More Lucrative Business Travelers Now Teleconference, Fly Coach

The U.S. airline industry hopes the return of business travelers, who disappeared for much of 2009, will help it claw its way back to profitability. But the era of extensive, expensive corporate travel may be over.

A growing number of companies are investing in technology for "virtual" meetings held over the Internet, possibly turning depressed travel into a long-term affair. Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons, an engineering company with more than $3.4 billion in sales and many frequent fliers, plans to spend $1.4 million this year to upgrade its teleconferencing equipment. Food Group, a 50-person advertising agency in New York, has increasingly turned to Cisco Systems Inc.'s WebEx service to hold "webinars'' with internal staff and clients. It pays about $20,000 a year to use the service, which allows participants to talk, see each other and share documents on their computers.