Survey: Record Airline Delays Leave Business Travelers Unfazed

Most Donít Mind Business Travel
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, air travel delays reached a 13-year high this past August. In big cites like New York, nearly 40% of flights were either delayed or cancelled during the first half of 2007. Recently, President Bush acknowledged the problems, urging transportation officials to work with the airline industry to find a solution. Still, despite all of the sound and fury concerning delayed flights, business travelers surveyed by TheLadders.com, the worldís leading online marketplace for $100k jobs, said they havenít experienced many major delays.

DelaysÖ What Delays?
The skies are more crowded than ever and business travel is a major reason for it. Of the executives surveyed by TheLadders.com, 21.7 percent took between 10 and 20 business flights each year; 19.6 percent took between 1 and 5 trips; 18.3 percent took between 5 and 10; and 14.5 percent took between 20 and 30. Yet, delays were relatively infrequent among this group. When asked how many significant (1 hour or more) airline delays they experienced in the past year, 21.3 percent said between 1 and 2; 19 percent said 3-4; and 14.3 percent said none at all.

Travel delays have taken only a moderate toll on day-to-day business. Thirty six percent of executives said they did not miss or reschedule one meeting this year due to travel delays. Twenty-seven percent said they missed or rescheduled between 1 and 2 meetings; and 19.2 percent said they missed between 3 and 4 meetings.

Long Live the Road Warrior
Perhaps not surprisingly, given the relatively low frequency of business-travel snafus among the executives surveyed, most executives plan to keep flying. Fifty three percent said they would not consider leaving a job due to excessive travel requirements, and 56.5 percent said travel requirements would not play a roll in a decision to accept a new job.

When they did encounter delays, 35.5 percent of executives said their first reaction was to roll with it. An additional 28.9% said they coped with delays by immersing themselves in their laptops and PDAs. Just 18.9 percent said they try to fight the delay by rescheduling on another flight.

When asked about some of the fringe benefits of business travel, just 14.9 percent said they had found romance while traveling for business and 18.8 percent said they had made connections that eventually led to a new career opportunity.

Traveling is typically an important component in any executive job description, said Marc Cenedella, president and CEO of TheLadders.com. Even with advancements in telecommuting and video conferencing, there is something irreplaceable about meeting face-to-face, so, like it or not, business travel is here to stay.î

TheLadders.com survey was conducted in September 2007 and included 624 executives. The results of this survey are statistically accurate to within /- 3.92 percentage points.