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Article Excerpt
Dallas -- "The whole economy kind of sucks right now," Continental Airlines CEO Gordon Bethune told the National Business Travel Association's annual convention this month, which organizers said drew a record number of attendees, above 4,800. "We need you to have a meeting like this every week."
Bethune appeared with Richard Anderson, his alliance counterpart and CEO of Northwest Airlines. The two responded to several issues raised by delegates, including data aggregation with Prism Group (see story, page 12). "Prism has been controversial with some firms, but it is hard to do a share-based contract if you do not have the denominator," Anderson said. Both were stumped when asked about reverse auctions, a trend that has not penetrated the airline industry.
The pair took the opportunity to push time Continental-Northwest alliance, insisting customers are treated the same regardless of the operating carrier and that corporate clients have a single bid process, single point of contact and huge network available to them.
"JetBlue is not going to take you to Brainerd, Minn., or Beaumont, Texas," Anderson said. Bethune added that he sees no losers as a result of the partnership, "except those guys in Chicago and maybe those guys in this town."
The pair moved to reassure attendees in a few other areas, including an improved value proposition for price-conscious business travelers. "We are exploring how we can deliver value for the people in the back who didn't buy the cheapest fare," Bethune explained. "We're coming out with product ideas, tailored for those who paid a little more. We need to treat them with dignity. We do need to be all things to all people, and we can't walk away from 40 percent of the marketplace."
On the operations front, Anderson said airport security "really is top notch in time United States today" and advocated both a trusted traveler program and the second-generation Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System, known as CAPPS II. He added that the federal Transportation Security Administration's security process at airport checkpoints "needs to be done in 10 minutes consistently around the United States."
Buyers and suppliers continued to seek...
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