AA To Downsize St. Louis Hub Operations
American Airlines on Nov. 1 will cut in half the number of departures at its St. Louis hub. Despite the significant reduction, down to 207 daily flights and 26 fewer nonstop destinations, St. Louis will remain the fourth-largest operation in the carrier's network, with continued nonstop service in 68 markets. "We are not abandoning St. Louis. We just are trying to carve it down to a smaller hub," said AMR Corp. chief Gerard Arpey, adding that 70 percent of local passengers fly on nonstop routes that will be maintained after Nov. 1. Year-to-date through May, AA controlled 76.3 percent of the St. Louis market, according to Lambert-St. Louis airport officials. Traffic sacrificed by AA likely will be distributed among other competitors, including Southwest Airlines, which through May held 12.1 percent of the market and already has stated interest in boosting services, and Continental, Delta, Northwest, United and US Airways, each with 1 percent to 2 percent marketshare. Frontier Airlines also said it will reintroduce flights to Denver, effective Nov. 1.
Visa Adds Choice To E-Folio Clients
Visa International this week will announce that it is adding Choice Hotels International to its expanding list of hospitality companies that can transmit line item or electronic hotel folio data to Visa corporate customers. By adding the partnership to existing relationships with Hilton and Prime Hospitality, Visa now "can provide and will provide data from over 5,000 hotel properties," said David Costa, vice president of business solutions for e-Visa, Visa U.S.A.'s e-commerce division. Costa said the folio data could be accepted by a variety of corporate financial systems, "whether it be an expense system, an ERP or an AP system." Visa said it specifically has been working with expense providers Concur Technologies and Extensity to ensure data transfers. The card network made a similar announcement in February with Hilton but has yet to announce corporate customers that actually are receiving data. Costa said Visa is "piloting with our top members who are involved in delivering the data to end-users" and soon will announce companies that are accepting e-folio data via Visa.
US Airways Shuttle To Add First Class
US Airways on Oct. 6 will introduce first class seating on shuttle flights from New York LaGuardia to Boston Logan and Reagan Washington National. The Airbus A319s on the routes will convert from a 124-seat, single-class configuration to 108 coach seats and 12 in the new first class. The transition is expected to be completed by Oct. 26. For its part, American Airlines' Northeast shuttle service is "doing fantastic," AMR Corp. CEO Gerard Arpey said. "I would not anticipate doing anything but adding service in any of those markets." Both AA and longtime Northeast shuttle operator Delta Air Lines do not offer first class cabins on shuttle flights. Rail carrier Amtrak, however, provides a premium class on Acela Express trains.
Amex Reveals 'Real Facts' On Online
Just below one-quarter of all American Express transactions in the United States are processed interactively, said Global Travel Services president Charles Petruccelli. "We are very pleased with the way our online interactive travel is performing, and we now can talk with some real facts," he said. "Twenty-three percent to 25 percent of the U.S. business is on interactive, which is more than 2 million transactions a year. We've been able to achieve best-in-class economies there by reducing the costs of transaction processing and have provided that savings to customers. We're also pleased with the margins. They are much more stable."