The executive operator of Ferndale-based loss prevention, safety and risk consulting firm J&P Consulting LLC was in the middle of a five-day business trip around Ohio, starting in Cleveland and ending in Dayton. This was his first time back on the road since the COVID-19 outbreak hit the Midwest in March. He usually spends 26 weeks a year traveling to see clients.
"I have an analytical approach and this is my 'new normal,'" Pappas said as he finished prepping a dinner in the hotel room's kitchenette of sliced roast turkey, a spinach salad with heirloom tomatoes, Brussels sprouts and fresh berries. "You have to be prepared. You have to be deliberate about every little thing you do now."
Pappas is the new business traveler in a new world defined by a growing pandemic threat even as businesses resume operations across the country. From airline boarding and hotel cleaning protocols to learning local regulations, getting from the home office to a client in another state is less about accumulating frequent flyer miles than avoiding a one-way ticket to the intensive care unit.
Pappas only stays with Hilton or Marriott hotels because he feels most comfortable with their COVID-19 room cleaning regimen, which includes a sprayed electrostatic sanitizing application and sticker seals on doors indicating that rooms have been cleaned and no one else has entered. The rooms must have a kitchenette, so he can prepare healthy meals in his room and avoid eating out at restaurants. Pappas chooses to rent a car over flying over the inability to socially distance on a flight.
"I need to be very careful because I am an only child with two elderly parents with underlying conditions," Pappas said. "I'm the only caretaker if something happens. I just can't test positive for this disease ... for them."
Business travel by car is rebounding slightly faster than air travel, David Reimer, executive vice president and general manager for the Americas for American Express Global Business Travel, told Crain's in an email. But overall business travel through early July is down 93 percent, he said.
Only 295,299 passengers flew in and out of Detroit Metropolitan Airport in May, according to the latest available data from Wayne County Airport Authority. That's down more than 90 percent from nearly 3.3 million passengers in May 2019.
But flights have been increasing in recent months across the U.S. Delta Air Lines Inc. told Crain's the airline is averaging 2,200 flights per day in July, compared to 1,040 daily flights across the U.S. in May. Yet, July's total remains down roughly 60 percent, year over year.
Flight hours for Corporate Eagle, which sells fractional ownership of private jets to corporate and private clients and managers flights at Oakland County Intentional Airport, are down 74 percent from 2019, said CEO Rick Nini. But after an initial drop, flight hours were only down 50 percent in the first half of July.
"We're open, we're here, but a lot of members simply don't have any place to go," Nini said. "This is unchartered territory, but frankly, it feels great we're only down 50 percent."
Corporate Eagle hired two new pilots during the COVID-19 pandemic in preparation for the return of business travel, which Nini predicts will increase tremendously by the first quarter of 2021.
"Business travel never completely stopped," Reimer said. "Sectors including government, health care and energy have continued essential travel since February. But we're now seeing the prioritization of revenue-generating, customer-facing trips."
A client in Seattle went through a major business restructuring in June and Troy VandenBosch, associate vice president of investments for Farmington Hills-based Raymond James, decided it was important to be there, in person, for support.
"I wasn't nervous, but maybe a little bit anxious," VandenBosch said of flying. "We (family) didn't leave our house for the first few months. But I've started reading more data on protocols and understanding the risks. And I've known my clients for a long time and I knew that's where I needed to be, so I decided to suck it up and go do what I needed to do."
VandenBosch discussed the risks of travel and whether he should quarantine in a hotel when he returned with his wife. Ultimately, they decided he did not have to quarantine upon his return, as long as he was safe. That included packing various sanitizers and cleaners for the hotel as well as packing clothes in sealed bags inside his luggage to prevent any contamination, he said.
"I am a bit of a germaphobe, so I am always careful about getting sick," VandenBosch said. "I wasn't going to belly up to a bar with clients or anything and I am wary of going where there's an outbreak. I have clients in Texas and Florida and those are not places I wanted to go. I would be petrified of being in an airport in Florida right now. Maybe if it was life or death for a client."
Access to and understanding the safety guidelines and cleaning protocols of airlines and hotels is critical to getting business travelers back, according to a recent survey by American Express. Of those surveyed, 82 percent said they would consider traveling this year if they had access to reliable information.
That's where David Fishman, president of Southfield-based Cadillac Travel, comes in. The veteran travel agent has spent time with Delta and airport staff learning about the health and safety protocols so they can pass that information to clients. When a business client calls about booking a trip, Fishman researches the local COVID-19 information and hotel properties to provide the latest information.
"I want to make all the information available to them; that's my job," Fishman said. "I'm not trying to decipher their risk but I also don't want to put them in a situation that isn't safe. We don't want to send them somewhere where they'll end up quarantined for 14 days for a two day business trip."
Fishman said overall travel is down 90 percent, but business travel, which makes up 35 percent of Cadillac's revenue, is returning in fits and starts.
"There's definitely been an increase. We were seeing maybe 50 and 100 (business) bookings in a week," Fishman said. "Then the big outbreaks in Arizona and Florida happened and caused another setback. It's a complete moving target now. No one knows what's going to happen tomorrow."
But for self-described "road warrior" Cathy Henderson, it's time to return to business travel. The senior consultant at business advisory firm Broadsword Solutions Corp. typically spends more than 42 weeks a year traveling.
She booked client meetings, and flights, coincidentally in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, for August. Henderson flew last week to Georgia, a current COVID-19 hotspot, last week for a baseball tournament for her son.
"It was what I expected and I felt safe," Henderson said. "Every passenger had a mask and no one complained about it. For as much as I travel, I am more worried about delays ad other passengers causing concerns. We didn't have any this time and I am comfortable with the safety protocols. So, for now, August is a go."
Pappas has no intention of returning to boarding airplanes, but is traveling to Florida for a two-week stint at the end of the month. Florida recorded 14,000 new COVID-19 cases on July 16 and 156 more deaths as the state faces the worst outbreak in the country.
"This is all I do, mitigate risk. It's my job," Pappas said. "Working with my clients on their on COVID-19 protocols, I've never been so impressed with the private sector's ability to adapt and overcome. Of course I'm nervous, but so is everyone else. But if we're all concerned and proactive, we can do this. Safely."
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