Airlines Reporting Corp. has updated its model to classify
business travel to reflect a wider advance purchase window and longer business trips,
the company announced.
ARC’s Trip Classification Indicator analyzes trips to
determine whether their primary purpose is business or leisure, and from
analyzing 135 million aggregated air passenger trips from last year, the latest
version of TCI is more reflective of current travel patterns, according to ARC.
Those updates include data showing a higher percentage of tickets purchased
more than 14 days in advance compared with 2019 as well as more business trips
lasting between five and seven days, longer than the typical duration of three
to four days prior to the pandemic.
“Our team spent months updating and testing the ARC
Trip Classification Indicator model to ensure customers leveraging TCI can make
informed business decisions based on the most accurate and ever-changing air
travel data,” ARC chief commercial office Steve Solomon said in a
statement.
ARC data aligns with travel supplier data citing similarly
extended business trips. Hertz noted longer business rentals in Q4
earnings report, and hoteliers
have been tracking the blended travel phenomenon for 18 months. The new ARC
data bears out the same trends with new numbers behind them.
