The Business Traveler of Today Is Changing—and So Is Their Flight Map

WIRED

06-08-2025

Aug 6, 2025 10:50 AM A new era of work travel is taking entrepreneurs and creatives to Nigeria, Brazil, and beyond.
'Most of my work starts in Lagos, but it doesn't stay there for long,' says Anita Ashiru. She's one of the sole production designers working in Nigeria, where her team builds multi-scale sets and stage designs for the country's booming Afrobeats industry. Requests often come at a whim for work; Ashiru might be called abroad by the likes of frequent collaborator Davido, a Nigerian-American singer-songwriter who frequently shoots music videos in South Africa.
Ashiru's job is one that largely didn't exist 10 years ago, she says, but the recent growth of the West African music industry has allowed her to live, work, and travel extensively throughout the region, frequently finding herself working in Johannesburg for weeks at a time. 'South Africa is a creative hub in different ways,' she tells Condé Nast Traveler. 'We don't really have that kind of system in Nigeria. It feels like stepping into a designer's dream.'
Traveling between Nigeria and South Africa wasn't always this easy. Domestic travel in Africa has long been a challenge due to continent-wide infrastructure issues, including bureaucratic hurdles and the lack of connectivity between nations. But in recent years, the rise of cross-continental industries like e-commerce, fintech, and the arts has allowed for an influx of new flight paths catering to business travelers like Ashiru.
Ashiru's carrier of choice, South Africa Airways, has placed a particular focus on boosting domestic service within Africa, increasing its flights to Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in late 2024. The airline also bumped its Lagos to Johannesburg service to four times a week, beginning in November of last year. Long-haul air links to the continent have increased, too: Delta Air Lines recently resumed seasonal service from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Lagos, and United Airlines inaugurated a brand-new route from Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Dakar, Senegal in May.
This story is part of The New Era of Work Travel , a collaboration between the editors of Condé Nast Traveler and WIRED to help you navigate the perks and pitfalls of the modern business trip.
Of course, the return of in-person meetings and conferences has spurred a rebound in air travel to more traditional business hubs as well. Take Singapore Airlines' direct flight from Newark to Singapore, configured only with business and premium economy seats, or United Airlines' five times weekly service from Chicago to Zurich.'That's not tourists looking for Swiss Chocolate,' says aviation expert Mike Arnot . 'That's business demand. Every airline is trying to fly these kinds of routes.'
A Delta spokesperson tells Traveler the airline is focusing on Rio de Janeiro as a 'strategic corporate and business market' due to its recent growth amongst business travelers for 2025. Delta expanded its existing partnership with the LATAM group this year in order to increase connectivity between Brazil and the US, including with the launch of a new Boston to São Paulo route in January. This runs alongside regular flights to Rio De Janeiro, which connect to dozens of international airports via Delta's Atlanta hub.
Writer, filmmaker, and label head Jesse Bernard frequently flies from London to Rio with the LATAM network when producing documentaries and organizing nightlife events. He's the head of COMO VOCÊ, a transatlantic record label that works across London and Brazil's cultural capital.
'I've noticed when you're flying to countries within the African diaspora, there's a sense that most of the people on the flight aren't there for a holiday,' he says. 'There is a sense of familiarity; it's people traveling to London for work or traveling back for the same. They aren't necessarily tourists.'
Bernard spends weeks to months at a time in the UK or Brazil, where regional genres like grime and baile funk are taking off. 'Places like Brazil are leading nightlife, club culture, and underground music at the moment,' he tells Traveler. 'There is a real DIY culture and community."
Across the pond, North American passengers are flocking to South Korea as a top trending destination. One of the most popular airline routes in the US this summer was Los Angeles to Seoul, according to July 2025 data from OAG, an aviation analytics company.
For LA-based content creator Roger Who, traveling to Seoul has become essential for his work in the skincare and beauty space. Recent years have seen the K-beauty market explode in South Korea, in part thanks to treatments and services popularized by viral TikTok and Instagram videos. The boom has transformed business and tourism in the country: Over 1 million foreign patients traveled to South Korea from 2023 to 2024 for treatments including skincare procedures, medical services, and color analysis, per a Business of Fashion report.
Various airlines serving the Asia market are investing more in their US-South Korea connectivity. Air Premia—Who's go-to airline—recently increased its LAX flight schedule from seven to 10 flights per week in March 2025. Meanwhile, Korean Air has increased passenger capacity on the route with larger Airbus A380 aircraft and plans to bump its weekly service to LAX from four to five flights starting in August 2025.
Over the last five years, the two cities have become the global capitals of the digital creator economy. 'Both LA and Seoul have a really strong culture around appearance and self-care,' Who says. 'In LA, we have this intersection of entertainment, wellness, and beauty, which creates an audience that looks for influencer-led discovery and beauty education. Seoul has this similar energy.'
While Who's trips to Seoul are primarily work focused, he makes sure to carve out time for leisure as well. As with many modern careers in the digital age, the line between work and play is not always obvious: 'Even when I'm going out with friends to do things completely unrelated to beauty, I often find myself wanting to film those moments because they're just so cool or unique,' Who says.
As more young professionals combine business and leisure trips into single-ticket itineraries—a trend coined as bleisure—they've permanently shifted where and when business travel can take place. Previously, 'a passenger flying alone on Monday morning without a checked bag was a business traveler, and two or more people on an itinerary involving a weekend was a leisure trip,' says Gary Leff, an aviation expert and Condé Nast Traveler travel specialist. 'But now that weekend trip with a spouse or partner might start earlier in the week, include business, and extend into the weekend. The traditional Monday to Thursday business travel week for the consultant class is over."