Considering costs for mobility programs in 2024

In our most recent global mobility trends survey, “cost containment/reduction” moved up one spot from last year. It's now tied for the #3 spot in top initiatives and priorities for mobility programs for 2024. More than half (54%) of corporate mobility leaders have cost reduction as a top 5 priority and one in 5 have it as their very biggest area of focus for the year. 

Participants also shared their concerns around economic struggles and persistent inflation increasing move costs. This might go hand-in-hand with reduced volumes due to hiring slowdowns, creating a need to revise mobility policies or add budget caps. 

So when we saw this article from Fast Company about international airfares, we thought we should share some good news. According to the American Express Global Business Travel Air Monitor 2024 report, prices on certain international routes may drop as much as 12%. Airfares are down 6% year-over-year as of January 2024, and down 15% compared to a decade ago! Straight from the article, here’s how AmEx GBT anticipates average economy airfares will change in 2024 for a sampling of regions:

• South America to North America: Drop by 11.9%.
• North America to Central America: Drop by 7.8%.
• North America to Asia: Drop by 7.5%.
• Asia to North America: Drop by 5.2%.
• North America to Europe: Drop by 3.5%.
• Europe to North America: Drop by 1.2%.

Last year broke records for travel. But with revenge travel slowing down and schedules ramped up, more availability should help lower prices. Generally speaking, the further out you are from your travel date, the less expensive a ticket will be, according to Going. 

Real estate costs are also going down. Many are anticipating a big drop in home sale and purchase expenses as the NAR settlement is approved, but the exact numbers are still unknown. Some experts suggest that commissions could drop 25-50%! 

Other relocation costs are expected to be similar to 2023. Household goods should expect to see domestic shipping costs increase around 2%. International shipping costs will fluctuate a bit more dramatically due to issues with the Panama Canal drought and Red Sea shipping attacks. With sea shipments, expect overall to have costs increase around 8-10%. If most of your transit touches one of those two hot spots, expect possible 15-30% increases for the near future. 

Furnished corporate housing and serviced accommodations are still expensive, driven by global housing shortages. Expect 10-13% increases in general, although availability and price will vary by location.

Finally, per the recent Atlas survey, in 2023, 70% of companies reported increases in employee relocations, with 25% saying their relocation budgets increased significantly and nearly 40% more saying budgets increased somewhat. With 27% saying that costs remained the same, that leaves very few who saw any decrease in costs. The reality was that relocation budgets and volumes increased from 2022 to 2023, and most companies now anticipate small further increases in 2024.