Eyjafjallajökull might be unheard to many of us until recently and its name may be hard to pronounce (for those who are interested, here’s a pronunciation guide from BBC) but the world has felt the effects of its eruptions over the past few weeks. None more so than airlines, carriers have taken a devastating hit as more than 100,000 flights were cancelled and passengers were left stranded. The larger business community has also felt the impact of the eruption, with workers stranded at airports around the world.
The Revenue Fallout
According to some reports, airlines were losing as much as $200 million a day due to cancelled flights. Business travel in the areas affected by the volcanic ash also resulted in huge losses for companies around the world. In total, the airline industry is believed to have lost $1.7 billion. This is a harsh blow for an industry struggling to get back on its feet.
How Conferencing Can Help in the Next Eruption
The halt in flights for many part of Europe left travelers stuck in airports around the world. Travelers had to pay exorbitant rates for cab and train rides to get home where possible. For others, web conferencing become a great way for stranded travelers to stay in touch with family and work. All of this means one thing; companies must explore and embrace other ways of conducting business globally, such as webinars.
As the Iceland volcano eruption has taught us, regardless of nature’s whims business has to get done. Sending employees to various destinations around the world has already lost favor with many companies. Now due to the lessons learned from Eyjafjallajökull, it has become clear that business travel is a somewhat outdated concept.
With a good web conferencing product, meetings can be easily planned and executed. File transfer, session recording, seminar with thousands of attendees are all possible with web conferencing tools.
Now that flights have resumed and special flight zones have been established, the airlines will have to dust themselves off and move on. Web conferencing companies should now be poised to further prove their worth to the modern business environment. So the next time your company outlines major travel plans, don’t hesitate to step up and save them a bundle.