There was a 13.8% year-over-year increase in business travel activity in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the latest Navan Business Travel Benchmark (BTB). Navan is a travel, payment and expense management platform. The BTB number, according to the report, far exceeds the 1.2% growth seen in Transportation Security Administration (TSA) travel data during the same period. The BTB is designed to be a global indicator of the strength of the business travel economy, powered by millions of transactions from more than 10,000 businesses on the Navan platform.
Across 2025, according to the report, the BTB saw a 16.1% year-over-year increase, compared with an effectively flat year (0.1% growth) recorded by the TSA. The BTB hit its highest point ever in October 2025, during the heart of the fall conference season and despite the US government shutdown.
Anne Giviskos, interim CFO at Navan, said the quarter’s BTB “confirms that nothing replaces the power of being in the room together.” The significant gap between Navan’s and TSA’s air travel data, she said, “shows that businesses are doubling down on what works — getting their people in front of customers and colleagues.” This isn’t about spending more, said Giviskos, “it’s about investing smarter in the human connections essential for building a resilient business.”
The Nasdaq economics team has back-tested and verified the Navan BTB, bringing their expertise in index construction and economic modeling, according to the report. Phil Mackintosh, chief economist, Nasdaq, said, “We are pleased to support Navan by verifying the methodology applied in data analysis and their expertise in identifying trends that provide meaningful insights into business travel for organizations across diverse regions and industries.”
Report highlights included:
* Multiple industries power growth: Air and hotel spend across the government and public sector (a group including not only federal agencies, but also state and local governments, public universities and critical government contractors) led all industries, rising 36.1% year over year. Other fast movers included hospitality and travel, which accelerated to 33.3% growth year over year; and energy and utilities (21.2% growth year over year).
* Ground transportation spending accelerates: Getting around continues to dominate the spend category, with strong year over year growth in public transport. Tolls and parking were up 21.6% and taxi and rideshare up 19.1%, leading all other categories by a wide margin.
* Spend growth outpaces volume growth, signaling a focus on ROI: The divergence between domestic volume growth (7.9% year over year) and spend growth (17.8% year over year) points to more than just rising costs. It reflects a strategic choice to invest more per trip, evidenced by accelerating year-over-year growth in key relationship-building categories, according to the report.
Navan also announced that Reed & Mackay, the travel management platform acquired in 2021 (under Navan’s former name TripActions), will be integrated into the Navan platform. The two companies will operate under one “unified” brand, according to Ariel Cohen, CEO of Navan. According to an announcement, existing Reed & Mackay customers “will continue to receive the same expert, dedicated service that they trust, while gaining access to the Navan booking platform, which offers superior content, intuitive reporting and the integrated Navan Expense suite.”
