InsideTrack - 2003-12-08

AWA Readies Direct Connex For Agencies

America West Airlines by February expects to begin beta testing a direct connect reservations system for small and midsize travel agencies. The system likely will include comprehensive traveler profile capabilities, easy assessment of service fees and back-office accounting. AWA vice president of sales Ron Cole said the mega agencies were not involved in development and are not target users because "they are all tied in deeply with global distribution system agreements. There is a lot of incentive money there." He added that GDS discount programs adopted by the Big Six carriers are "inadequate" for AWA's needs and that the base of AWA's Agency Award customers (BTN, July 15, 2002) are likely candidates for the new system. "We certainly will have an incentive in place for using the direct connect product," Cole said. "The incentive is meant to compensate the agent for the GDS booking fee they will forego by coming directly to our site and also for the fact that we are asking them to do something a little different."



Forecasts Predict Rising Air Traffic

WorldTravel BTI last month predicted that global passenger traffic to increase 4 percent and domestic U.S. traffic to increase 5 percent. WT BTI also predicted "a mild overall increase" in domestic fares, except in short-haul markets in which low-cost carriers will pressure fares down by roughly 2 percent. "We remain confident that as technology and financial service sectors recover, business volumes will as well, though lacking the yields associated with 1999/2000," noted J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Jamie Baker. "Evidence of improved corporate travel spending ought to show by February or March." Baker also said industrywide capacity in 2004 would fall shy of 2000 levels by a mere 1.5 percent, "a particularly alarming statistic in our view, given that, at best, we can only stretch aggregate demand to within 15 percent of peak levels. There are too many seats chasing too few dollars."



EC Reports Progress On U.S. Data Debate

The United States has agreed to several concessions requested by the European Commission regarding airline passenger data transfer, according to Frits Bolkestein, an EC member involved in the negotiations. Bolkestein, speaking last week in Brussels, said U.S. officials agreed to limit data storage to 3.5 years, revisit the program at the end of that timeframe, undertake a joint review and allow E.U. data protection authorities to represent E.U. citizens should any grievances surface. He also said the EC is working with airlines to "ensure that passengers are systematically informed about what happens to their reservation data" and that U.S. authorities agreed to lower the required number of data elements to be transferred from passenger name records from 39 to 34. "But many data elements we had worries about are still in the list," he said. Bolkestein said more discussion between the two sides is required before governing bodies can vote on a legal framework.



Rosenbluth Customer Care Co. Sold To Indian Firm

Rosenbluth International last month said its UpStream subsidiary—which provides customer care to Orbitz, Travelocity, United.com and US Airways—was sold to a $1 billion Indian conglomerate called Godrej Group. Godrej is buying UpStream facilities in Fargo, N.D., Chesapeake, Va., and Campbellsville, Ky., to be managed by Godrej's Lawkim Ltd. division, "with plans to expand the company domestically and internationally," according to a statement. UpStream chairman and CEO Hal Rosenbluth will stay on as an advisor. "The current management team will also be retained with expanded roles and responsibilities that include not only the three centers in the U.S. but also a fourth center in Mumbai, India," UpStream said. Lawkim earlier this year began handling e-mail support for Orbitz (BTN, Jan. 20), which last month said it is "routing up to 10 percent of our service calls to a call center in India in order to assess potential savings in our per-transaction customer support and fulfillment costs." An Orbitz spokesperson has said corporate clients would not be handled from India.



UATP Upgrades To Add Merchants

Universal Air Travel Plan next year will upgrade its transaction processing system through a recently signed seven-year agreement with Arinc in hopes of expanding its payment option beyond the 200-plus airlines currently accepting UATP. While the enhancements largely will be unfelt by corporate buyers, they are UATP's latest in an ongoing effort to include travel management companies, rail companies and the low-cost carriers as merchants. The new system "allows merchants to connect to our authorization system via the Web," said Gary Zannotti, vice president of operations and services at UATP, and "will enable us to get more merchants onboard."