Business Travel News - December 15, 2008 - (Page 4)

NEWS ITMCs Step Up International Plans BY SETH HARRIS announced its agreement with TRX The Internet travel management expanded to provide international companies are accelerating interna- ticketing fulfillment and call center tional expansion plans for 2009 as services out of its Berlin customer many of their clients broaden the service center. Domestically, TRX scopes of their travel programs and currently supplies Orbitz with its look to consolidate suppliers glob- Correx mid-office and TravelTrax ally. Egencia, Orbitz for Business reporting software applications. and Travelocity Business in the past Last month, Travelocity Business several weeks announced different announced its international plans by expansion approaches, but each so entering into an agreement to join far focuses more on serving current travel management company netclients than signing new clients out- work Radius, becoming the first side the United States. ITMC to join such an organization. Some current clients will transition to the joint TBiz-Radius fulfillment partnership in the first quarter of 2009. The Asia/Pacific fulfillment partnership with Travelocity-owned Zuji and WNS Global Services will be phased out, according to TBiz president Lesley Harris. Egencia, which said it now derives more than half of its revenue from outside of the United States, this month opened point-of-sale services in Switzerland and Gurgaon, India. The India location becomes Egencia’s third point of sale in the Asia/Pacific region, following launches in China and Australia in the past ORBITZ FOR BUSINESS’ DEAN SIVLEY year. Including Switzerland, the travFollowing U.K. with Germany, Australia el management company now has 14 points of sale. Orbitz for Business this month an“We are not looking to serve the nounced the launch of its Orbitz for U.S. traveler who is going to India Business International service in on occasion,” said Egencia vice presCanada—the first country to go live ident of Asia/Pacific Pam Keenan with the Travelport Traversa-based Fritz. “We are actually looking to multilingual and multicurrency ver- serve the subsidiaries of those comsion of the platform. panies that are doing domestic and Canadian Travelport Classic users international travel, but have their are migrating to Orbitz’s internation- home base in India itself.” al platform now, with support servAs midmarket travel programs ices handled in a U.S. call center. seek more multinational and online Before year-end, Orbitz for Busi- services, ITMCs see an opportunity ness plans to launch For the latest breaking news, to build on their U.S. the international vertrack record. see btnonline.com/bn sion of its tool in the “U.S. customers are United Kingdom, followed by Ger- taking on more responsibilities, so many and Australia in the first and you want to expand with them and second quarters of 2009, respective- keep the business with as few ly, according to COO and senior vice providers as you can,” said Orbitz’s president Dean Sivley. Sister com- Sivley. “We are expanding the deals pany ebookers.com’s business trav- we can swing at dramatically by ofelers are testing the U.K. system. fering up these capabilities.” This month, Orbitz for Business ■ sharris@btnonline.com ■ BASTIAN: DELTA, NORTHWEST INTEGRATION “ON TRACK” Delta Air Lines president Edward Bastian told investors this month that integration with newly acquired subsidiary Northwest Airlines is “fully on track and going well.” He said 2009 would be a “transition year for us,” noting that the carriers would not act as one entity until they are granted a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, expected in late 2009. Bastian, who also serves as interim Northwest president and CEO, said the carriers plan to migrate to a single reservations platform in the first part of 2010. He claimed that the carriers’targeted synergies of $500 million are on track, and the alignment of fee policies (BTNonline, Nov. 5) already has put the carrier on the path to achieve $200 million of those synergies. Delta, along with Northwest, also announced plans this month to further reduce systemwide capacity by up to 8 percent in 2009. INSIDE TRACK TRAVEL MANAGERS OF THE YEAR JOIN SUPPLIERS Two BTN Travel Managers of the Year this month, after 10-year stints as travel buyers, began newly created consultative sales roles . StarCite hired Kevin Iwamoto as its vice president of enterprise strategy and Sabre’s GetThere named Duane Futch vice president of travel procurement strategy. While on the Hewlett-Packard team, 2002 BTN Travel Manager of the Year Iwamoto served as president of the National Business Travel Association. Iwamoto said responsibilities for his new role at the meetings technology company include helping travel managers develop strategic meetings management programs or take such programs to the next level. 2006 BTN Travel Manager of the Year Futch said his new focus is on providing consulting to clients, prospects and agency resellers. GetThere president Chris Kroeger said that Futch’s primary responsibility is “to offer advice and ideas to travel managers to optimize travel procurement strategies and specifically how they can leverage technology to create value.” GetThere also named former Meeting Professionals International vice president Joan England as vice president of sales for North America. LUFTHANSA READIES ITALY-BASED, INTRA-EUROPE BRAND Lufthansa is planning to launch Lufthansa Italia, a new Italian airline brand that would use a fleet of two-class, 138-seat Airbus A319 aircraft to serve European destinations from Milan as soon as February 2009. The announcement came amid an ongoing bid for a stake in Italian carrier Alitalia, in which Lufthansa and Air France are the chief rivals. The launch of Lufthansa Italia is “completely separate from anything that might take place with Alitalia,” a spokesperson said. Lufthansa Italia’s plan is to serve Barcelona and Paris beginning Feb. 2, 2009, with service to Brussels, Budapest, Bucharest and Madrid following within a month, followed by London and Lisbon later in 2009. U.K. TO RAISE AIR PASSENGER DUTY BY DISTANCE, CLASS The United Kingdom Treasury plans to increase air passenger duty rates by length of haul and class of service on Nov. 1, 2009, instead of its previous per-plane tax proposal, drawing the ire of airline associations, which have called the duty illegal fees masquerading as environmental protections. The United Kingdom last month said it is moving from two to four “distance bands” in efforts to “improve environmental signals.”The new air passenger duties would range from £11 (US$16.68) per way for economy travel of 2,000 miles or less to £110 for traveling more than 6,000 miles in the front of the plane. 4 Monday, December 15, 2008 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://www.btnonline.com/bn http://www.ebookers.com http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - December 15, 2008

Business Travel News - December 15, 2008
Contents
Inside Track
Profiles In Travel Mgmt
Forum
Aviation
Lodging
Ground Transportation
Travel Management
Meetings Today
Washington Wire

Business Travel News - December 15, 2008