Corporate travel customers of Business Travel International later this year will have the ability to integrate bookings on U.K.-based EasyJet under a new deal announced yesterday between the travel management company and the airline. The companies initially will launch a pilot program in which BTI connects directly into the EasyJet reservations system for bookings made at United Kingdom points of sale. If successful, the program would roll out to other countries in which EasyJet offers service.
EasyJet said it plans to develop similar connections with other travel management companies and BTI said it would seek opportunities to integrate other low-cost carriers. Yesterday's announcement is the latest of recent developments bringing low-cost carriers on several continents closer to managed corporate travel customers.
"BTI UK first encouraged EasyJet and other low-cost/no-frills carriers to take such an approach over two years ago, highlighting its concerns that their reservation systems, whilst keeping costs down for the carriers themselves, were not appropriate for the corporate client and that their inflexibility and prescriptive booking methods did not sit well within the total travel management process," the travel management company said in a statement.
"We have long argued that EasyJet is ideal for business passengers who value our great fares on high-frequency routes to Europe's major airports, but some companies have been held back by the inability of their systems to talk to ours," said EasyJet director Chris Walton, speaking yesterday at a transportation conference. "The deal with BTI will remove that barrier."
The arrangement enables BTI to display EasyJet inventory alongside all other inventory now available within its system and systems managed by BTI's corporate travel clients. As a result of reducing distribution channel fragmentation, clients can compare and book EasyJet tickets in their preferred environment, integrate billing and management information, and promote travel policy compliance. "Taking this approach ensures that such flights are identified, managed and controlled as part of a comprehensive approach to clients' total travel management programs," said Mike Platt, Managing Director of BTI UK.
EasyJet expects to increase its share of the corporate travel market by diversifying its distribution outlets but has no plans to change its pricing structures or offer special deals to BTI customers. "We are using technology to access a new market segment rather than going down the traditional airline route of employing an army of salespeople and offering a customized service to every different company," Walton said.
This development mirrors new distribution agreements in the United States struck between low-cost carriers and corporate travel distributors. Independence Air, for example, initially avoided global distribution systems in an effort to keep costs down, but since has begun participating in GDSs. AirTran Airways last week went live with a direct connection for users of the Outtask Cliqbook corporate booking system
(BTN, Aug. 16, 2004) and Southwest last year allowed for the first time allowed a third party to interface with its Web site on behalf of travel agencies using GDSs in which Southwest does not participate
(BTN, Oct. 18, 2004).
In other overseas low-cost carrier news, Australia's Virgin Blue this week announced new offerings for the corporate market. Unlike all other Virgin Blue fares, Blue Plus fares are fully refundable--minus a fee--and either can be changed to a different itinerary or switched to another traveler's name without penalty. The product also includes access to airport lounges, priority checkin and preferred seating. Virgin Blue since launching operations a few years ago has battled Qantas for share in Australia's corporate travel market
(BTN, May 10, 2004).