American Express Global Business Travel on Friday announced that it would offer 15 percent of its shares to the public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Apollo Strategic Growth Capital. Expected to close during the first half of next year, the deal values Amex GBT at roughly $5 billion, would generate up to $1.2 billion in proceeds and features investors including Sabre and Zoom.
People share a lot of personal information through digital channels, and the entities they interact with access more of it than they need. Individuals have little control over the transmission of their data and who gets what. The concept of a decentralized, self-sovereign identity fixes that while addressing cybersecurity and streamlining processes.
For the hundreds of passengers traveling from South Africa to Amsterdam on Friday, flight KL592 had all the trappings of international travel in the Covid era. They came armed with paperwork proving their eligibility to fly, and check-in agents sifted through a bewildering assortment of requirements determined by final destination. Some countries, like the United States, required vaccinated travelers to show negative test results. Others didn’t. On the long flight, only some wore masks, passengers said, as flight attendants often let the slipping masks slide.
At its annual convention this month in Orlando, the Global Business Travel Association delivered on a promise to make sustainability a primary focus. It announced new initiatives for buyer and supplier members while speakers used the soapbox to implore the industry to leverage its enormous spending power to kickstart sustainable aviation fuel funding.
With the emergence of the new omicron variant of the coronavirus late last week, countries across the globe rushed to close their borders to travelers from southern Africa, even in the absence of scientific information about whether such measures were necessary or likely to be effective in stopping the virus’ spread.
No one in corporate travel dodged the pandemic’s brutal treatment of employment. It’s not the only enemy. This package, including reporting by ProPublica, finds that job and recruitment scammers are targeting travel and offers tips for self-defense. [Image: Laila Milevski/ProPublica with illustration elements from Cath Virginia, special to ProPublica.]
With uncharacteristic bluntness, two key providers in corporate travel this month separately identified inhibitors to progress. A Delta distribution exec urged buyers to pressure SAP Concur to get its act together. Sabre leaders criticized widely used corporate airfare policies as archaic. And it’s not just them; perhaps the pandemic is a boon for plain speaking.
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