<B>InsideTrack</B>
<B>E-Travel Marketplace Cites Meeting Services </B>
StarCite Inc. last week announced a deal to integrate its meeting management applications, including site sourcing and RFP service, into the E-Travel Marketplace, the Internet-based B2B procurement and expense reporting site created in April by the Oracle Corp. subsidiary. StarCite joins Sato Travel and Pegasus Systems as partners in the E-Travel Marketplace, open only to customers of E-Travel. "With StarCite's integration in the E-Travel Marketplace, a corporation will best be able to fulfill its meeting needs within corporate parameters and accurately judge the cost of the service, eliminating much of the financial waste and ambiguity in the corporate travel planning process," said John Ackermann, E-Travel president and CEO.
<B><A NAME="2">Pilots Navigate Labor Course</B>
Canadian Airlines pilots have ratified a new contract, negotiated with its management as well as Air Canada's, that matches the most recent arrangement of their counterparts at Air Canada. However, those Air Canada pilots now are in a cooling-off period after their latest negotiations with carrier management failed to yield a new contract. Either a strike or a lockout is possible on Thursday. A second attempt at a five-year contract was ratified late last month by Northwest's 11,000 flight attendants. The agreement, which was first reached in April, received approval from more than two-thirds of those who cast ballots. Pilots at Trans States Airlines late last month reached a tentative agreement with management just hours before the strike deadline. Though the late-running negotiations did prompt some flight cancellations on Trans World Express, a TWA regional affiliate operating codeshare service via Trans States, the carrier said all flight operations quickly were returned to normal. Frontier Airlines pilots easily ratified their first five-year contract with the carrier. Also, Vanguard Airline's pilots ratified their first contract, a four-year deal reached after just nine months of negotiations. However, pilots at several major airlines remain in negotiations, including at United where the proposed merger with US Airways is expected to upset contract talks.
<B><A NAME="3">IATA E-Ticketing Ready For Launch</B>
An electronic ticketing service developed by IBM for IATA was set to debut late last week. The system, dubbed GlobaleT, will provide participating airlines the functionality to issue e-tickets and interline them with all other participating airlines. Most major carriers with more mature e-ticketing systems have shown little interest, opting instead to develop bilateral e-ticket interlining links. However, many smaller carriers stand to benefit from a more cost-effective way of bring e-ticket functionality to their travelers.
<B><A NAME="4">Airlines Lining Up For Mega Jumbo Jet</B>
Air France, Emirates and Singapore airlines are the first three carriers to commit to Airbus' new A3XX, a super jumbo jet now on the drawing board. The plane, which initially will be designed to carry 555 passengers more than 7,600 miles, won't enter scheduled service until at least 2005 and needs at least six client airlines to warrant full production. Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Malaysia Airline Systems and Virgin Atlantic also are said to be considering the plane. For its part, Boeing has said it will not develop a competing aircraft, but is mulling a stretched version of the 747-400. No U.S. carriers have announced plans to purchase either the larger 747 or the A3XX.
<B><A NAME="5">Amadeus Partners To Personalize Web Res</B>
Amadeus and personalized e-business application provider BroadVision this summer will enable travel professionals to apply personalized client profile criteria to Web-based reservation products and, later, wireless devices. The companies, which also agreed in principle to a limited equity cross participation, said the new technology will make way for "true one-to-one travel offers.