<B>Meetings Beat</B>
<B>Delta Express Joins Meeting Network</B>
Delta Air Lines last month increased the number of routes in its Delta Meeting Network by expanding the standard discounts to flights operated by subsidiary Delta Express. Under the terms of the program, meeting attendees are entitled to a 5 percent to 10 percent discount off published fares and an additional 5 percent off if the flight is booked at least 60 days in advance. "Offering these customers discounts on Delta Express opens the door to more flexible schedules and streamlined ticketing processes," said Bob McNally, general manager of meeting, association and incentive sales.
<B><A NAME="2">Maritz Buys German Meeting Firm</B>
Maritz Travel Co. of St. Louis this month purchased a majority interest in German meetings management company FCI GmbH of Hamburg. Maritz owns 75 percent of the company, christened Maritz GmbH, with the remaining 25 percent held by FCI GmbH's parent company, TUI Business Travel Deutschland GmbH. "Germany is a major market for us, and this complements existing operations in the U.S., Mexico, Canada, the U.K., France, Italy and Spain," said Maritz Travel Co. president and CEO Jeff Reinberg. "We have been successful in carrying out a strategy to achieve two global travel networks: one targeted at meetings, events and incentive travel, and one targeted at business travel." Maritz GmbH represents more than $100 million in revenues.
<B><A NAME="3">O'Neill Named Newmarket CEO</B>
Portsmouth, N.H.-based Newmarket International, creator of Meetingbroker.com, which allows online requests for proposals to be automatically received and analyzed by properties' management systems, has named hospitality industry veteran Sean O'Neill CEO. O'Neill, formerly COO of leisure travel agency Grand Circle Corp. and CIO of ITT Sheraton, replaces Steve Giblin, who will remain on Newmarket's board of directors. "We recruited Sean to Newmarket because of his unique combination of hotel industry experience and strong technical background," Giblin said. During his tenure at Sheraton, O'Neill was responsible for all global and distributed systems and drove strategic information planning for the entire Sheraton system development, implementation and support services, Giblin said. "The industry landscape is undergoing major changes in technology innovation and implementation," O'Neill said. "The decision on which providers serve the industry has never been more contested or critical.