Air Fulfillment Enters Mtg. Planning Fray

Operating under the traditional belief that group air expenditure is an undermanaged aspect of meeting and incentive travel, a new company aims to serve that need for independent meetings management companies and incentive houses that are losing revenue because of eliminated commissions and lack of air expertise.

Air Fulfillment Service, a Des Moines, Iowa-based company created late last year but only last month introduced itself publicly, serves as an additional third party to corporations planning large meeting and incentive travel. The corporate client never deals with AFS directly or usually even knows of its existence. "We suppress our identity so we could become anything," said AFS vice president of business development Yvonne Long. "Their clients don't know."

AFS offers its services, including air planning, negotiating, contracting and registration to third parties, allowing them, in turn, to offer full air management services to their corporate meeting and incentive clients. The company manages more than $10 million in group air travel, but Long would not disclose any AFS clients, noting such disclosure would defeat the purpose of their discreet relationships.

Long said there is a need for such an arrangement, because air management is hardly a specialty for many third parties.

"Meeting and incentive houses can't deal with this anymore," Long said. "From a financial perspective, they're losing commissions, or their business is at risk because they don't do this well."

AFS charges its clients a transaction-based fee, which varies based on the level of management needed and the method of individual fulfillment and delivery—Web registration, e-mailed or faxed delivery.