Lufthansa this month announced plans to impose what amounts to a €4.90 per-way surcharge plus value-added tax on fares booked through global distribution systems in Germany and Austria beginning July 1 and in Switzerland and Liechtenstein beginning Oct. 1. Angering the travel management community in those countries, Lufthansa's action came without industry consultation. The airline said that all of its fares will increase by €15 per way on July 1. However, the existing pre-increase fares will continue to be made available as Preferred Fares, which carry the surcharge if booked through a GDS, but not if they are booked through direct channels. At the same time, Lufthansa will stop publishing Web-only fares. "This decision was made unilaterally by Lufthansa without any prior consultation with Amadeus," Amadeus, the GDS market leader in Germany, said, noting that the surcharge "exceeds Amadeus' average booking fee for Lufthansa flights out of Germany."
IBM Nears Full Traversa DeploymentIBM, the launch customer for Travelport's Traversa booking tool, is expected to complete its rollout in the first half of this year, Travelport GDS president and CEO Gordon Wilson said. "There are some countries around the world where we're still deploying it," Wilson said. "It's deployed in around 20 countries already, and we're doing the biggest ones first." Travelport is actively selling the new tool, Wilson said, but has no immediate plans to sunset its predecessor, Travelport Classic. "It's a big thing to change corporate self-booking tools," he said. "We're not going to force people off one and onto another."
Omni Web Enhancements To Enable Mobile ServiceOmni Hotels this month launched a Web site designed to eventually enable guests to access Omni services through mobile devices. The site, powered by Usablenet Mobile, already enables guests to access hotel information, make reservations and, in what Omni said is an industry first, check in to their room through mobile devices, so that their keys will be waiting for them upon arrival. In the next few months, it further will enhance the capabilities so guests can get information about amenities and make such service requests as housekeeping, valet service, baggage retrieval and room service.
T&T Acquires East Coast TMC, Releases Travel PortalTravel and Transport earlier this month completed the acquisition of Peabody, Mass.-based travel management company Abacus Travel for an undisclosed amount
(BTNonline, Jan. 2), giving the Omaha, Neb.-based super regional TMC its first East Coast brick-and-mortar presence. From its headquarters and three other Massachusetts and New Hampshire offices, Abacus Travel serves more than 450 small corporate accounts representing about $100 million in annual travel volume, Travel and Transport president and CEO Bill Tech said. Travel and Transport this month also announced the launch of a travel management portal, developed with third-party technology development company Guru Alliance. The Web-based single-sign-on travel buyer and traveler portal houses profile management, the online booking tool, traveler-tracking capabilities and travel alerts via FlightStats.com. Six clients recently tested the portal. T&T senior vice president and CIO of information services Mike Kubasik plans to integrate internally developed social networking capabilities into the portal this year.