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Article Excerpt
Requests for proposals sent by companies to airlines are not becoming any more standardized, despite industry efforts to simplify and bring consistency to the opening phase of contract negotiations. As the marketplace evolves, buyers are making sure their RFPs ask airlines to address flexibility in dealing with new ticketing rules, fare availability, discount applicability, emerging distribution options and a bevy of other concerns that impact their supplier relationships. Meanwhile, corporate RFPs, increasingly but not universally electronic, at many firms are taking new shape as procurement departments get involved and turn the focus from amenities and relationship-based discounting toward bottom-line savings.
Unlike the hotel sector, the airline realm does not have a widely embraced common RFP format, which airlines said poses an ongoing challenge for their corporate salesforces. "Most people still build their own," said Steve Smith, Delta Air Lines managing director of corporate sales. "We don't see too much standardization, though we would love to see it."
Smith said Delta has not seen many companies use the RFP template created by the National Business Travel Association's aviation committee (BTN, July 29, 2002). "We don't think there is...
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