2021 U.S.-Booked Air Volume: $5.4 million
Primary U.S. Online Booking Tool: Concur
Primary U.S. Expense Supplier: Concur
Consolidated U.S. TMC: CWT
BTN estimates Facebook’s 2021 U.S. point-of-sale air volume
fell to $5.4 million from $35.7 million in 2020. The social media giant held
travel activities at a very low level throughout the year. It again diverted
its F8 and Facebook Connect conferences to virtual platforms in 2021 due to the
pandemic. CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the company’s new name—Meta—during the
Oct. 28 Facebook Connect virtual keynote address.
The company embraced ‘work from anywhere’ in 2021, prior to
its return-to-office date on March 28, 2022. It is unclear how that model will
affect its business travel patterns. If Meta’s mission—which, according to its
2022 sustainability report, is to create ‘a feeling of presence, like you are
right there with another person or in another place’—the company may look for
new ways for its employees and clients to connect as it drives innovation
around ‘powerful tool[s] to build empathy, understanding and collaboration.’
Meta reduced its business travel emissions to 5,000 metric
tons in 2021, down from 129,000 metric tons in 2020 and more than 500,000 in
2019. The company is a founding member of the Sustainable Aviation Buyers
Alliance, and in 2021 adjusted its business travel emissions down to 5,000 metric
tons, based on Meta’s contracting for more than 700,000 gallons of sustainable
aviation fuel for business travel. It was not clear in the company’s 2021
sustainability report what equivalence was used for that reduction. Meta posted
$117.3 billion in revenues in 2021, reflecting 30 percent growth over 2020 and
ended the year with 71,970 employees.