Travel

Survey: Business Travelers Battling Unprecedented Weather-Related Disruptions

A new survey shows just how bad weather-related travel delays have become for some of the people who spend the most time traveling: business travelers.

Business travelers spend a lot of their time in transit, and, according to a new survey from TravelPerk, chaos and disruption have become the unfortunate norm for corporate travelers worldwide. And one of the main culprits is the weather.

According to the survey, which interviewed more than 7,000 business travelers from a range of ages and industries in the U.K., U.S. and Europe, a staggering 93% of business travelers reported experiencing significant disruptions during their journeys in the past year, with nearly half (44%) of all business trips being impacted by some form of disruption.

When it comes to the nature of these disruptions, weather conditions emerged as a major culprit, with 42% of respondents citing them as a primary cause of their travel woes, up from 21% last year. Those numbers are even higher for U.S. travelers, 50% of whom faced weather disruptions; that's up from 30% in 2024.

"As weather and climates become more unstable and extreme, we expect this to continue to be a growing concern for travelers over the next few years," the authors of the report note.

These disruptions aren't just inconvenient — they're also expensive. The survey found that businesses are losing an average of $1,286 per traveler annually due to travel disruptions. This financial burden comes at a time when organizations are increasingly relying on business travel, with data showing air travel spending has increased by 31% as companies reconnect in person after years of virtual meetings.

Have you noticed an increase in weather-related travel disruptions? Let us know in the comments!

Senior writer Chris DeWeese edits Morning Brief, The Weather Channel’s newsletter.