Disruption strikes without warning. When international events unfold rapidly, business leaders immediately ask one vital question: Are our people safe? Managing corporate travel during a crisis requires coordination, rapid communication, and a dedication to traveller wellbeing. Head of Operations for Corporate Traveller Australia, the flagship SME business travel specialists of Flight Centre Travel Group, Jaclyn Reynolds, explains exactly how all of this is possible.
When disruption hits: The immediate priority
For growing global businesses with frequent flyers, knowing where your people are is paramount. When the situation in the Middle East unfolded on Saturday night at the beginning of March, the Corporate Traveller Australia crisis management plan immediately sprang into action.
The immediate priority during any sudden event is clear visibility and accurate information. The team must build a comprehensive picture of the situation before taking decisive action. Reynolds highlights the exact sequence of events that kicks off when a crisis occurs.
“With the current situation in the Middle East, as that unfolded, the immediate thing we do is make sure all the key stakeholders are informed of exactly what’s going on,” she said. “When we’ve got a very, very clear picture of exactly what it is that’s happening, our plan really comes to life.”
This structured approach stops panic and ensures every action is strategic. With the right people, tech and travel management protocols in place, companies can track their travellers globally.
Corporate Traveller Australia uses advanced tracking to identify exactly who is in the affected region, where they are staying, and their planned itinerary.
Mobilising the after-hours team
Once the travel management team identifies the impacted individuals, the real work begins. Safety is paramount beyond everything else. The dedicated after-hours team immediately took charge, running detailed reports to pinpoint every single traveller in or near the Middle East.
“Our priority is to make sure that our travellers are safe,” Reynolds said. “We were running reports, making sure that we could identify exactly where our travellers were, and we got that information out to our dedicated teams.”
The crisis broke out on the weekend. The after-hours team distributed the reports to dedicated travel managers, who began calling each potentially impacted traveller. Finding solutions to ensure people are safe and sound requires constant vigilance and open communication channels.
Simultaneously, the operations team maintained an open dialogue with global stakeholders and suppliers and monitored Government updates. Gathering real-time intelligence directly ensures travel managers provide the absolute best, most accurate advice to travellers and their companies.
What SME travellers need right now
Corporate travel is essential for global business growth. CFOs, procurement leaders, and HR leads understand that expansion into international markets requires face-to-face meetings, site visits, and a global strategy. Despite the unrest, business does continue, and people still need to travel.
Right now, business travellers are highly conscious of worldwide events. They need reassurance, reliable itineraries, and a strong safety net. Unsurprisingly, disruption, reliability, and safety are the top three concerns for frequent flyers today.
“I think if you’re a business traveller right now, you’re certainly thinking about disruption,” Reynolds says. “I think you’re certainly thinking about reliability, and you’re thinking about safety. I think it’s unfortunate, despite what’s going on in the world right now. Life does continue to go on. Business continues to go on, and travellers will always need to travel.”
Having an expert on the ground makes the difference. Travellers need someone they can talk to at any time of the day or night. Whether it is pre-trip advice, support during the journey, or assistance on the way home, having a dedicated professional to reach out to provides immense peace of mind.
Real Stories from the Frontline
Managing a crisis involves high pressure, late nights, and an adrenaline rush. Behind the corporate policies and travel-tracking dashboards are humans helping others navigate tough situations. The passion for helping people is what drives travel managers to work tirelessly through the night.
“There was one harrowing moment that made the crisis devastatingly real for us,” Reynolds said. “A travel manager was on the phone with a customer stationed in a hotel room in the Middle East. They were in a hotel room, saying that he could see the missiles literally coming directly past the hotel.”
We would do everything that we could to get that traveller to safety and back home to their loved ones
“I think, in that moment, it made it very, very real for our travel manager and all we really wanted to do was help, and reassure that customer, that we were here to help and that everything was going to be okay, and that we would do everything that we could to get that traveller to safety and back home to their loved ones as quickly as we possibly could.”
This is the reality of global travel risk management. It is a human endeavour. Countless other travel managers stayed online through the night, constantly checking and rechecking flight inventory. They looked for new flights, monitored sudden availability changes, and left absolutely no stone unturned to get their customers home safely.
By the numbers: Managing the impact
The scale of the response highlights the criticality of having a dedicated travel management partner. Between the 28th of February and around the 15th of March, the Corporate Traveller Australia operations team managed bookings for more than 500 travellers.
This massive logistical effort involved a combination of inbound enquiries and proactive outreach. Travel managers did not simply wait for the phone to ring. They proactively reached out to their customers scheduled to travel to or through the Middle East later in the month, helping them secure alternate routes and safe destinations.
“Across the first two days, we managed over a thousand enquiries,” Reynolds said. “A combination of inbound from our customers and us proactively managing the future travel of our clients.”
Handling over a thousand enquiries in 48 hours requires a robust infrastructure, deep industry expertise, and a team that genuinely cares. For mid-sized companies managing a sudden crisis in-house, this volume of work would completely overwhelm internal resources and put travellers at risk. A dedicated partner turns travel chaos into clarity, ensuring seamless, proactive management.
The human element of business travel
Travel managers view their role as far more than simply booking flights and hotels. They serve as essential partners in their customers’ global growth, acting as a lifeline when things go wrong.
“I wouldn’t say it’s chaos, I’d say, certainly, there’s pressure for sure,” she said. I think that pressure mostly comes from ourselves and from our people. There’s certainly that adrenaline rush, but I think that pressure really comes from our people wanting to get on the phone and really service our customers and find solutions for them as quickly as possible.”
It is in these high-pressure moments that the true value of a proactive partnership shines. The team’s dedication ensures that companies can focus on their core business operations, knowing their most valuable assets – their people – are in safe hands.
“At the end of the day, travel is what we do and what we are passionate about, and it’s also about helping people, and making sure that we can get them around the world as safely and soundly as possible and back home to their loved ones or whether it be going to do business as well.”
Preparing your business for the unexpected
Global events move quickly. Waiting for a crisis to occur before creating a travel risk management plan leaves your people vulnerable and your business exposed at the worst possible time. Proactive planning is the cornerstone of corporate duty of care.
For finance, HR, and procurement leaders, securing a reliable travel management partner is a strategic imperative. A strong partnership ensures you have the right protocols, tracking technology, and human support ready the moment you need them.
Evaluate your current travel programme today. Ask yourself if you have immediate visibility over every travelling employee. Determine if your people have a dedicated, 24/7 expert to call when missiles are flying past their hotel window. If the answer is no, it is time to upgrade your approach to corporate travel. Secure your people, protect your business, and travel with confidence.
