The lines between leisure and business travel “are definitely blurry,” said Robert Isom, president of American Airlines, in a fourth quarter earnings call. He said: “Interestingly, we’ve seen many of our customers that … we’ve historically called leisure travelers are actually flying for reasons beyond just vacations. While they may be flying to a mountain destination, “they’re actually going to work remotely for the week.” Isom, who will replace Doug Parker as CEO of the airline on March 31, said that as restrictions fall off, American anticipates that international travel will pick up considerably. He said the company expects business travel to come back in full but “in a different way” in the overall mix of business customers, how they travel and how the carrier serves them. Small and medium-size business travel, said Isom, remains the strongest segment. In the fourth quarter, he said, business travel among small and medium-size companies was roughly 80% recovered, while large corporate travel was only 40% recovered. In addition, small- and medium-sized business revenue had sequential month-over-month improvement in December, despite the impact of Omicron. “We’re optimistic,” said Isom, “that as corporate travel returns in a significant way this year and as companies come back more fully into the office and get back on the road, we’re going to be back on track.” Also on the call, Parker said he does not expect to see any further problems resulting from the dispute between the major telecommunications companies and the airline industry because of the impact of the deployment of 5G technology on flying into airports. “I feel like we’re in the right spot and [have] the right people to derive information,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to see any material disruption going forward because of this.”