Well-funded startup Lola last week announced its Lola Works small business platform featuring reporting, team collaboration and policy and spending guidelines with “wiggle room.” The features could have some appeal, but Lola’s bigger challenges remain unresolved. One, how will it find customers? Two, can it compete for said customers without offering the airline that carries the most passengers in… Read More »
Delta’s public support for the International Air Transport Association’s New Distribution Capability is relatively tepid. That doesn’t mean it’s not exploring alternatives to traditional connectivity. In a Tuesday interview, officials discussed their focus on application programming interfaces and a clear desire to assume control over the “offer.” Shifting that control to airlines from global distribution systems may be… Read More »
Executives at American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Delta Air Lines are optimistic. For corporate buyers, many of whom are now in the throes of budgeting for next year, that may mean higher airfares into 2018. Determining which way airfares will move is never easy. On top of the upward and downward pressures that observers routinely watch — supply,… Read More »
After beating the packaging drum for more than a year, Jay Walker’s Upside Travel is now also offering flights and hotels individually. It added Uber as a packaging option and will soon announce new support services. TMC relationships have not advanced, but Walker reiterated during a Thursday interview that they’re part of the plan. Upside publicized the new… Read More »
Sometimes the things we write about peter out. Sometimes more developments happen, but they don’t warrant an entirely new article. In other cases, something unexpected or counterintuitive is noteworthy in its continuance. Hence, the Updates post. Click to jump to United’s carbon emissions pledge to corporate clients, Upside’s launch, proliferating Basic Economy airfares, PayForTrip’s pause, the federal government’s… Read More »
New York — Industry pros always figured Southwest Airlines paid less to global distribution system providers like Sabre than other big airlines. Now they know how much. Southwest’s 2010 per-segment fee to Sabre at U.S. points of sale was $1.35, according to testimony in the US Airways v. Sabre trial here. Segment fees that year were $2.09 for… Read More »
[UPDATE, June 28, 2017: BCD Travel’s Advito slightly raised several of its 2017 airfare projections, owing to strong global demand and improving economic conditions. It also increased to $52 per barrel from $50 its assumption for the price of oil, due to geopolitical tension. “Efforts by airlines to push up prices have so far had only limited success,”… Read More »