<B> Inside Track</B>
<B>Airlines Make Passenger Commitments</B>
Flanked by members of Congress, airline industry representatives last Thursday unveiled their voluntary bill of rights for passengers, known as Customers First, which includes pledges to accurately inform travelers of flight delays and cancellations, and provide "lowest possible fare" information via airline telephone reservation systems. Terms of the agreement, issued by the Air Transport Association on Capitol Hill, provide that carriers will develop individual customer service plans that will quote the lowest available fare for the flight and class of service requested; notify customers of known delays, cancellations and diversions; assign a customer service representative to handle passenger complaints and ensure that all written complaints are responded to within 60 days; make every reasonable effort to provide food, water, restroom facilities and access to medical treatment for passengers during long on-aircraft delays; and disclose cancellation policies resulting from the failure to use each flight coupon, rules and restrictions on frequent flyer programs and, on request, information on airline seat size and pitch. ATA airlines will petition the U.S. Department of Transportation within 30 days to increase the baggage liability limit of $1,250 per bag.
<a name="2"><B>BA Joins Galileo Ownership Exodus</B>
Airline ownership of Galileo International is dwindling even further, to just 23 percent, as the company announced plans to purchase all 7 million shares of a British Airways subsidiary for $307.7 million. At the same time, Galileo's board announced plans to purchase up to $750 million worth of its own stock, up from the $500 million that had been approved in April. The news comes just two weeks after Galileo completed a secondary offering of more than 35 million shares, 31.2 percent of the company, at $45 a share or $1.4 billion on behalf of five airline owners, Alitalia, KLM, TAP Air Portugal, United and US Airways. United halved its stake in the GDS to 15.2 percent, although it remains the dominant airline owner, while the others sold all their shares. Alitalia sold its 1.5 percent stake, KLM sold 10.2 percent, US Airways, 6.7 percent, and TAP, less than 1 percent. The sale price was less than some airlines expected. When United announced plans to sell half of its ownership (<I>BTN,</I> May 3), the stock had closed at $52.56 per share, 15 percent more than the $45 per share sale price in the offering.
<a name="3"><B>ARC Approves New Kinds Of Locations</B>
At its semi-annual meeting at the Airlines Reporting Corp.'s Arlington, Va.-based headquarters June 10, the board of directors approved the creation of two new location types: a Ticket Fulfillment site that will be used solely for issuing paper tickets, and an Electronic Office, which is devoted entirely to electronic transactions including e-ticketing opportunites with no flight coupons, and the utilization of Interactive Agent Reporting. ARC said the Electronic Office is "the first location type that is freed from any and all requirements and obligations involved in safeguarding and accounting from ARC stock." The Ticket Fulfillment location "permits the travel agent to focus on a more electronically oriented core business from their principal retail location, which, under today's increasingly paperless environment, may no longer be ideally suited to high volume paper transaction handling."
<a name="4"><B>Air France Decision Could Split Delta Alliance</B>
Swissair and Delta Air Lines may break up their Atlantic Excellence partnership if Air France chooses Delta over Continental Airlines as its U.S. ally, a decision the French carrier is expected to make this week. The transatlantic alliance also includes Austrian Airlines and Sabena. US Airways, a domestic frequent flyer partner of Oneworld founder American Airlines, in December began an unannounced frequent flyer deal with Swissair. In addition, Swissair has limited partnerships with Oneworld members Cathay Pacific, Finnair and Qantas, potential member Japan Airlines and AA partners TAP Air Portugal and South African Airways.
<a name="5"><B>Equitair Signs More Buyers, Shortens Contracts</B>
The start-up London-New York shared utilization jet company Equitair (<I>BTN,</I> June 7) has addressed buyer concern over its long-term contracts by reducing the term from five to three years. In addition, the company signed up First Travel Management International and its North American affiliate Hickory Travel Systems as both a buyer of inventory and a reseller of unused inventory. First also will help Equitair market and sell inventory positions to companies based in the United Kingdom.
<a name="6"><B>American Buys Customer Management Tech</B>
American Airlines last week signed a multimillion dollar contract with Rockwell Electronic Commerce to provide call center and customer relationship management technology to 5,000 agents in eight U.S. reservation centers.