Business travel healthy but geopolitical crises fuel uncertainty

Italian companies continue to need mobility services, not only for corporate fleet travel and home-to-work travel, but also for business-related travel. Knowing more about trends in the business travel sector is therefore an excellent indicator of the health of Italian companies. Precisely for this reason, the data provided by the Business Travel Trend (Btt), an index created by the Uvet Group in collaboration with the Promotor Study Centre by processing data on a representative sample of the most important companies operating in the most varied sectors of the Italian economy, are very important.

The most recent data available, relating to October, are positive and point to a fourth quarter of 2025 and therefore a positive year-end for the business travel sector in Italy. There are, however, elements that risk bringing uncertainty. For example, the ongoing geopolitical crises continue to weigh on fares; tensions in the Middle East and the Russia-Ukraine conflict are keeping pressure on costs, forcing European airlines to avoid risky airspace and thus generating cost increases for detours and higher fuel consumption. Despite the tough challenges, the industry shows resilience with an increasing focus on sustainability and efficiency.

Returning to the business travel trend, the most recent data shows that the overall value of travel (travel value) has shown positive changes: if the value of 2023, taken as a reference, is taken as 100, in October alone the Btt value is 115, the best monthly figure in the last five years, up compared to both September 2025 (108) and October 2024 (101). In the January-October period, the Btt increased to 105, which is higher than in the same period in 2024 (i.e. 104). The average number of transactions in the ten-month period January-October 2025 recorded a value of 99, thus substantially at the same level as in 2023 and slightly down from the same period in 2024, which had recorded a Btt of 103. The average overall expenditure recorded a value of 106 between January and October, which is an increase compared to the same period in 2024 (i.e. 101).

On the airline front, the Btt travel value in October recorded a value of 117. This value shows a common growth trend for intercontinental flights (118), European flights (108) and domestic flights (reaching a record value of 129). The Btt of transactions is at 106, a value that reflects the trend of the three segments taken into consideration (intercontinental, European and domestic). The Btt of average expenditure is at 110, with a split that sees intercontinental flights at 109, European flights at 103 and domestic flights at 122.

The hotel industry recorded a Btt for travel value of 115, transactions at 103 and average spend at 112. The rail sector shows solid growth in travel value, with a Btt of 111, average spend at 103 and transactions at 108. Car rentals show a particular dynamic: the Btt of travel value is at 103, that of average expenditure is at 111 and that of the number of transactions is at 93, i.e. 7 points lower than in the same month of 2023. The number of rentals is thus decreasing, but expenditure and value are increasing, due to changes in the fleet available to rental companies, which has seen the introduction of a large number of electric cars in the last two years.