Delta, Allies Ease Group Travel

<B> Delta, Allies Ease Group Travel</B>

By Chris Davis

Delta Airlines and alliance partners Austrian Airlines, Sabena Airlines and Swissair have launched a meetings and incentive program to streamline arranging group travel to four continents.

Officials touted the new program as a way for meeting and incentive customers to make all flight arrangements to any destination with one phone call to any of the four airlines, which have established standard policies, procedures, fare programs and contract formats.

"Back in the fall of 1997, we put together a blended program for the Atlantic Excellence flights for the incentive house community," said Bob McNally, Delta systems manager of meeting, incentive and group sales. "Delta flights fed into the different departure cities and connected to Austrian Sabena and Swissair flights.

"Now, we're rolling this program into the whole grouping. Not just incentive houses but all meeting professionals will be able to make use of consistent programming, so a phone call to any of the four airlines will allow programs to be established and special meeting fares to be put into place for the purpose of moving people. We feel it's a big convenience we're affording the travel industry."

News of the alliance comes on the heels of the impending launch of Delta Meetings Network Europe--a more streamlined international meetings and incentives network than the airline's previous group department (<I>Meetings Today,</I> June 22).

The new program does not involve every destination the four carriers serve, but will cover the "major meeting and incentive destinations in Europe, the Middle East and at some point into Africa," said Earl McClendon, manager of meetings programs for the Delta Meeting Network.

The new alliance will not utilize zone fares, one of the hotter trends in the airline meetings industry. While the international use of zone fares continues to expand--Continental Airlines, for example, plans to fully implement zone fares on new routes to Ireland and Scotland this month--the Delta alliance will provide special meetings fares.

Restrictions for the meeting fares include a minimum group of 10 people and a minimum two-night stay.

Delta officials said there are simply too many international destinations to consolidate into a zone fare program.

"Zone fares are strictly domestic at this point," McNally said. "Fares that will be negotiated with this program will be special meeting fares put in place depending on how many passengers are traveling, what time of the year--is it high season or peak season, who are they working with, that sort of thing. So it really depends on our ability to negotiate and work with the business. That's good business sense."

Meanwhile, one of the Delta alliance's competitors, Northwest Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, is working on a joint zone-fare program that would integrate the two carriers' meetings and incentives services (<I>Meetings Today,</I> May 18).

Delta, however, insisted that its alliance is different. "This differs from a lot of international programs in the past," McClendon said. "This particular program is very different from some of the other alliances going on in the marketplace today, because it is a blending of all four partners' product and one call to any of the four partners can result in negotiating for a meeting or incentive program with all four partners. A lot of the other alliances in place today are more in line with blending of frequent-flyer mileage and things like that. So this a rather unique program."

Officials with other airlines said Delta's program is an illustration of the need for further services in a fast-growing international meetings industry.

"I think it's great," said United Airlines national association sales manager JoAnn Bedrosian Ryan. "It's what the marketplace is crying for and we are all working with our partners to get there. All the carriers are concentrating on international markets because the international meetings market is really booming, so what Delta's doing is really great."

Bedrosian Ryan said United is working on a similar international meetings program with its alliance partners, including Air Canada and SAS, but declined to give any details or a timetable.

"We're trying to create an easy-to-use, seamless meeting product--much like the one that's used domestically--instead of varying discounts per city, which is a little more time intensive."

Northwest is readying its own international meetings program with KLM, with one concrete difference: Northwest and KLM will offer zone fares throughout their intercontinental routes.

"The buyer really needs to approach the carrier they want to work with and say, 'Do you have these zone fares?' or 'Here's what my business looks like, do you have something that might work better?' " said Maureen Pickell, Northwest Airlines Eastern Region manager of meetings and incentive sales.

"I tend to think that zone fares are the easy way to get the job done and I think most buyers are slowly but surely getting that thought themselves," she said. "Their perception is this is going to be their best deal for planning and trying to come in under budget. As soon as you go to zone pricing versus discount-off pricing, you can lock in your budgets much more realistically. As buyers become more educated and use these programs more, I think they'll get more and more benefits out of them."

The Northwest/KLM international zone fare program should be available this month, Pickell said.

Delta officials hope the new program will be another step, along with the planned Aug. 1 establishment of the Delta Meetings Network Europe in the United Kingdom and France (<I>Meetings Today,</I> June 22), in remedying the airline's less-than-stellar European reputation.

"This gives us the global reach that all airlines are seeking and the global ability to move people to the new meetings and incentive destinations throughout the world," McNally said. "As the world continues to get smaller, we'll be positioned to move people. As the economy continues to grow, both locally and internationally, we feel we'll be positioned to take advantage of it."

Added McClendon: "All four carriers have always been very much involved in the incentive market segment, and this enhances the product that we're all able to offer to customers. We think the incentive market across the Atlantic is going to grow, and this certainly puts us in a very good position."

McClendon said Delta could announce further European programs by the end of the year.

"I think you'll see some things coming out of Europe, certainly working with our alliance partners in travel,'' McClendon said. "There may be some special programs from Europe to encourage an increase in meeting and incentive travel service out of Europe."

Continental began roundtrip service from Newark to Dublin and Shannon, Ireland on June 15 and planned to inaugurate a Newark to Glasgow, Scotland route on July 15, said Brenda Davis, Continental manager of groups and incentive sales development.

The airline's zone fare program had previously planned to cover all three destinations by this month.

"Our primary goal is to have zone fares to every Continental destination and we're pretty much up to speed on that," Davis said. "As we bring new markets online, we'll be bringing zone fares to the table as well."

The popularity of zone fares doesn't show any signs of waning, she said. "They're really gaining in popularity with meeting planners and incentive houses. They're so easy to budget because you know up front what your cost is going to be, you don't have to worry about fluctuations in the marketplace and they don't require Saturday night stays, so they're great for midweek meetings.