Airlines forecast business travel rebound executives are tired of video calls - "There are some things, like business trips, that I doubt will ever come back," Bill Gates said a year ago.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, business travel was almost completely paralyzed, as most companies reduced corporate travel to a minimum and teleworking was imposed.

After months and months of video calls and business meetings through apps like Zoom, airlines contradict the philanthropist and consider that company executives are ready to fly and meet customers in person again.

Airlines forecast business travel rebound executives

The lifting of mobility restrictions will trigger a sharp rebound in corporate travel, executives from Qatar Airways, IAG and Rwandair explained Tuesday in a panel at the Qatar Economic Forum reported by Bloomberg.

According to el Akbar Al Baker, director of Qatar Airways, the occupation of business class on the company's flights has increased by 10% compared to pre-pandemic levels in those markets where travel is allowed, which he attributes to executives who like to face people, feel them and look at body language.

Airlines forecast business travel rebound executives: Air traffic is slowly taking flight, but airlines rely heavily on business travel –an industry that moved $ 1.5 trillion annually before the onset of the health crisis– and are confident of their strong recovery once the health crisis is over.

"The form of business travel may change, but face-to-face meetings are going to be crucial," said Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG. The company says that half of its corporate customers have said they will fly before the end of the year.

Airlines forecast business travel rebound executives

David Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, said during his speech that companies will continue to send their executives to meet with customers and build new markets, despite reducing their internal travel. "We live from competition, competition is what drives travel," he added.

Panellists agreed that for the sector to recover, it is necessary to lift travel restrictions. Otherwise, continued quarantines and travel restrictions will continue to disrupt the industry and delay recovery.

Airlines forecast business travel rebound executives

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Spain already concentrates 2% of all millionaires globally: the number of rich has not stopped growing despite the pandemic

The wealth and number of rich people in the world continues to grow, despite the coronavirus pandemic. It is one of the main conclusions drawn from the Global Wealth Report 2021, according to which there has been an increase in 2020 of 5.2 million millionaires, to reach 56.1 million.

There is more global wealth, there are more millionaires, more money is needed to be part of the select club of the richest and there is more economic inequality, says the recent report, prepared by the Credit Suisse Research Institute.

This body highlights that total global wealth has grown by 7.4% (to 418 billion dollars) and wealth per adult, by 6%, to reach another record of 79,952 dollars (about 67,105 euros).

"Wealth creation in 2020 was largely immune to the challenges facing the world due to measures taken by governments and central banks to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19," he explains.

With the increase in the number of millionaires in the world, now an adult needs more than one million dollars (almost 840,000 euros) to belong to the richest 1% globally, while a year ago the limit was 988,103 dollars (about 830,000 euros).

In Spain, for its part, the number of millionaires in dollars has also increased, reaching a historical figure of 1,147,000 people, which represents 2% of the total in the world.

"2020 will be the year when, for the first time, more than 1% of all adults in the world are, in nominal terms, millionaires in dollars," highlights the report, which mentions the even faster growth of the very high net worth group, which has added 24% more members, the highest rate of increase since 2003.

Since 2000, people with a wealth of between $ 10,000 and $ 100,000 have increased the most in number, from $ 507 million in 2000 to $ 1,700 million by mid-2020, which "reflects the growing prosperity of emerging economies, especially China, and the expansion of the middle class in the developing world," he says.

However, economic differences are still very visible in the world population pyramid: at the top, 1.1% of adults own about half of the global wealth (45.8%), while the base represents the majority of the population (55%) but the least amount of money (1.3%).

The data in the report point to a "generalized increase in wealth inequality in countries during the year of the pandemic", but the authors clarify that this "was probably not caused by the pandemic or its direct economic impacts, but a consequence of the measures taken to mitigate its impact, mainly the lowering of interest rates".

Actions to counter the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a considerable increase in wealth inequality and led to the largest wealth gap since 2016, notes The Guardian.

"The pandemic had a sharp short-term impact on global markets, but it was largely reversed at the end of June 2020. As we noted last year, global wealth not only remained stable in the face of these turbulence, but increased rapidly in the second half of the year. In fact, wealth creation in 2020 seems to have completely decoupled from the economic problems stemming from COVID-19, " says Anthony Shorrocks, economist and author of the report.

In turn, the report notes that the largest increases in wealth have occurred in North America and Europe, while Latin America and India have suffered losses. It also points out that homeowners have benefited from the increase in their prices and reflects large differences in the economic impact, depending on the existence or not of benefits.

"In many high-income countries, the loss of work or business income was softened by emergency benefits and employment policies. In countries with no income support, vulnerable groups such as women, minorities and young people were particularly affected," she says.

"Working women initially suffered disproportionately from the pandemic, in part because of their high representation in companies and industries heavily affected by the pandemic, such as restaurants, hotels, personal services and retail. Labour force participation declined over the course of 2020 for both men and women, but the magnitude of the decline was similar, at least in most advanced economies," she adds.

Finally, in their forecast for the next 5 years (2020-2025), the authors estimate a growth of global wealth of 39%, reaching 583 trillion dollars by the end of 2025. As for Spain, it will see the number of rich increase to 1.8 million people, says Cinco Días.