(CNN Business) - Ticket reserve.Meetings program.Become obsessed with your presentation.Pase hand luggage.Run to the airport.Check out the living room.Boarding Priority.Take off.land.Reach the hotel.Get together with customers.Close the deal.Fly home.To repeat.

For countless executives and vendors, business trips have been the cornerstone of corporate life: some hate them, others love them, but they all accept them as a necessity (enriched with millions of frequent traveler miles).Employees needed to fly to meet with customers, generate new businesses and spend some time with the boss at the headquarters.

Then came the coronavirus pandemic, which left travelers on land and forced many companies to find new ways to do things.Zoom replaced face -to -face meetings, even if there is something strange on video chats.Telephone calls filled the gaps.Customers remained customers, agreements were completed and income accumulated.

Now, with the restrictions by the coronavirus decreasing in many countries, the question is how quick.

The warriors of the road will play a crucial role when determining whether the executive class is full or almost empty, since they negotiate the return to corporate life after more than a year working from home.Some, or many, could refuse to miss the night event or football match of their children.

"For many people, frequent business trips have become more a burden than a benefit," said Scott Cohen, a professor at the University of Surrey in England who studies business trips.It is increasingly recognized than frequent work trips can negatively affect health and personal relationships, he added.

A weak recovery on business trips would be disastrous for airlines, who have already seen their finances stretched to the point of rupture by pandemic.While corporate travelers represent only 12% of passengers, on some flights they can generate up to 75% of profits, according to PWC.

"Business travelers often reserve last minute rates with significant profit margins; in the past, a road warrior may have paid US $ 1.000 One day before the departure for the same seat as a pleasure traveler bought for US $ 100 two months ago, "said Zach Honig, general editor of The Points Guy, in a response by email.

The International Association of Air Transport, which represents 290 airlines around the world, expects business trips to recover more slowly than vacations because companies reduced travel budgets during pandemic and online conferences will replace some meetings.

In the United Kingdom, where the government relieved international trips restrictions on Monday, the chiefs of the airlines recognized the challenges faced by business trips, but said they still expect a complete recovery.

"We have been clear that [business trips] would perhaps recover at a slower pace," British Airways CEO told BBC Radio, Sean Doyle."But people will do business again [...] I think people want to come here, visit us and talk about commercial opportunities, and they like to do face to face.So I'm sure this segment will recover ".

Suzanne Neufang, CEO of Global Business Travel Association, said business trips were "declared dead" after the financial crisis of 2008, but finally recovered completely despite the advances in technology that facilitated videoconferences.

"There is this propensity that businessmen, government officials, politicians and others need to lead their voters," he said.

Why this recovery will look different

But there is no guarantee that history is repeated.

Several important banks have announced that they will drastically reduce business trips to help address the climatic crisis.In February, Lloyds Banking Group said that it would cut carbon emissions of travel in more than 50% of their level before the pandemic.Standard Chartered, who is based in London, but performs most of his businesses in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, provides that trips will be reduced by a third.

ABN AMRO is indicating to its employees to travel by public transport and use only trains when they move between their offices in Europe.The Dutch bank aims to reduce business air trips by 50% by 2025 compared to 2017 levels.

The path of pandemic is another factor.The longer the new coronavirus continues to be a threat, the more companies they will be forced to adopt alternatives.The virus continues to sweep India, and a travel bubble between Hong Kong and Singapore has just delayed for the second time due to the increase in cases.

If there will be a radical change in the way companies think about business trips, it can occur in the types of trips that are considered essential.To service existing customers?That can be done in Zoom, while finishing a megacor with foreign clients will be considered to require a personal touch.

"It's that [business trip] more glamorous that I think will really survive," Cohen said."That most mundane segment where the relationship is already established [...] they are the ones that I think will die to some extent.The companies [will say], you know, that the trip is not so important.That treatment is already made ".

That could erode part of the ecosystem that has emerged around business trips.Hotels, airlines and car rental companies, for example, offer points and levels of status that foster business repetition among business travelers.But for the warriors of the road, less trips means less benefits.

"While there may be many exciting moments, many aspects of work trips are not as glamorous as one might think: being able to work towards a free vacation can certainly help eliminate both expense in economic plane seats and routine hotelsInstead of being at home, "said Honig.