BUSINESS TRAVEL SHOW BY THE BBT EDITORIAL TEAM
Buyers should introduce a new question in the RFP process asking what the airline’s hedging position is
DiLeo said that a lot of benefits from working in business travel had disappeared in the last few years. “People are not coming into the industry
as fast as they are retiring, and that worries me,” said DiLeo during a conference session at the BT Show. “Travel benefits have mostly gone now and the industry is not as much fun as it used to be. I don’t see that appeal for attracting people out of university.” DiLeo, who is currently chief commercial officer for travel management company (TMC) Altour International, said that the hotel industry was the best travel sector for attracting young staff. “The hotel industry is best at giving
tions with carriers. The subject has become more important following the collapse in oil prices in recent months, explained Caroline Strachan, vice-president of Ameri- can Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT), during a session at the show. Strachan said that knowing an airline’s hedging position on buying fuel could help to secure a better deal for buyers through increased knowledge about the carrier’s financial position. “Buyers should introduce a new question in the RFP process asking what the airline’s hedging position is,” she said. “It will help buyers if they understand the hedging position before they get to the table. It’s also good to be knowledgeable about what the most profitable routes are for airlines.” Strachan added that the drop in oil prices did not necessarily mean that airfares would fall in the next few months because of increased demand from both business travellers and consumers.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM “We have tracked oil prices with airfares
over the last ten years, but that can be mis- leading because fares are driven by demand and supply. If demand is there, then the prices will stay high,” she said. “From an airline perspective, fuel sur-
charges may go away but prices are not going to come down. Surcharges will be replaced by higher prices.” Amex GBT is predicting that demand for short-haul business class flights is likely to fall this year, which could reduce prices for these fares. However, the cost of long-haul, particularly across the Atlantic, is forecast to increase.
LACK OF ‘FUN’ PUTTING OFF NEW RECRUITS Travel buyers were warned that a loss of travel benefits may be discouraging the so-called Millennials (aka Generation Y) from joining the business travel industry. Former Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) executive director Ron
young people a clear and prescribed path to move up to general manager,” he said. “They are all looking to earn six-figure
sums when they come out of university. But at the least the hotel industry has a prescribed path that shows how long it takes to move up.”
HRG INTRODUCES ‘FRAEDOM’ FOR UNMANAGED TRAVEL SECTOR Travel management firm HRG used the show to launch a new service aimed at the unmanaged and individual travel sector. Fraedom, which is an integrated tech- nology and software-as-a-service (SAAS) business, will operate independently within HRG. The TMC said Fraedom is “focused on offering simple and inexpensive software- based solutions.” HRG’s CEO David Radcliffe said that
having learned from its experience in non- travel sectors, HRG could see a gap in the unmanaged travel market. “SAAS technology offered by Fraedom already operates across a wide variety of
BBT MARCH/APRIL 2015 81
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