Travel Impact Index is available at fcmtravel.com.

**ends**

For more information about FCM Travel call Sonnette Fourie on 081 072 2869 or email sonnette@bigambitions.co.za.

About FCM Travel:

FCM Travel, the flagship corporate travel brand at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), is the business travel partner of choice for large national, multinational and global corporations. We are an award-winning global corporate travel management company ranking as one of the top five by size around the world. We operate a global network which spans more than 100 countries, employing over 6000 people.

FCM are transforming the business of travel through our empowered and accountable people who deliver 24/7 service and are available either online or offline. Leveraging FCM’s negotiating strength and supplier relationships in conjunction with our tailored business travel programs, our expertise delivers more for our clients where it matters most to them.

Visit us at www.fcmtravel.co.za

Issued by: Big Ambitions

Contact: Sonnette Fourie

Tel: +27 81 072 2869

Email: sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

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Johannesburg – The disruption making life difficult for business travellers today is not always the dramatic, headline-grabbing kind. It is more persistent and, according to the data, entirely predictable.

Eurocontrol reports that nearly one in three European flights now departs late on an ordinary working day. Boston Consulting Group documents hundreds of thousands of annual cancellations caused by the structural grinding of a system at its limits: staff shortages, gate constraints, infrastructure gaps and technology that cannot keep pace with demand.

Disruption, in other words, is now part of the operating environment. The question is whether your travel management company (TMC) has a response that matches that reality, warns Herman Heunes, General Manager of Corporate Traveller South Africa.

“Anyone can book a flight when everything is working,” says Heunes. “The true value of a travel partner is defined at 11pm when the flight is cancelled, the alternatives are filling up fast, and your traveller has a critical meeting at 8am the next morning. That is the moment that separates a booking agent from a genuine travel partner.”

Visibility is the starting point

Heunes argues that a gold standard travel crisis response starts long before a flight is cancelled, beginning with the foundational issue of visibility. If bookings are scattered across consumer websites and direct airline channels, a travel provider is effectively flying blind. In a disruption, the first hour is critical. If that time is spent identifying who is affected rather than solving the problem, the best rebooking options are already gone.

“Centralised booking is not only a control measure; it is a rescue capability,” says Heunes. The point is illustrated by a real case: when conflict broke out in the Middle East at the end of February, Corporate Traveller had Helen Keller International travellers en route to Cambodia for a team event. Thirty flights were simultaneously impacted. Because all bookings were held in a single system, every affected traveller was identified instantly, and the entire group was rerouted in under two business days. “That speed – under those conditions – is only possible when you have total visibility from the start.”

Data precision makes the difference

This speed of response is further dictated by the precision of traveller data. A crisis is won or lost in the minutes, and if a consultant is forced to chase a stranded executive for passport details or visa information while seats vanish in real time, the battle is already lost.

“An outdated traveller profile is a liability,” says Heunes. “Travel support requires complete, actionable details that are ready to go. You cannot be asking for a passport number while the last available seat on the only flight out is being sold to someone else.”

Technology and human judgement working together

While technology provides essential infrastructure for crisis response, Heunes maintains that the most effective support comes when digital tools and personalised human expertise work in sync. Modern travel platforms now offer instant alerts on flight disruptions and automated itinerary updates the moment plans change. This visibility gives both travellers and travel managers the information they need to act quickly.

Mobile platforms have become particularly valuable, delivering gate changes, delay notifications and cancellation alerts directly to travellers wherever they are. When integrated with risk management tools, these platforms can also push proactive messaging during broader disruptions, ensuring travellers receive relevant safety information and alternative options without having to search for them.

However, technology reaches a ceiling when a disruption turns complex. An app can notify a traveller that a flight is cancelled and even suggest alternatives, but it cannot assess whether the fastest reroute has a visa complication for a specific passport. It cannot negotiate a seat that is not showing publicly. And it cannot read the nuance of a situation where a traveller needs reassurance as much as they need a solution.

“When a traveller is stranded at midnight, they do not want a chatbot decision tree,” Heunes says. “They want an expert with the authority to make a judgment call and the empathy to stay on the line until it is fixed. The technology keeps everyone informed, but it is the human response that solves the problem.”

“Genuine 24/7 support is not just an open phone line or an automated alert. It is having people on the other end who know the account and stay ahead of the problem. We want to be calling the traveller before they even realise they need us.”

The cost of getting it wrong

The hidden consequences of a poor response rarely show up on a travel report. They appear instead in the deal that did not close or the executive who arrived at a conference exhausted and underprepared. Heunes observes that while businesses focus on the cost of the ticket, they should be focused on the cost of the ticket not working, which is invariably higher.

A robust response also extends to the administrative aftermath. Refunds, fare differences and ticket reissues can drag on for weeks, creating a second wave of stress for travel bookers managing Finance queries long after the traveller has landed safely.

“A travel partner is only truly up to the job if they are proactively updating the travel booker on the status of refunds and final charges,” Heunes says. “Leaving a booker to handle the administrative fallout alone after a crisis is a failure of service.”

Does your TMC understand your travellers?

Ultimately, Heunes suggests that the most practical step for any business is to evaluate whether their current travel partner truly understands where their people are going and what kind of support they need when things go wrong. This means looking beyond price to assess whether the TMC offers personalised support that matches the complexity and destinations of the company’s travel programme.

“Disruption in global aviation is not going to ease, and these structural pressures are not short term problems,” Heunes concludes. “Businesses cannot control the system, but they can control their response. The first step is knowing, honestly, whether the partner they have trusted with their people is up to the task.”

-ENDS-

MEDIA CONTACT

For more information about Corporate Traveller, or to interview Corporate Traveller South Africa GM Herman Heunes, call Sonnette Fourie on 081 072 2869 or email sonnette@bigambitions.co.za.    

About Corporate Traveller

Corporate Traveller is a division of the Flight Centre Travel Group, dedicated to saving businesses across Southern Africa time and money. Corporate Traveller has the benefit of being part of the world’s third-largest travel retailer, leveraging its global negotiating strength. It has access to over 50 of the world’s leading airlines and deals with more than 100 000 hotels around the world to guarantee savings for clients. Corporate Traveller provides clear, consolidated reporting of all its clients’ travel activities, helping them to control travel spend and identify opportunities to save costs.

Issued by:

Big Ambitions

Sonnette Fourie

sonnette@bigambitions.co.za

+27 81 072 2869