The Show Might Go On
The Association of Corporate Travel Executives, as of press time Thursday, was planning to hold its global conference in Munich at the end of October, largely due to a boost in interest by European members. According to board members, the decision to proceed despite dwindling conference sponsorships was to be finalized on Friday. "We have a huge ground swell of support from the European corporate members who asked us to please hold the conference," said ACTE executive director Nancy Holtzman. "We will modify the program, not to make it smaller, to deal with the current critical issues caused by the tragedy." ACTE did, however, postpone its Minneapolis Executive Forum, originally scheduled for last week, to Nov. 13. The National Business Travel Association, at the request of the Wharton School, has delayed its Sept. 16 to 21 Global Leadership Program in Philadelphia. A new date has not yet been set. Other NBTA events will commence as planned. The Business Travel News-sponsored Travel Technology World conference, originally planned for last week, was canceled.
DCA too close for Comfort?
Though officials at press time continued publicly to state intentions to open Reagan Washington National Airport as soon as possible, rumblings throughout the industry suggest it will forever be closed to all commercial operations. At least one carrier that had operated flights at DCA said it does not expect the facility to reopen. However, US Airways, the airport's largest operator, said it is "anxious to resume operations at Reagan National under significantly heightened security measures." DCA serves as the southern base of operations for both Delta Air Lines' and US Airways' shuttle operations.
gdss relax contractual terms
Galileo International and Sabre last week said they would not hold corporate and travel agency subscribers to the terms of their productivity agreements for the month of September, due to the shortfall in bookings caused by the terrorist attacks. In a written statement, Sabre said it "will be communicating with each of its customers in the coming weeks to evaluate options that best suit each customer's situation." Reached just before press time, Worldspan was unable to immediately comment.
european airline industry reeling
Facing a worldwide traffic decline, notably on lucrative transatlantic routes, virtually all major European carriers joined their U.S. counterparts in cutting schedules, announcing early aircraft retirements and warning of severe revenue deterioration. Among those announcing such measures were Aer Lingus, Air France, British Airways, KLM Royal Dutch, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic. Airline executives, officials from the Association of European Airlines and European Union Transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio were to meet late last week to evaluate the state of the industry and possible relief strategies.
Amex Returns To Work
American Express has resumed full operations following the attack on the World Trade Center. The company headquarters building at 200 Vesey Street in the World Financial Center suffered external damage in the attack but is believed to be structurally sound, according to preliminary findings by engineers. It is not known when employees will return to that building. Other American Express offices in the 7 World Trade Center building were destroyed when that building collapsed. Amex has nearly 5,000 employees working in lower Manhattan in several buildings, including 40 Wall Street, where most of corporate travel operations are located. Some employees will remain in lower Manhattan, others will be moved to other offices in Manhattan, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Sadly, an American Express onsite at Marsh & McClennan's World Trade Center office employed 11 people who are among the missing.
Condolences And Thanks
Though we know they are inconsolable, we would like to express our deepest sympathies to people who lost loved ones, friends and associates in the appalling attacks on America.
We at Business Travel News would like to thank all those industry colleagues who attempted to contact our New York office the week of Sept. 10 to be sure we were okay. Physically, if not emotionally, we were.
While our reporters ripped up and rewrote several stories for what would have been a Sept. 17 issue, this issue does contain some material that had been prepared before the events of Sept. 11 altered everyone's perspective.