Airport Clubs Resist Deals For Mtg. Space

<B>Airport Clubs Resist Deals For Mtg. Space</B>

By Chris Davis

Aiming to keep the crowded meeting rooms of their airport clubs an exclusive benefit to preferred clients--and to maximize the revenue of the clubs--airlines are refurbishing the space and resisting widespread inclusion of their usage in corporate contracts.

Both American and Northwest Airlines have redesigned their airport clubs to offer more meeting space and more technological capabilities. American this spring opened a large, flagship Admirals Club at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub with high-speed T-1 Internet access; Northwest opened two WorldClubs with more conference rooms and dataports.

The upgrades, the airlines believe, offer an attractive option to preferred customers who have neither the time nor money to book a longer meeting at a downtown or airport property.

"It's a very important market for us, as the conference rooms are 85 percent filled during business hours," said Judy Brandt, director of Northwest Airlines' WorldClubs. "But about 90 percent of those meetings are booked through a reservation, some even a month beforehand. For the most part, corporations book with about a week of lead time, but they need to do so to get the space."

Northwest has unveiled new WorldClubs in Memphis and San Francisco, a renovated club at Chicago O'Hare and by year-end four new clubs at Detroit's new Midfield terminal. All will include expanded conference space.

Brandt expects a further influx of corporate meetings due to economic uncertainty, as companies reduce costs by using less expensive conference space.

"We're already seeing it and we've seen it in recessions of the past," Brandt said. "The fee is so much less expensive than airport hotels or conference centers that the clubs are an attractive option."

However, the airlines must straddle a line between reaping financial benefits from the space while keeping an air of exclusivity for frequent flyers and allowing them to book meetings with little lead time.

For that reason, the airlines said they are hesitant to include stipulations for discounted club conference room use in corporate meeting and group contracts, although it's certainly not unheard of: According to a Meetings Monitor survey of 132 corporate meeting buyers, about 21 percent said they have received just such a benefit in negotiations (Meetings Today, April 23).

"We do not include club services in our agreements because they have their own customer base and want to ensure exclusivity for their members," said Penny Chen Lawless, manager of group and meeting travel at US Airways, which maintains 21 US Airways clubs in airports nationwide. "There are certainly airports with the meeting space to offer, but it's selective and based on availability.