During the first nine months of 2023, more than 22% of flights to or from U.S. airports were delayed, according to data from FlightAware. That’s up from roughly 17% during the same period in 2019.

Airlines also continue to operate fewer flights in 2023 than they did before the pandemic. That has left travelers with fewer options, particularly in the event of delays and cancellations. Corporate travel members, travel agents and business travelers say they are rethinking how to approach work travel as a result.

Spending on business travel should reach prepandemic levels by the end of 2024, according to projections from the Global Business Travel Association. Previous predictions suggested the milestone wouldn’t happen until 2026. Leisure travel is already humming along at 2019 spending levels, thanks to people planning “revenge” trips they had put on hold.

Survey data suggests that the business recovery would happen even faster if not for unpredictable air travel.

A third of business travelers reported that they are taking fewer trips than before 2020, according to a survey conducted in August for the U.S. Travel Association. The survey found that these travelers would take an average of two more trips a year if the complications with air travel improved. Dealing with delays and crowded airports during a business trip can be harder to stomach in the era of Zoom meetings.

“If your daughter is expecting to go to Disney World, you’re going to Disney World. You’ll put up with the delays and the trouble,” says U.S. Travel Association CEO Geoff Freeman. “The business traveler is the first to say, ‘I’m not putting up with the hassle.’ “

David Munk flew to South Carolina for what was meant to be a one-day business trip this summer. Then his flight got canceled.

Munk hadn’t returned his rental car yet and decided to drive back to his home in New Jersey along with some fellow stranded passengers. The overnight journey took nearly 10 hours and cost around $400, including a brief hotel stay, Munk says. His company footed the bill.

“I extended my rental, made some new friends on the way home and it was a great experience,” says Munk, who works as a regional manager for Dynamic Design Associates, a commercial interior-design firm. “I really just try to roll with the punches.”

Many business travelers can control whether they must go on the road.

“The traveler may well recognize that the trip that they’re considering taking is low-value,” says Scott Gillespie, a travel-industry consultant. “More risk weeds out low-value trips first.”

Travel budgets and eco-friendly considerations also weigh on business travel. Many companies have pledged to reduce their carbon footprint in recent years. Reducing business travel is one way to do that. Travel continues to cost more than it did before the pandemic. Even if a company has the same budget for corporate travel as four years ago, that money doesn’t go as far now.

Hotels and airlines still are upbeat about the business-travel recovery. Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein said during a recent earnings call that return-to-office initiatives will boost corporate travel demand. Hotels in markets such as New York that rely on business travel say that bookings from the tech and financial-services sectors have improved.

Business trips require more time because of potential delays and cancellations, corporate travel managers say.

Flying to and from the site of a business meeting in a single day is risky. People who travel frequently for work say they have adapted by giving themselves a buffer and flying to their destination the day before to provide a cushion if anything goes wrong. Some business leaders have gone as far as to make this a policy for their workers.

Debbie Fierst, chief executive officer of Logical Imagination Group, a technology consulting, training and development firm, now mandates that her staff aim to travel by midday at the latest. The policy has its trade-offs. Fierst, who lives near Columbus, Ohio, often flies out on Sundays before Monday meetings with clients.

“I used to be able to spend all day Sunday with my family, and now I’m leaving at 11 o’clock in the morning and losing my entire Sunday, just because I can’t guarantee that the 8:40 p.m. flight is going to actually happen,” she says.

Industry analysts report that companies are changing other policies in light of more frequent flight problems. Some companies have loosened the approval process to book travel to make it easier for workers to reschedule when problems arise.

Corporate travelers are booking trips much farther in advance to ensure they have the best options for flights, says Avi Meir, CEO of travel-management company TravelPerk.

At ZS Associates, a management-consulting firm with more than 13,000 workers globally, employee training around corporate travel has changed. It now stresses downloading airlines’ mobile apps in advance and using in-app chat functions if a flight is canceled, says Suzanne Boyan, the company’s travel and meetings manager.

Boyan says air-travel issues arise frequently for the employees she helps. Her team has access to funds that they can use to grant employees access to airport lounges if their flight is delayed or canceled. With lounges so full these days, ZS now requires that the employee confirm that the club is still accepting guests before issuing the pass, she says.

“It’s becoming a little bit more challenging to mitigate the issues that flight delays cause,” Boyan says.

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Write to Jacob Passy at jacob.passy@wsj.com