Amex: No Slowdown in Q1 Corp. Travel Demand

First-quarter travel and entertainment spending by American Express corporate customers increased about 41 percent year over year to about $26 billion, and the company sees no real sign of any slowdown in demand, Amex reported Thursday.

The total T&E spending was up from about $25 billion in each of the prior three quarters, according to Amex. The first quarter of 2022 included some effect on travel from the omicron variant of Covid-19, affecting year-over-year comparisons.

Overall corporate spending—including but not exclusively T&E—among Amex’s large and global corporate accounts increased 34 percent year over year, while spending among small and midsize enterprises increased 6 percent.

T&E spending increased among all Amex segments. International customers’ T&E spending on Amex products, which includes consumer as well as business spending, totaled $24 billion in the quarter, up 58 percent year over year.

“It just keeps growing,” Amex chairman and CEO Steve Squeri said Thursday on the company’s earnings call. “We still think we have more room to grow, and airlines will also expand their capacity. And as they expand their capacity, we’ll continue to grow with them. … And when there’s more upside in airlines, it becomes more upside in lodging.”

Amex reported total revenues of $14.3 billion in the first quarter, up 22 percent year over year. The company’s net income for the quarter was $1.8 billion, down from $2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2022.

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