Airlines bank on leisure travelers as business trips dry up in coronavirus pandemic

  • Date: 29-Sep-2020
  • Source: CNBC
  • Sector:Transport
  • Country:GCC
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Airlines bank on leisure travelers as business trips dry up in coronavirus pandemic

A JetBlue Airways Corp. plane taxis next to American Airlines Group Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., and Alaska Airlines Inc. aircraft at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on Monday, April 6, 2020.Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe coronavirus pandemic has turned airlines' most price-sensitive customers into a prize.Airlines are dropping fees and reshaping their once-sprawling global networks to focus more on domestic vacation destinations as leisure travelers become more important. That's on top of new rules, such as mandatory masks, put in place to entice travelers worried about flying during the pandemic.Airlines' shift comes after the virus grounded most business travel, along with many other areas of life, depriving the industry of what was its most lucrative group. Business travelers before the virus accounted for half of