FEATURE NAME INFORM
WORDS MOLLY DYSON
TRIPACTIONS EYES THE UK MARKET
AMERICAN START-UP TripActions has opened new offices in London and Amsterdam, writes Matthew Parsons. The corporate travel management platform counts several major technology companies as customers, including Survey Monkey, Dropbox and Square, as well as ground transportation company Lyft. Founded in 2015, TripActions has 1,000 customers and has so far raised £60 million in funding.
The London office, located in Hoxton, will be run by Elad Cohen, UK general manager. The company has a global inventory of 1.5 million hotel rooms, as well as flights, cars and trains. Ciara Govern, general manager, EMEA, told BBT the platform had an average 97 per cent traveller adoption rate, and it takes six minutes to book travel on average – “compared to the one to two-hour time window with most booking platforms”. The company also features a model that rewards bookers with Amazon vouchers for choosing cheaper options. Despite its technology-oriented customer base, Govern said: “We support customers across multiple industries – every company, regardless of industry, needs to book travel to
make their in-person meetings.” ATPI acts as TripActions’ fulfilment partner, where the American firm does not have its own resources in place; the TMC inherited this role following its merger with US-based Direct Travel, TripActions’ original fulfilment partner, last year. With its aggressive growth plan, including a further two office openings in the Asia- Pacific region, the question remains whether ATPI will look to leverage its relationship with TripActions and offer the tool to
its own customers in the UK. ■ Booking tools round-up, p88-91
22 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
Disabled passenger app in test phase
A NEW APP IS being tested by four rail operators – West Midlands Railway, London Northwestern Railway, Greater Anglia and South Western Railway. The Passenger Assist app by Transreport tracks disabled passengers throughout their journey so staff know when and where to provide assistance. Under the current system, disabled passengers
book assistance and a print-out of requests is given to station staff. However, if a change to the passenger’s schedule occurs, such as a late-running train, updates do not always get to staff. The app, which will roll out in Autumn 2019, aims
to help rail staff offer assistance by enabling users to update live information on their journeys.
CMA probes airlines’ transatlantic pact
THE COMPETITION AND MARKETS AUTHORITY (CMA) has launched an investigation into the Atlantic Joint Business Agreement between American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia and Finnair.
The agreement sees the airlines share revenue on all passenger routes between Europe and the US. It was reviewed by the European Commission in 2009-10. It decided to allow the pact to continue until 2020 as long as the airlines made take-off and landing slots at Heathrow and Gatwick available to competitors. The CMA will investigate whether the agreement harms competition on transatlantic routes under the rules of the Competition Act 1998 and Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The CMA said it decided to reopen the review in preparation for Brexit, after which the EC may not have authority over UK markets.
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