Due to the pandemic, global airline capacity fell by 58 percent last year compared with 2019, according to IATA. In the first week of this year, the number of scheduled flights worldwide was down 44 percent. Steep declines in airline capacity exacerbated an old industry problem: the inability of passengers to reach destinations aboard their originating airline’s aircraft. With demand…
[UPDATE, Mar. 29, 2021: Pana was acquired by Coupa.] At a time when corporate employees, much less non-employees, are not really traveling, guest travel specialist Pana last month announced it raised $3.6 million to support its “next” product. Appearing on The Company Dime’s Teleconference last week, Pana CEO and co-founder Devon Tivona said the new direction had something to do…
One goal of the United Airlines distribution strategy is to move corporate clients away from price as a differentiator. It’s still in the early days of that, but recent tests with SAP Concur Travel and other channels promise an environment where product and service benefits play an equal or bigger role than discounts in client negotiations. United’s pick for a…
Last year, business travel professionals talked a lot about the fees that travel management companies charge their corporate clients — some saying they needed to evolve. The discussion continued into 2021, including via a new report from The BTA in the United Kingdom. Like many of last year’s conversations, the report didn’t say a lot about supplier payments. In a…
At the end of 2020, Sabre and Southwest Airlines announced they had come to terms on a “full participation” agreement. Some might not be clear on how that differs from the notion of “full content,” a pillar of airline-global distribution system agreements for going on 18 years that could be on the outs. Before jurisdictions including the United States and…
American Express Global Business Travel on Monday said it enabled customers to buy carbon offsets on “preferred terms” from two nonprofits, Carbonfund.org Foundation and Carbon Footprint. The program offers a variety of “verified and validated” offset activities customers can choose to support. “Clients will receive a donation e-receipt for their payment amounts, as well as a customized e-certificate showing the…
An agreement announced this week between Lufthansa Group and Sabre, parties with a contentious and litigious shared history, implied a mutually beneficial path forward for airlines and global distribution systems. However, there are many unknowns, and not everyone will be a winner. If Lufthansa and Sabre can agree on GDS distribution of ancillary services and customized product bundles compliant with…
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