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IN BRIEF
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Flight Centre Travel Group anticipates a sustained rebound in business travel by fiscal year 2026, driven by a reported increase in budgets, favorable signals in EMEA, and the combined effect of AI and the FCM platform on productivity. According to a survey conducted in early summer 2025, nearly half of companies plan to increase their travel spending, a trend accompanied by sector consolidation, organic growth at FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller, and a more relaxed macroeconomic context.
Significant Increase in Spending Intentions for Fiscal Year 2026
Leading indicators are trending upward: 45% of surveyed companies report an increase in their travel budgets compared to the previous year, marking a gain of about 3 points over the intentions expressed for fiscal year 2025. In detail, a significant fraction projects robust increases: some respondents aim for growth of over 20%, while another group anticipates more moderate increases, up to 20%. A comparable proportion expects stable levels, and only a minority mentions reductions in spending. This signal aligns with the trends observed in 2025, already documented by sector analyses on business travel spending.
This assessment is based on a global benchmark survey conducted in June and July 2025 involving 1,234 respondents from all regions where FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller operate: decision-makers, travel program managers, and authorized booking agents. The functional representativeness of the sample provides a precise insight into short- and medium-term budgetary intentions.
EMEA at the Forefront: From Contraction to Expansion
The EMEA region stands out with its renewed optimism. Intentions to increase spending jump to around 46% for fiscal year 2026, compared to about 39% a year earlier, while the willingness to reduce budgets has significantly decreased, now representing only a small portion of responses. This shift reflects both the mitigation of certain macroeconomic headwinds and the impact of operational reforms carried out by FCTG in the region.
Meanwhile, FCM UK has recorded another year of strong growth, and the rise of specialized divisions FCM Meetings & Events and Stage, Screen and Sports in Europe reinforces the trajectory. The prospect of enhanced transatlantic exchanges, bolstered by the recent ratification of the UK–US trade agreement, is expected to further streamline business flows, benefiting companies looking to seize new opportunities.
FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller: Complementary Growth Trajectories
FCM Travel has enriched its portfolio of accounts and expanded its addressable markets, positioning the brand to take advantage of sector consolidation. For its part, Corporate Traveller pursues a clear ambition: to achieve a total transaction value of approximately 5 billion Australian dollars per year and to further distinguish itself in the American market. This combined dynamic optimizes FCTG’s footprint in the large corporate and SME/ETI segments, with a converging technological base.
At the heart of this strategy, the FCM platform standardizes and accelerates key processes: booking, travel policy, budget tracking, compliance, and reporting. The industrialization of these functions frees up high-value advisory time and enhances the employee experience while traveling.
Technology as an Accelerator: AI, Automation, and User Experience
Advancements in AI, driven by a dedicated Centre of Excellence, enable the automation of time-consuming operations: policy control, itinerary proposals, optimization of ancillary costs, change management, and anticipation of disruptions. The result is tangible productivity gains and a more responsive service. This transformation occurs within a broader innovation ecosystem: adjacent players are also enhancing their capabilities, as illustrated by the recent fundraising of 200 million dollars by TravelPerk to accelerate business travel technology.
In a context of persistent pricing pressure, travel management teams are seeking finer control of TCO; analyses from GBTA on cost evolution reinforce the interest in predictive tools and dynamic policies. The FCTG ecosystem capitalizes on these trends to better balance experience, compliance, and budget control.
Market Signals: Airline Sales, Leisure/Business Trade-offs, and Key Routes
Distribution indicators confirm the rebound. Flight sales through agencies show a positive trajectory, indicating robust business demand and companies becoming proactive again in their travel. At the same time, the recent contraction of leisure tourism in the United States could reallocate capacities and help stabilize some fare structures beneficial to the corporate segment, particularly on strategic transatlantic corridors.
These market movements encourage an agile buying strategy: optimized booking windows, fine segmentation of fare classes, and diversification of channels to secure availability and conditions. The FCTG teams, equipped by the FCM platform, can adjust recommendations in real-time based on pricing behaviors and inventory pressure.
Business Travel Considered Non-Discretionary
As macroeconomic constraints ease, companies reaffirm the non-discretionary nature of business travel to support growth, customer relationships, innovation, and international development. Respondents describe travel as a critical investment in competitiveness, rather than a compressible cost item.
This conviction translates into modernized policies: prioritization of impactful missions, better integration of sustainability criteria, and support for travelers to enhance safety and well-being. Data-driven consulting and consolidation of spending at FCM and Corporate Traveller enable alignment of these objectives without sacrificing financial discipline.
Organization, Productivity, and Speed of Execution
The completion of optimization projects in Europe has allowed FCTG to focus its resources on customer service and shorten decision cycles. With empowered teams and workflows unified by the FCM platform, productivity is improving, and operational decisions are becoming more rapid, a decisive asset for absorbing the anticipated workload increase in 2026.
This structure also facilitates the execution of complex deployments: harmonization of multi-country policies, SSO and ERP integration, data governance, and regulatory reporting. This all relies on common performance indicators that ease the overall management of travel programs.
Survey Methodology and Scope
The benchmark survey on the state of the market was conducted between June and July 2025 among FCM Travel and Corporate Traveller clients: decision-makers, travel managers, and authorized booking agents. All regions covered by these entities were included, for a total of 1,234 responses. This setup provides a consolidated view of spending intentions and operational priorities that underpin the perspective of a “surge” in business travel on the horizon of 2026.
The results highlight converging trends: budgets oriented upward, strengthened appetite in EMEA, benefits from technological innovations, and repositioning of players around service value. In this environment, Flight Centre Travel Group prepares to capture demand through a mix of organic growth, execution capacity, and digital tools supporting travelers and financial departments.
