The economic downturn is now taking a firm grip on business travel, after a first half of 2008 during which some parts of the industry felt almost embarrassed to admit that they had not detected any noticeable impact.

Not any more. It was to be expected that some of July and all of August would be quiet times for business travel, but the corporate world – at least in the US and Europe – appears to have returned from summer vacations in no mood to go travelling.