Morogiello Pilots AA's Corporate Sales

<H1>Morogiello Pilots AA's Corporate Sales</H1><I>Fort Worth, Texas</I> - After bouncing from American Airlines to IVI Travel and BTI Americas and then back to American again last April, Frank Morogiello is now the airline's top man in corporate accounts.

Morogiello is taking over the sales duties of Jim Marsicano, who was named vice president and general manager for AMR's Sabre Interactive Group after nearly six years as AA's managing director for corporate sales, city ticket offices, Aairpass and other functions. Morogiello's new title is managing director of commercial sales, and with it comes the additional duties of managing national accounts and the sales effort for Corporate AAccess-Powered by Sabre. His previous duties of directing field corporate programs and special sales remain under his belt, and he also will run the First Call department.

After a more than four-year hiatus from American working at IVI Travel and BTI Americas-following his initial 12 years at American-Morogiello said that returning last year to AA was "like coming home."

At that time, Marsicano, Morogiello and senior vice president of passenger sales Jack Williams began planning for the consolidation of commercial sales into one department. That includes the creation of a Corporate AAccess sales staff and the funneling of all these responsibilities to Morogiello, but his boss has full confidence in his ability to handle the full plate.

"His broad background in sales within the travel industry and his established relationships with many of the corporate accounts in our national sales program make him ideally suited for his new role," said Williams.

Morogiello, for his part, sees the move as underscoring the growing importance of the commercial market. "In 1988, I was the first guy doing commercial sales," he said. "Now I'll be managing a staff of over 300, with 50 managers."

He said the promotion also reflect the continued trend toward airlines dealing directly with corporations. "Corporations are now saying that they want to deal with us," he said. "We now have a lot of revenue under corporate contract."

What do the personnel changes mean for American's corporate accounts? "We hope there isn't too much of a change," Morogiello said. "I know all these customers anyway, and the only real change is who's at the helm.