AA Sets E-Tix Timetable
American Airlines plans to eliminate paper tickets for all domestic flights by next March and for all other itineraries by the end of 2003. The carrier laid out its plans late last month when it announced a fee increase from $10 to $20 on paper tickets issued by its Web site, reservation centers and airport ticket counters that have an electronic ticket alternative. In a hotline message to employees earlier this month, chairman and CEO Don Carty said, "This is going to help us eliminate the 72 documents that are somehow associated with producing a ticket and help our airport and reservations employees focus less on filling out forms and more on serving our customers." AA also said it will increase deployments of self-service airport kiosks, add functionality to those devices and "implement 100 percent interline e-ticketing with those carriers that can meet the technical standards and eliminate such agreements with carriers that cannot."
Declaring GDS Independence
Attempting to douse the Web-fares fire and reduce dependence on global distribution systems, TRX Inc., for both Rosenbluth International and WorldTravel BTI, and American Express and Sabre's GetThere subsidiary are among the travel management heavyweights beginning to produce new systems to reinvent the travel management technology platform. Designed to recreate the point-of-sale user interface for both agents and travelers, reduce training costs and access non-GDS inventory—including bookings made directly with suppliers—the emerging technologies will be on display at this week's National Business Travel Association convention.
One goal is to house traveler profiles and passenger name records outside of the GDSs, opening up unprecedented personalization in customer service. "We need to be servicing the traveler, not the transaction," said Rosenbluth CIO John Dabek.
NBTA Uses Conference to Advance RFPs and White Papers
The National Business Travel Association's efforts to standardize and streamline cumbersome and expensive request for proposal processes will bear some fruit at its annual convention in Salt Lake City this week. At educational sessions NBTA's aviation committee will present its new RFP, which has a multinational focus; the agency RFP task force will present two RFP prequalification documents; and the ground transportation task force will discuss NBTA's new car rental and chauffeured services RFPs and glossaries. Also, NBTA's data privacy task force will use an educational session to gather information for a white paper to be released this fall. Meanwhile, NBTA's technology committee is holding a session on Web fares and managed travel that will contribute to a white paper it is working on with the aviation committee, also to be released this fall.
KLM Simplifies European Fare Structure
Effective today, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is offering a simplified fare structure to all 66 European destinations from its Amsterdam hub. The carrier said "the more simple and transparent fare conditions" include no more than eight fare types per route, down from 25. Three leisure fare categories—14-day, seven-day and three-day advance purchase—still require either a three-day minimum stay or a Saturday night stay. KLM, the latest of several carriers to dramatically alter pricing (see story, this page), throughout the year also will cut fares up to 40 percent on numerous European routes.
US Airways Gets Conditional Nod On Loan Guarantee
US Airways last week was given preliminary approval of its application for $900 million in federal loan guarantees to back a $1 billion loan, but the Air Transportation Stabilization Board is requiring the carrier to conclude negotiations with all labor unions and provide the federal government with a greater stake in the company than initially offered in order to obtain final approval. CEO David Siegel said the loan "is one of the cornerstones of our restructuring plan and, when closed, upon our satisfying the ATSB's terms and conditions, should provide us with the necessary liquidity and cash resources as we restructure our airline." Should US Airways receive final approval, the loan will help it avoid bankruptcy proceedings, at least in the near term. Thus far, America West is the only carrier to win approval from ATSB. Meanwhile, a new domestic and/or international codeshare agreement, deemed necessary for US Airways' recovery, at press time had not yet been finalized. Continental Airlines recently said it would not enter into such an agreement with US Airways, leaving United Airlines, itself awaiting word from ATSB on its loan guarantee application, the most likely partner.