Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | B | Business Travel News

11th Annual Airline Survey: Continental Edges Out American For BTN Survey Honors.

Article Excerpt
Corporate travel buyers this year conferred on Continental Airlines the highest marks in overall performance for negotiating and delivering airline services. The carrier dominated only two of nine categories measured in Business Travel News' 11th annual survey, but consistent performance across the board put the carrier in a position to edge out American Airlines by four hundredths of a point.

Please click here to download a pdf of the full BTN's 11th Annual Airline survey, including all buyer ratings of surveyed domestic airlines.

American Airlines, which topped the list last year, finished a close second and led three categories: meeting price negotiations, contract performance data timeliness and sales rep relationships. Northwest Airlines, meanwhile, finished third, anchored by the strongest performance in negotiating transient pricing.

It was a year when struggling airlines culled corporate contracts, levied fees for services that once were free and increasingly passed along the cost of fuel in the form of ire-inducing surcharges. While those practices would suggest heightened discontent among buyers, survey respondents gave carriers good overall marks when compared with surveys conducted in previous years.

Corporate travel buyers and travel management companies this year said airlines have tightened the screws on contract management and have not been shy about slashing underperforming contracts. Brian Hace, vice president of client service for CWT North America, said he has seen a "tightening of airlines willing to forgive" missed contract commitments. "Carriers also are less willing to go to smaller and smaller accounts with those contracts," Hace said. "We had a much more competitive environment a couple of years ago. Now that they've started pulling down capacity, why do they want to pay for you to fly in their airplane that's already full?"

Hace and some corporate travel buyers said airlines have remained aggressive in some competitive domestic markets and many international markets, while others point to less aggressiveness in discounting domestic business.

At a time when many airlines are trimming their corporate portfolios, Continental Airlines said it continues to grow its number of business clients. "Our portfolio has increased in terms of number of deals," Continental senior vice president of sales Dave Hilfman said. "That doesn't mean we've set a target for an increased number of agreements because it all has...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!