After years of operating under a month-to-month interim agreement, Amadeus in July reached a long-term full-content agreement with American Airlines. Amadeus said the agreement is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008. An Amadeus spokesperson said its agency subscribers were "already getting access without surcharges under our interim agreement with AA." The negotiations with American stem back to 2006, when major global distribution players and U.S. legacy carriers restructured content agreements. The Amadeus-AA deal was the last outstanding agreement between a major GDS and a legacy carrier.
TSA Continues To Expand Self-Select LanesThe U.S. Transportation Security Administration in late August added the 36th airport to its rapidly expanding Self Select program, which lets travelers select security lanes geared to their comfort with checkpoint screening processes. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport joined the program on Aug. 28. TSA in February introduced the lanes at Salt Lake City International Airport and Denver International Airport, with three separate checkpoint options for travelers requiring special assistance or families, casual travelers and expert travelers. "Since initial rollout, these self-select lanes have already increased throughput and helped thousands of passengers as they pass through the checkpoint," Verdi White, TSA's Phoenix federal security director said in a statement. TSA in August said it would continue to expand the program to other airports across the country.
Accor Quashes Takeover Talk, Braces For SlowdownParis-based Accor, parent to brands that include Motel 6, Sofitel, Novotel and Ibis, has reached an agreement with a concert group—investment group Eurazeo and U.S. property company Colony Capital, part of the team that acquired Fairmont Hotels & Resorts—that has raised ownership stakes in the company, prompting concern of a takeover
(BTNonline, May 12). In a statement released in late August, the Accor board of directors noted that "the concert group has expressed its full support for Accor's expansion strategy, which is based on two core businesses, Hotels and Services, and has no intention of seeking either de jure or de facto control of the company." In turn, Accor is giving the group, which now owns 21.6 percent of Accor, an extra seat on the board of directors, to be approved at the next shareholders meeting. Accor also announced that it is cutting marketing spending, particularly in face of the deepening U.S. economic slowdown.
Report: Credit Problems Congest U.S. Hotel PipelineThough the U.S. hotel development pipeline continues to show year-over-year growth, credit woes continue to slow the transition of projects from conceptual to reality, according to a recent report by Smith Travel Research, Torto Wheaton Research and Dodge Construction. "We have seen a bubble of projects forming in the final planning stage over the course of the year," STR vice president Duane Vinson said in a statement. "It is still unclear if those projects will be built or if they will be abandoned." As of the end of July, the pipeline stood at 5,943 hotels, or 660,928 rooms, which is up 18.1 percent from 2007. However, that also is a 0.5 percent decrease of rooms compared with June. "It now seems clear the industry will avoid the huge supply surge that accompanied the last two building cycles," according to STR president Mark Lomanno.