Where have all the business travelers gone?

 by Joe Brancatelli

Apr 3, 2013

The business-travel world is shrinking. Literally. And not only because airlines are squeezing us into smaller and smaller seats.

Fewer of us are traveling than anyone once imagined, there are fewer flights than ever before and government-compiled statistics for the state of the commercial airline system in 2012 indicate that substantial growth isn't coming anytime soon.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which does a remarkably good job of delivering travel numbers in palatable bites, U.S. airlines carried 736.6 million passengers last year. Not only was that essentially flat compared to 2011—nationwide traffic increased just 0.8 percent—it's a far cry from the rosy predictions issued in 2000.

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