Air Travel Accounts for More Than 75% of Corporate Transportation Spend Growth, New Emburse Data Reveals

Travel costs impacted by higher fares, more trips; British Airways posts the highest growth, while Emirates spend falls by more than half

DALLAS, September 23, 2026 - Emburse, a global leader in travel and expense management, today published new data from its latest Expense Intelligence Report: Travel Edition, revealing that overall enterprise spending climbed this year, with transportation costs, particularly airfare, accounting for a disproportionate share of that growth. The findings are based on an analysis of approximately $9.1 billion in Emburse Enterprise expense spend reported in USD from January through July 2026.

Spend was up, driven by transportation

Total enterprise expense spend in 2026 to date was up 4.8% year-over-year. That growth was driven predominantly by transportation costs, which were up 26.7% and accounted for approximately 42% of the dollar increase, despite representing only 11% of overall spend.

Spend growth was driven by volume

The average transportation expense claim was up 6.7%, suggesting individual purchases like flights and fares are becoming modestly more expensive. However, the far bigger driver of increased spend was volume: the number of transportation purchases was up 18.7%, suggesting employees are simply taking more business trips.

Airfares contributed to most of the growth

Most of the increase in transportation spend was airfare, which accounted for 75.8% of the gain. The airlines seeing the most growth were British Airways (up 42.7%), United Airlines (up 34.0%) and Southwest Airlines (up 32.2%). Emirates saw by far the greatest decline, down 54.7%.

Ground transportation favored rideshares and rentals

Taxi / rideshare services were the second-highest driver of transportation growth, accounting for 14% of the total gain, followed by car rental (8.2%) and fuel, which trailed at just 1.5%. This suggests employees are traveling further afield rather than using their own cars to travel locally. The vendors seeing the highest growth in these categories were Uber (up 33.6%), Chevron (up 33.3%) and Enterprise Rent-A-Car (up 31.5%). The biggest decline among named vendors was Avis, down 4.4%.

Top vendors dominated spend

Across five transportation categories (taxi/rideshare, rail/transit, parking, car rental and airfare) more than 70% of spend was concentrated in the top three suppliers, reflecting the importance of strong negotiated vendor relationships. It's a different story in other categories: fuel, tolls and fleet vehicles, where spend is distributed across 53 named vendors, reflecting the need for organizations to control the long tail through travel policy, corporate card and coding controls.

Beyond travel: facilities spend is also climbing

Outside of transportation and travel, vendors seeing the highest growth were concentrated in the facilities, industrial and workplace category, such as W.W. Grainger, up 69.8%, and Uline, up 50.5%. Amazon Marketplace saw the slowest growth among tracked non-travel vendors at 14.2%, but still dominated spend overall, representing 41% of the combined spend across the non-travel vendors tracked in the report.

Turning spend data into action

“Spend data offers a window into business activity that leaders often miss,” said Michele Shepard, CRO of Emburse. “Shifts in travel, meals, events, and operating spend can reveal whether an organization is deepening customer engagement, entering new markets, expanding field operations, or investing in growth. When finance, operations, and commercial teams combine these signals with business context, they can identify emerging needs earlier, make better decisions, and have more strategic, high-value conversations tied to real outcomes.”

The Emburse Expense Intelligence Report: Travel Edition offers recommendations for how business leaders can apply spend insights to make smarter decisions. Finance and procurement teams can prioritize negotiation in concentrated categories, control renewals and adjust policies. CROs and GTM teams can use spend momentum in specific categories to prioritize accounts and shape customer engagement.

For more insight, read the blog post.

Methodology

The Emburse Expense Intelligence Report: Travel Edition is based on Emburse Enterprise expense data reported in USD. Business travel data covers 29 selected standardized vendor labels across Emburse's data sources for the period January through July 2026, compared with the same months in 2025. Category and supplier concentration figures draw on a separate 2025 annual Enterprise and SMB vendor dataset. Selected vendor and theme figures are directional and do not measure market share, category-wide growth, or unique-company adoption.

About Emburse

Trusted globally by more than 12 million finance leaders, travel managers, and professionals, Emburse helps organizations control spend across complex finance operations, serving over 20,000 organizations in 200 countries and territories—including Global 2000 enterprises, SMBs, public sector agencies, and nonprofits.

By proactively managing and accurately validating spend, Emburse ensures robust financial governance, enhanced compliance, and unsurpassed visibility into spend behaviors—all while dramatically streamlining the process for every employee.

Emburse’s Expense Intelligence approach transforms reactive expense management into infrastructure for strategic growth. Powered by Emburse AI, it orchestrates corporate spend across travel booking, reimbursements, AP, and payments, embedding dynamic policy controls and predictive insights directly into workflows. This real-time approach empowers organizations to adapt quickly, reduce risk, and guide spend before money leaves the business.

To learn more about Emburse, visit www.emburse.com