In an ironic twist, it’s now the airline industry sitting idle — checking cellphones, buying overpriced coffee — awaiting the return of pandemic-stalled business travel. Mary Schlangenstein covered this new definition of standby for the Los Angeles Times.

While leisure travel is steadily picking up, business travel continues to lag. And the outlook remains unfavorable, owing to the spread of the latest COVID-19 variant.

Southwest Airlines Chief Executive Gary Kelly warned during the last earnings call that the pace of recovery in business travel may continue to be slower than anticipated by some industry veterans a year ago.

“I thought we would have this pandemic beat and far behind us, and it’s far from that,” said Kelly.

He added that the lingering effect of the pandemic will most likely mean fewer business passengers for a longer period.

“We’re going to have to be more heavily dependent on consumer travel than we were before,” he said.

A travel outlook report by Deloitte also concluded it is unlikely that corporate travel will reach or even come near the 2019 levels in 2022, even assuming the most optimistic potential COVID-19 outcomes.

Read more about the expected return of business travel in the Los Angeles Times.