How and when will it be feasible for business travel again?

"While the software is helpful, it is basically crap."

Michael O'Leary, Ryanair's chief executive, was the speaker. The subject: online meeting services that have risen to popularity as the coronavirus pandemic flights around the world.

On an old-fashioned mobile, I had indicated to Mr O'Leary that business travel by air would be slow to recover after Covid-19.

As I have pointed out, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, the internet congregation's Ryanair and easyJet, have absolved hard-pressed executives from the grind of waking up at 4 a.m. to drive to an airport and fly to Frankfurt, for a dispiriting meeting they are underperforming due to fatigue.

Instead, in their pyjamas, they remain active, but this is not recommended for anyone office-bound for their online meeting.

• Ryanair will resume 40% of July flights if passengers wear masks.

The boss of Ryanair claims that coronavirus will eventually increase the amount of business travel, since it will make people realize the value of real face-to-face communication (even in a socially distant age).

Evidently, one of his leading competitors, British Airways, does not agree. The British Airline Pilots' Association (Balpa) reported on Tuesday afternoon that BA CityFlyer, the London City Airport service in Docklands, had officially informed the union of 72 proposed redundancies. That's 29% of the overall flight deck staff of 248, almost the same proportion of job losses in the "mainline" operations of British Airways.

Its entire existence remained unclear as British Airways, its parent company, was still evaluating its own future," the union said the BA subsidiary had warned."

Brian Strutton, general secretary of Balpa, called it "devastating news" and added: "The government is making this aviation crisis worse by imposing restrictions on flying and forcing airlines into a spiral of death."

But could both of them be correct? Maybe British Airways envisages a business travel future that does not entail managers making very brief travel notice decisions and paying hundreds of pounds for the privilege?

I feel that costly and disruptive last-minute meetings should move online, while business meetings that are more calculated and better organized continue and flourish in time.

1/11 Vacant airports as Coronavirus affects the aviation business

Initially, companies would be hesitant to send any workers anywhere when travel returns on any form of significant scale. They would want to obey a duty of care rightly, not having to place staff at risk. For cash-strapped enterprises, this goal is ideally associated with the need to dramatically curtail business travel expenses, frequently the first victim of any financial crisis.

Yet there will be a steady rise as we become less afraid of others, and more is learned about the occurrence and transmission of coronavirus. The cost pressure, possibly to the benefit of budget airlines, will continue. The premium for "full service" business class would look even less valuable, with decreased inflight service, and likely airport lounges being rarer (another obvious reduction in difficult times).

But the decision of British Airways to hold an empty middle seat on its short-haul services now seems prescient, and that alone would undoubtedly push some demand.

By marketing the opportunity to purchase an adjacent seat, ensuring that it is not occupied by a stranger, I expect rival airlines will begin competing for business travelers. Where previous attempts by Ryanair to gain market share from legacy airlines have failed, this 'DIY' business class could succeed. Perhaps there are Zoom calls about that very topic going on right now.