<B>InsideTrack</B>
<B>Bass Buy Fuels New Acquisition Rumors</B>
When Bass Hotels & Resorts announced it was acquiring Bristol Hotels & Resorts five weeks ago, it set off a round of lodging industry speculation that Bristol was only the first bite of a larger Bass acquisition strategy. Fueling the speculation is the fact that Bass's London-based parent, Bass plc, is planning to divest its large brewing business. Sale of the brewing interests could bring Bass nearly $3 billion, making the already deep pockets of Bass Hotels deeper still. Hotel companies rumored to be among the objects of Bass's affection range from privately held Hyatt Hotels Corp. to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Atlanta-based Bass Hotels & Resorts is already the world's fourth largest hotel company, with more than 2,700 hotels and 450,000 guest rooms.<A NAME="2">
<B>NW, CO Set E-Ticket Cooperation</B>
Despite uncertainties regarding their alliance, Continental and Northwest this week unveiled a timetable for joint initiatives targeted at electronic-ticketed travelers. By June, all self-service kiosks across both carriers' networks--a total of 425 in 57 cities--will allow customers from either to check in and obtain boarding passes. The two airline partners also indicated that electronic ticket interlining--the ability of an e-ticketed passenger to use the other airline in the case of altered travel plans--will come online later this year. Thus far, only Continental and America West, and American and its former partner Canadian have established such interline links in the United States.<A NAME="3">
<B>Northwest Facing Anticompetitive Allegations</B>
Low-fare carrier Spirit Airlines last week filed a suit in a Detroit federal court accusing Northwest of anticompetitive actions. The suit states that Northwest implemented unlawful practices to force Spirit away from certain city pairs also served by Northwest, and to drive Spirit out of Detroit altogether. Allegations include predatory pricing, and blocking access to passenger gates and other facilities at Detroit Wayne County Airport. Northwest denied any unlawful activities. Though many of the complaints stem from incidents as far back as 1996, Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said, "It's been extremely hard to win, and expensive to mount, these suits in the past. But the current environment and political momentum against predation has become the enabler." Northwest also has been accused of adding unnecessary seat capacity between Minneapolis and Atlanta to prevent another low-fare carrier, Air Tran, from entering the market. In response, Northwest said, "Since the March 8, 2000, declaration by Air Tran to the Metropolitan Airports Commission [of Minneapolis], Northwest has made no additions in capacity or frequency to the MSP-Atlanta market." The carrier in February, however, boosted frequency and capacity in the market and said the new schedules were public knowledge well before March 8.<A NAME="4">
<B>Management May Buy Out Hogg Robinson</B>
Britain's Hogg Robinson plc, one of the two dominant players in Business Travel International along with WorldTravel Partners, could be bought out by its management within weeks. The board of Hogg Robinson on March 21 announced "it is in advanced discussions with a management team from Hogg Robinson, which may or may not lead to an offer being made for the entire issued share capital of Hogg Robinson.'' No timetable has been suggested for the buyout. The announcement was made after rumors of the impending management buyout appeared on bulletin boards and sent the share-price spiraling. News of the proposal is no great surprise, though. In spite of increasing profits, the stock market has never been won over by the company and the share price has--until now--remained in the doldrums. Hogg owns 46 percent of BTI's holding company (as does WorldTravel Partners) and owns the national BTI partner in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Nordic countries and several other territories. <A NAME="5">
<B>Navigant Brings Operations Under One Name</B>
Navigant International Inc. has unified its 600 regional travel offices and onsite corporate travel operations under the Navigant International brand, completing a process begun Jan. 1. Each location now will bear the Navigant name in addition to a city or regional tag. "We really understand that we are one company with one mission and one name, and it is important that we communicate that internally and externally," said Paul Shamon, vice president of marketing. "This lets our clients know that they are dealing with a Navigant company." At the same time, Navigant has changed the geographic boundaries of its eight operating regions, and assigned a president to each region.