Hans-Ingo Biehl
GBTA Europe recently announced the formation of an advocacy group to engage the European Commission on behalf of travel buyers. The inaugural chairman of the group is Hans-Ingo Biehl, executive director of VDR, the Global Business Travel Association's German partner. Biehl talked to The Transnationalcontributor Amon Cohen about the issues for which the organization is looking for regulatory intervention, and why he believes a pan-European voice will give travel managers much more clout in Brussels.
Why has GBTA Europe formed an advocacy group?
This is one of the main reasons VDR decided to join GBTA Europe. It is very important not to act as a single country but with a pan-European voice when talking to the European Commission. Together, GBTA Europe brings €100 billion of spend to the table when we have those discussions.
The statement announcing the formation of the GBTA Europe advocacy group said you have prioritized data privacy, competition, airline contracting and ancillary fees. What do you want the European Commission to do about each of these concerns?
Data privacy is all about data flows and who owns the data. We are seeking clear guidance from the Commission about rights and transparency on this issue. At the moment it's not clear to anyone. Regarding competition, we question the ethics and legality of having airline alliance contracts but not the option to have individual contracts with alliance members. In some cases, if you don't sign the alliance deal, you don't get the corporate fares. Then there is the question of fuel surcharges. This one has come from the Institute of Travel & Meetings [another GBTA Europe member organization]. It believes they should be part of the fare and therefore subject to contract negotiations. We want to get some clarity on whether it is OK legally to make a separate surcharge for fuel. If a ticket is canceled, sometimes you get a refund on the fuel surcharge and sometimes you don't.
What about the hot topic of ancillary fees?
It's nice to have options for what you want and what you don't want, but at the moment what consumers are paying is not transparent. We are looking for ancillary fees to be filed in a manner consistent with the filing of the fare itself.
Do you agree that up until now the travel buyer's voice has not been heard sufficiently within the European Commission?
Yes, I do agree. VDR had contacts in Brussels over issues such as Lufthansa not putting its fares in every global distribution system, but the Commission said to us that it was no good having just one country coming and talking to them. We hope GBTA will be listened to. In the past, the supplier side has been very successful at lobbying its ideas. The European Commission definitely wants to hear the voice of the consumer, too.
Can you give any examples where the supplier side was heard but the buyer side was not?
I wish the consumer side of the argument had been heard more intensively during the review of the CRS Code of Conduct. There are a lot of distribution issues going on at the moment and we have some strong views on transparency in travel distribution. We would like the Commission to look at the Code of Conduct again to see if it is still adequate for today's distribution model. The article originally was published in Business Travel News.