Business Travel News - April 27, 2009 - (Page 18)

EuroBTN British Airways Offering Agents Transatlantic Incentives British Airways has resumed offering incentives to certain British travel management companies on transatlantic routes, EuroBTN has learned. The airline withdrew incentives in 1999 after being fined €6.8 million by the European Commission for what it deemed to be abuse of a dominant position in its home market. However, BA has now determined that it can no longer be accused of having a dominant position in the transatlantic market because of the European Union-United States Open Skies agreement that came into effect in March 2008. The airline argues that Open Skies effectively created a European Union-wide marketplace for flights to the United States and that in this respect its marketshare is much smaller. On this basis, it has revisited aspects of its agreements with leading travel management companies. Senior TMC sources confirmed to EuroBTN that BA has changed its approach but, like BA itself, are staying tight-lipped on the details of the changes. However, one said: “Deals are becoming more targeted.” Virgin Atlantic, the airline whose complaint to the European Commission led to BA being fined, reacted furiously to the news. “BA is and always will be the dominant carrier,” said a spokesman. “It has the largest number of slots at London Heathrow,”by far the busiest European airport for U.S.-bound flights,”and it has more services to the U.S.A. than anyone else. Judging from the feedback we have had since we heard about this, agents know that too.” Virgin dismissed BA’s Open Skies argument. “Markets are based on pointto-point routes, such as Heathrow-Los Angeles, not continents. BA has more seats out of Heathrow than the whole of SkyTeam out of Paris or Star Alliance out of Frankfurt.” In a written response to questions from EuroBTN, BA said: “The transatlantic routes have been highly competitive for many years. The Open Skies agreement has further increased competition between routes between Europe and the U.S., which are amongst the most competitive in the world. No single carrier or airline alliance dominates those markets.” The development will be of interest to U.K.-based corporate clients of BA, who may benefit financially. “Those clients on open-book relationships will make it clear to their TMCs that they expect any additional income to be passed on to them,” said Tom Stone, director of the consultancy Sirius Management. “However, this would not apply to clients on a transaction fee.” Stone added that BA is reviewing many of its direct agreements with corporate clients. “BA is really thinking outside the box and being as creative as possible,” he said. “It is doing things that would have been unthinkable a year ago.” ■ Marriott Makes Global Sales Leader Head Of European Lodging Marriott International this month appointed executive vice president of global sales and marketing Amy McPherson as its new president and managing director of European lodging, a newly created position that the company said will help accelerate its growth in the region. McPherson, who has been with Marriott since 1986, will relocate to Europe and begin her new role on July 1. She will head a new division that will cover the United Kingdom, Ireland and continental Europe and report to Arne Sorenson, who takes over as president and COO on May 1. “As one of our top leaders, she created a sales and marketing, e-commerce, reservations and customer care organization that is truly worldclass,” Sorenson said in a statement. “Her talents and business savvy will be instrumental in driving revenue and growth in this key region.” McPherson’s achievements at Marriott include helping to launch a rate guarantee program that ensured consistent pricing across sales channels and heading the development of a Sales Force One regional, account-based sales strategy. ■ Amy McPherson Avis Europe To Levy No-Show Charge Avis Europe plans to introduce a charge for customers who fail to cancel a booking before scheduled collection time. The charge of €40 (or £40 or 60 Swiss francs) is being introduced for no-shows by individual customers, but will be applied to corporate clients later in the year. Customers who collect their cars no later than 24 hours after the scheduled pick-up time will escape the charge. In a prepared statement, Avis said it is the first car rental company to adopt what it called a “standard travel industry procedure.”In 2006, Hertz UK wrote to customers to tell them it was going to introduce a similar measure, but Hertz Europe intervened to retract the announcement after BTN broke the story. Avis appears to be making the move because the cost of no-shows has been increasing. Smaller fleets and tighter utilization, combined with a higher proportion of prepaid bookings, mean that rental companies have fewer unused vehicles on their premises. It is not uncommon, therefore, for a location to block out a vehicle that ends up unused when it could have been allocated to another customer. In addition, the rental company incurs costs in preparing the paperwork for the rental and possibly driving it over from another location. “Charges for canceling a rental booking are 100 percent avoidable if customers think ahead, and that’s something we believe this measure will encourage them to do,” said Avis Europe group commercial director Wolfgang Neumann in the prepared statement. ■ The news items on this page originally appeared in EuroBTN, the new weekly newsletter that features the latest European business travel news, research, analysis and interviews, brought to your inbox by the editors of Business Travel News. To sign up for EuroBTN, please visit btnonline.com/newsletter. 18 Monday, April 27, 2009 www.BTNonline.com Business Travel News http://www.btnonline.com/newsletter http://www.BTNonline.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Business Travel News - April 27, 2009

Business Travel News - April 27, 2009
Airlines To Test Tracking Unbundled Charges
Contents
Contents (cont'd)
Booking Tool Fees Go Past Transactions
Inside Track
Amex To Enable Online Holds For Mtg. Res
Profiles In Travel Mgmt
Forum
Corporate Housing Shedding Inventory
Lodging
EuroBTN: BA Resumes Agent Incentives
EuroBTN
Destinations

Business Travel News - April 27, 2009