Airline carriers are cutting capacity an average of six to 14 percent this fall. (That’s nearly 3,000 fewer domestic flights a day during Thanksgiving!) With the usual increase in leisure travelers due to holiday traffic in the last six weeks of the year, road warriors are going to feel an impact as they try to schedule business trips.

This doesn’t mean your business trips for the rest of the year have to be cancelled…it just means plan ahead as much as possible. 

From my recent experiences, there are three major impacts for Road Warriors:

• Same day trips may not be available.  Personally I would much rather fly out at 6 am and catch the 7 pm flight back to Dallas so that I can see my family and sleep in my own bed.  With both major and secondary markets losing frequency this is not always going to be possible.  Be prepared for short, overnight trips.  Quick tip: before booking you might want to step back and consider if a trip is even necessary.  Companies often offer Web conferencing solutions that can be as effective and much more cost-effective depending on the trip (especially if the journey is for internal meetings with colleagues).
• Travel managers might start having business travelers stay over on Saturday.  This is because some airlines are re-introducing minimum stay requirements.  So be prepared for a longer stay – and make the most of it by working in some family visits or sight-seeing.
• Secondary markets are increasingly requiring connecting flights.  Some smaller markets don’t have direct options anymore; the Air Transport Association reports that nearly 100 secondary cities are seeing a major loss of air service.  Business travelers need to be mindful of these changes and plan accordingly.  Quick tip: consider flying into a slightly larger airport with more flight options and driving to destinations that are less than two hours from that airport.  Such a scenario gives you a little more control and more options in the event of bad weather, cancelled flights, etc.

We can (to some extent) take our travel fate into our own hands.  As with so many things, preparation is key.  Here are some tips to help, whether you are working with a travel manager or booking yourself:

1.      Book in advance to get the best price – now is not the time to be waiting for a better price, especially on heavy travel days.

2.      Make sure that the airline or the travel agency you use has all of your contact information in case of flight changes or cancellations so you can make alternate plans.

3.      Check your flight yourself for changes prior to flying.  It helps to subscribe to e-mail, text messaging alerts or other airline tools for up-to-the-minute updates.

4.      If you must make a layover – consider routing yourself through a major airport such as Chicago or Dallas/Fort Worth.  This will provide you with more options if a flight is cancelled. With the capacity cuts, one cascading benefit is that traffic is down at hubs and the on-time percentage is on the rise. The old adage of avoiding busy hub airports does not apply in this environment.

5.      Be prepared – keep your laptop and cell phone charged, and bring something to work on or read.  If you are going to have to kill time in an airport, it might as well be productive from either a personal or professional standpoint. 

Navigating airports during the holidays is always a challenge for hard-core road warriors…by applying some of the above tactics, I’m hoping you’ll have a better travel experience and achieve all the goals of your business trip.