After hitting a 14-year high in 2019, passenger commissions paid by U.S. airlines to travel agencies bottomed out in 2020 along with passenger volumes, and stayed low through the first nine months of last year. The pandemic also changed the passenger mix, as mainly domestic leisure passengers made for a lower-value booking environment. Lower-value bookings…
Delta is always first among publicly traded airlines to report quarterly earnings. Its boss, Ed Bastian, typically talks more about the corporate travel market than peers at other airlines. Thursday offered no exception, as he told Wall Street analysts to expect a strong spring and summer. “While the new variant is not done, it appears…
Loyalty programs can work against managed travel goals when individual travelers and their employers don’t have the same preferred travel suppliers. But incentives for leisure time can also help reinforce corporate rules when there is alignment. The following article by Julie Weed highlights recent changes including the de-emphasis of mileage runs. The pandemic made an…
Delta Air Lines said its new dedicated biometric baggage drop at Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International Airport could shave two minutes from the curb-to-plane trek. The technology behind the facial recognition system promises a much bigger wow factor for businesses and travelers in the near future. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated global adoption of touchless interactions at…
Like the rest of the airline, United’s fare filing team shrank as a result of the pandemic. Fortunately for United, it already was looking at an ATPCO service meant to streamline that aspect of the contract management process. Built with Scotland-based tech firm Volaro in 2015, the Express Contracts system removes much of the manual…
While there are plenty of Covid vaccine mandates for indoor places around the country and the world, there are few for hotels. In the United States, they’re limited to a handful of smaller boutique hotels and leisure/resort properties — for now. A few other countries already enacted rules requiring proof of vaccination for lodging guests,…
By Hiroko Tabuchi, a climate reporter based in New York. At first glance, it’s a big step forward in curbing climate change. In a deal announced last week, the Biden administration and the airline industry agreed to an ambitious goal of replacing all jet fuel with sustainable alternatives by 2050, a target meant to drive…
