Radius Gearing Up To Buy Bulk Air, Car Inventory

<B>Radius Gearing Up To Buy Bulk Air, Car Inventory</B>

By Megan Hjermstad

<I>Bethesda, Md. - </I>Radius, formerly Woodside Travel Trust (BTN, Oct. 2), in the fourth quarter will begin buying bulk airline seats on behalf of its clients.

The company in 2001 will expand that inventory to include international air, cruise and rental cars. Radius now is conducting a test in Philadelphia with a car rental firm. President and CEO Ivan Michael Schaeffer said his company is "no longer a consortium, but a travel company for travel companies."

Schaeffer acknowledged that "peak 5 p.m. Friday flights are not going to be our prime market" and noted that Radius studied prior inventory buying initiatives by American Express, Delta Air Lines, ITT Industries and others.

"We still need to put the pieces in place before informing the airlines," added John Melchior, Radius managing director of international operations. He said Radius has spent the past two years developing a database to handle inventory management.

In addition to AirRadius Airline Consolidation and Radius Cruise Desk, the company will offer Radius-Net, an intranet site designed to help Radius shareholders communicate.

Sixty-three percent of shareholders have committed to new, stricter shareholder requirements, with the remainder set to decide by this week. Schaeffer said about 90 percent qualify under the new terms. The new requirements may result in fewer agencies, but Schaeffer said, "The brand is only as good as its weakest link." Each of the 125 shareholder agencies has a $5,000 equity investment in Radius.

Radius, which is deploying common point of sale technology and using TRX and Hi-Mark products, has built a databank to track customers and is soliciting multinational corporate customers.