GUEST COLUMN IN BRIEF
• TRAVEL and expense specialist KDS has launched KDS Travel Manager Suite. The technology is designed to deliver in-depth management information to users, and features 14 dashboards and over 100 key performance indicators. Detailed data on supplier spend, rates and volumes is displayed in a 'comprehensive but comprehensible manner', giving travel managers the information they need to negotiate best prices with top suppliers, and identify those who are not pulling their weight. “The solution allows travel managers to quickly highlight areas where they can make the biggest impact and makes it easy to gain an understanding of the likely benefi ts,” says KDS CEO Dean Forbes.
• EGENCIA, the corporate travel arm of Expedia, is set to acquire VIA Travel, the largest travel management company in the Nordics. “Corporate travel is a growing part of Expedia’s overall business,” says Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Expedia Inc. “Together, VIA Travel and Egencia will provide a rich global offering to their corporate customers. We are very excited about welcoming VIA Travel to the Expedia, Inc. family and look forward to driving innovation and providing outstanding service in the corporate travel segment around the globe.”
• BUSINESS Travel Solutions, part of Scotland's Barrhead Travel Group, has agreed a deal with ComBTAS that sees it become the fi rst UK organisation to offer the company's travel technology to customers. ComBTAS' travel management system is already used by the likes of Siemens, the Israeli government and telecoms giant Alvarion, with Business Travel Solutions quoting savings of at least 15 per cent off travel costs for new users. Features include pre-trip reporting, expense management, online booking and management reporting.
• GRAY DAWES Travel has rebranded as Gray Dawes Travel and Expense to refl ect the expansion of the company's service offering. It claims to be the fi rst travel management company in the UK to provide a completely integrated end-to-end facility for booking travel, claiming all expenses and measuring the total trip cost. It has joined the KDS preferred partner programme to sell and implement full end-to-end solutions.
➔ Plane-talking IATA T
FIGURES from IATA, the Inter- national Air Transport Association, show a positive start to the year, with an 8.6 per cent rise in overall passenger demand and a 7.4 per cent increase in capacity. The figures for February revealed
a 7.6 per cent increase in demand within Europe, well ahead of the five per cent increase in capacity, but IATA director general and CEO, Tony Tyler, remains cautious.
“Weak economic conditions
and rising fuel costs are a double- whammy that an industry antici- pating a 0.5 per cent margin can ill-afford. The exact conditions vary from country to country, but around the world we see ill-conceived policy initiatives that over-regulate, excess- ively tax or otherwise restrain the aviation industry. This prevents it from being the catalyst for economic growth that it can be," says Tyler.
GROWTH ON THE CARDS FOR AIRPLUS
CORPORATE card and payments specialist AirPlus has announced high levels of business travel in 2011 and a bright outlook from travel managers for 2012, despite the prospect of increasing costs. “We have never seen a year with
more business travel than in 2011. All of our existing customers increased travel to levels not seen since before the 2008 financial crisis,” said the company’s chairman of the executive board, Patrick Diemer, as he discussed the com- pany’s recent performance and findings of its annual International Travel Management Study. “Our key performance indicator
is the volumes spent on our cards, and this figure reached 10.3 billion euros in 2011,” says Diemer. The figure rose from 8.8 billion euros in 2010, while a further increase to 11.2billion euros is the ‘cautious’ forecast for 2012. The number of business class flights purchased rose six per cent year on year, while the average air fare – based on 15 million transactions – was 543 euros, up from 525 euros in 2010. Its survey of 1,700 travel
managers across 20 countries
revealed that companies are increasing the time and resources spent on managing business travel and that most are preparing themselves for similar or increased travel volumes in 2012. AirPlus’ UK managing director,
Yael Klein, said, “This year only nine per cent of UK travel managers feel they will travel less. They can’t afford not to travel – it’s not healthy for business.” Klein also noted that fewer
companies expect to be able to negotiate corporate deals in the year ahead – indicating a switch to spot buying instead – while mobile technology, surcharges in the travel sector and benchmarking are the hot topics for the coming months. The newly expanded R&D team
at AirPlus is currently working on developing payments by smart- phone using NFC (near field communication) scanning-style technology. It has successfully tested an iPhone prototype and a pilot phase under market conditions is the next step. “It enables you to use your smartphone as a credit card and we believe it’s the future of the industry,” said Diemer.
Paul Robin Event Director, Business Travel Market
his an exciting time for the business travel market. Recent research has shown
business visits were up by 14 per cent at the end of 2011, and expenditure up by 19 per cent. The arrival of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer will further accelerate this trend and the need for managed business travel will be paramount. We’re also delighted to see
business travel outperforming both leisure travel (up five per cent) and travelling to visit friends and relatives (up seven per cent). It's a further endorsement, as if we needed it, that business travel remains a robust market and one genuinely valued by its customers. These good news stories are
timely given that the business travel industry is now entering a key RFP and procurement period. There is an appetite among those
responsible for procuring business travel for our trade and we need to satisfy this demand, creating a positive and lasting legacy as we do so. Momentum and opportunity are there for us. For the Business Travel Market, we take our role as passionate advocates and active participants in the business travel market seriously. We see it as our role to ensure this momentum continues – and the timing could not be better for us. We also know that one swallow
doesn’t make a summer. We know that the Olympics provides a welcome boost to our industry but not necessarily a lasting one. We’ve seen good figures before,
but want sustained growth for our market. This industry needs to continue its recovery and maybe these figures will give us the impetus we need. For everyone here at Business
Travel Market this is a time of great excitement, of genuine optimism and enthusiasm. This is a massive year for our industry, but it could also be a pivotal one where, as an industry, we remind people of our importance to business.
THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE 49
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