You all seem to be mixing up two different things: the phenomenon of people (who live close to their office anyway) being forced to work from their basement/attic/hobbyroom vs. the vastly reduced demand international travel for business purposes.
Once this has all (hopefully) blown over, some elements of the working from home fad will stick as people like to have a choice. However, I agree with you lot that it is is essential that people are physically together for all the reasons you have mentioned. (starting up new colleagues, the famous coffee machine chats, the human need of feeling part of a group/team, etc, etc). Unfortunately, everybody returning to their office desks has zero impact on air travel, as those people will get back into their cars, busses, MRT's or whatever transport mode they were used to in the morning pre-COVID.
As for international air travel for business purposes; sorry to burst your bubble, but this has changed permanently. I work in an environment where I negotiate infrastructure contracts in the energy industry (I sell powerplants). Pre-COVID, everybody in my company, as well as our clients/suppliers, including all of the involved law firms agreed we had to meet face to face. And so we did; frequently and on high yield tickets (the seats close to the pointy end where you sit, you know - the ones that make the money for the airline), jetting between continents at least a couple of times a month. We all had the shiny frequent flyer cards to prove it. However, despite COVID, we had to keep stuff moving remotely and honestly - it works. It's like somebody switched the lights on and we can see we were doing it wrong all along. We have a laugh about it, and joke how much extra quality time at home and good night rests we have gained, and virtually everybody agrees this is a better lifestyle. We still have to travel to meet new clients every once in a while, but even that is rapidly diminishing as conferences and other events go virtual at a fraction of the original cost.
Sure, leisure travel will come back (I can't wait!), but business? A fraction of what it used to be... And even if we wanted to get back to our previous way of doing things, the travel budgets for 2021 and 2022 have -unfortunately for you guys- been slashed by management (rightfully so), and they are not coming back.
Aviation will have it's place; but I encourage everyone to get realistic about a full recovery.
Last edited by FMS82; 11th Nov 2020 at 01:18.
Reason: spelling