Overall enterprise spending on travel climbed this year with transportation costs, particularly airfare, accounting for a disproportionate share of that growth, according to the latest Expense Intelligence Report: Travel Edition from Emburse, a travel and expense management provider.
The findings are based on an analysis of approximately $9.1 billion in Emburse Enterprise expense spend from January through July 2026. Total enterprise expense spend in 2026 to date was up 4.8% year over year for that same period. That growth was driven predominantly by transportation costs, which were up 26.7% and accounted for approximately 42% of the dollar increase, despite representing only 11% of overall spend.
The average transportation expense claim was up 6.7%, suggesting individual purchases like flights and fares are becoming modestly more expensive. However, the far bigger driver of increased spend was volume: the number of transportation purchases was up 18.7%, suggesting employees are simply taking more business trips.
Most of the increase in transportation spend was airfare, which accounted for 75.8% of the gain. The airlines seeing the most growth were British Airways (up 42.7%), United Airlines (up 34%) and Southwest Airlines (up 32.2%). Emirates saw by far the greatest decline, down 54.7%.
Taxi/rideshare services were the second-highest driver of transportation growth, accounting for 14% of the total gain, followed by car rental (8.2%) and fuel, which trailed at just 1.5%. This suggests employees are traveling farther afield rather than using their own cars to travel locally.
Across five transportation categories (taxi/rideshare, rail/transit, parking, car rental and airfare), more than 70% of spend was concentrated in the top three suppliers, reflecting the importance of strong negotiated vendor relationships. It’s a different story in other categories: fuel, tolls and fleet vehicles, where spend is distributed across 53 named vendors, reflecting the need for organizations to control the long tail through travel policy, corporate card and coding controls.
“Spend data offers a window into business activity that leaders often miss,” said Michele Shepard, chief revenue officer of Emburse. She continued: “Shifts in travel, meals, events and operating spend can reveal whether an organization is deepening customer engagement, entering new markets, expanding field operations, or investing in growth. When finance, operations and commercial teams combine these signals with business context, they can identify emerging needs earlier, make better decisions and have more strategic, high-value conversations tied to real outcomes.”
