Three is the magic number, according to Hogg Robinson Group (HRG), the international corporate services company, when corporates are choosing whether to travel by air or rail.
HRG’s research on traveller behaviour shows that when travelling domestically for business, air beats rail as soon as the rail journey is over three hours despite potential cost savings.
Business travellers are three times more likely to book rail over air for the two hours 11 minute London to Manchester route, although the flight takes half the time as the train journey. Rail bookings are also nearly as common as air reservations for London to Newcastle route, in which the train journey is just under three hours – almost three times as long as the corresponding flight.
Stewart Harvey, Group Commercial Director at HRG, says: “We have seen a noticeable trend for clients to accept longer journey times. Travellers do understand that they can get more work done on a train, but actual cost and time savings aren’t always clear. For example, a time factor often overlooked when choosing travel arrangements is the distance and time it takes to get from the train station to the city centre or airport. Time equals money, so clients must make sure that their travel policies reflect this for the total door-to-door journey, rather than just the air or rail travel time.”
However, travellers still opt for flights over longer train journeys that take over three hours. Although the three hour 31 minute Manchester to Edinburgh rail route offers an approximate savings of 56%, only one in ten business travellers opt for it over the alternative 55 minute flight.
Despite rail savings per trip ranging from 24% – 37%, the routes Birmingham to Edinburgh, Glasgow to London and Glasgow to Birmingham are not commonly used by business travellers. It appears that business travellers judge the four to five hour journey times to be too long, prompting travellers to book flights instead.
Tony Berry, Industry and Airfare Distribution Director at HRG says: “We advise clients to always explore their options. Competition between airlines and rail companies on UK domestic routes is constantly evolving and with change comes opportunity for our clients to really benefit. Our comprehensive, up-to-the-minute data ensures that our clients can get the best value – both in terms of journey time and cost.”
The newest version of HRG i-Suite, launched at the Business Travel Show in London last month, offers an air versus rail price comparison tool. To maintain cost transparency, clients are able to see the price difference between comparable air and rail journeys when they book travel arrangements.
