Corporate card provider American Express saw global travel and entertainment (T&E) spending by clients rise by 41 per cent year-on-year to reach $26 billion in the first quarter of 2023, with the company seeing no real sign of any slowdown in demand.

Total T&E spending in Q1 was up from about $25 billion in each of the previous three quarters, according to Amex, which described demand as ¡°particularly robust¡±. The first quarter of 2022 included some impact on travel spending due to the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19, which affected year-on-year comparisons.

Overall corporate spending - including but not exclusively T&E - among Amex's large and global corporate accounts increased 34 per cent year-on-year, while spending among small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) increased by a more modest 6 per cent.

T&E spending increased among all Amex segments. International customers' T&E spending on Amex products, which includes both business and consumer transactions, reached $24 billion in the quarter, up by 58 per cent on Q1 of 2022.

¡°It just keeps growing,¡± said Amex chairman and CEO Steve Squeri during the company's earnings call. "We still think we have more room to grow and airlines will also expand their capacity.?

¡°As they expand their capacity, we¡¯ll continue to grow with them.¡­and when there¡¯s more upside in airlines, it becomes more upside in lodging."

Amex reported total revenue of $14.3 billion in the first quarter, an increase of 22 per cent on the same quarter last year. The company's net income for the quarter was $1.8 billion, which was down from $2.1 billion in Q1 of 2022.