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Article Excerpt
Business Travel News editors again proudly recognize the 25 business and government executives whose decisions held the greatest sway over the business travel industry in the previous year. Editors vetted nominations that were submitted by industry professionals, including members of the BTN editorial board and staff.
The accomplishments and influence of these executives tells the story of the most significant changes in corporate travel last year.
Download a PDF of this year's version of BTN's 25 Most Influential Executives Of The Business Travel Industry here.
Richard Anderson CEO Delta Air LinesLess than eight months after Delta Air Lines named Richard Anderson CEO, the former head of Northwest Airlines led a merger of the two carriers he's helmed. In doing so, he formed the largest airline in the world with a network that spans the globe and spurred a reshuffling of airline alliance rosters and concerns among corporate travel buyers that the deal could diminish competition, further reduce declining U.S. capacity and degrade customer service.
The carriers, which continue to integrate operations under the merger announced in April and finalized in October with the U.S. Justice Department's approval, expect a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration in late 2009 and a consolidated reservations platform in early 2010.
Any remaining hurdles are "bumps in the road, not even really bumps," Anderson this month told Business Travel News. "We just have to execute on each challenge just as we have since the early part of 2008, when our board authorized us to go forward with a transaction. We've methodically gotten over every hurdle that has been thrown in front of us, so we'll keep managing the business well and trying to work for our customers, our shareholders and our employees. We've given an estimate to Wall Street of $500 million in true cash run-rate benefits in 2009 from the merger and we're very confident we're going to be able to meet that number," he said.
The true impact of the merger on corporate travel has yet to be determined. Opinions diverge on whether buyers will be better served by a financially stable carrier with a streamlined cost structure and a single network--joining Delta's strongholds in the South, West, Northeast and Mountain regions, Europe and Latin America with Northwest's positions in the Midwest, Canada and Asia--or hampered by the removal of a competitor and the potential consequent harm to service levels and willingness to negotiate.
Anderson, pointing not only to the merger but also the joint venture between Delta, Northwest and Air France-KLM, said he expects high demand for corporate contracts. "One of the things corporations really want is a simple, single network, so they always know where their travelers are," he said. "It's much easier for record-keeping, frequent flyer accumulation and more powerful discounts because you're putting more volume on one carrier. The problem that carriers had in the past is that they didn't have a complete network. We have the number-one network, the most complete network. You no longer need to go offline to go to Central or South America. You don't need to go offline to go to Africa or the Middle East, because with the Delta network combined with the Northwest network and our joint venture with Air France-KLM, we cover the globe."
Anderson said changing economic conditions alter neither the merger's rationale nor its objectives.
"It doesn't change the synergy goals at all," Anderson said. "In fact, a more difficult environment really causes us to accelerate the benefits of the combination. Our economy is in a very difficult situation. We take that very seriously. As a result, the merger becomes more important. It gives us a lot more flexibility and a lot more opportunity."
John Arenas CEO WorktopiaWith the technological canyons that prevented the online booking of meeting space bridged, meetings technology firm Worktopia spent 2008 cementing its niche within the larger sphere of travel and meetings management. In addition to broadening the roster of properties that accept such online bookings and signing key distribution deals with Pegasus International, Travelport GDS and Newmarket International, Worktopia formed a partnership with Sabre to offer the functionality through the GetThere self-booking tool, significantly heightening its visibility in the corporate travel market.
The flurry of deals should help ensure a payoff on Worktopia CEO John Arenas' bet that the notoriously slippery segment of the corporate meetings market handled by nonprofessional planners and administrative assistants will embrace a streamlined technological application to book simple meetings online.
"There's been an epiphany among corporations that they want to manage meetings like other travel and procurement processes, and they need a tool to do that," Arenas said.
Worktopia targets the small corporate meetings of fewer than 100 attendees with simple meeting and guest room, audiovisual and food and beverage needs that mark what Arenas calls an often unmanaged and unmeasured segment, a situation for which there is unmet demand. "We tried for five years just to hook that up," he said. "There are administrative assistants making these decisions without control."
Worktopia allows users to search for the live meeting room inventory that participating venues list in its partner global distribution systems, and links to property management systems to book simple meetings either at offered rates or at client-loaded preferred meeting rates when using a corporate edition of the tool. A new wrinkle allows for offline negotiating, Arenas said.
The tool's capability for restricting searching and booking options, Arenas said, enables corporations to allow nonprofessional planners to continue booking such simple meetings, enhancing efficiency while capturing all relevant spending data. "You must get a handle on the spend. Not being able to say that is a place they don't want to be," Arenas said. "Having a very talented negotiator working on a very small deal is not ideal. Saying admins shouldn't do this is like saying they shouldn't use GetThere to book travel because someone else is better at negotiating air contracts."
Gerard ArpeyChairman, President and CEOAmerican Airlines2008 was the year of capacity cuts. Facing growing fuel costs and slumping demand, American Airlines, helmed by CEO Gerard Arpey, was at the forefront of broad capacity pullback and aircraft retirements.
By the time United Airlines and Continental Airlines in June announced plans to cut domestic capacity up to 18 percent and 16 percent, respectively, American already had announced the month before that it would cut mainline domestic capacity by up to 12 percent.
Arpey in an e-mailed statement to BTN said, "Unlike many of our competitors, American has been practicing capacity discipline for quite some time--certainly the last three years or so. Of course, the need to make deeper cuts became painfully obvious in the spring of last year when fuel prices skyrocketed, so we reduced our capacity significantly in the fourth quarter last year--about 12 percent domestically; about 8 percent systemwide. While fuel prices have moderated, the reductions have proven to be a good thing in light of the current economy."
Other domestic competitors joined the chorus to expand the degree of capacity cuts, as demand continually deteriorated and fuel costs put pressure on airlines. According to OAG data, 10 percent fewer domestic seats will fly in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly last month observed that "traffic is basically at 1998 levels domestically."
Arpey this month in a statement said, "Since the final capacity cuts just hit the schedule in November, we have not made any significant additional cuts or changes so far in 2009. Obviously, we are continuing to closely monitor both the economy, as well as demand. That could result in additional cuts, but we have not made any decisions about that at this time."
Meanwhile, American in August of last year became the first domestic carrier to launch full wireless inflight Internet access, rolling it out across its 15-plane Boeing 767-200 fleet. American adopted the air-to-ground network of inflight connectivity provider Aircell to launch the service.
Other carriers, including Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Continental, Southwest and Virgin America, are advancing their own plans to bring Wi-Fi to the sky.
"We've been encouraged by the results so far, especially in the 'take rate,' that is, how many customers choose to log on and use the service," Arpey said. "It's a great way for our business customers, especially, to be productive and in-touch during these longer flights."
Philippe Bruy?reProgram Director, Simplifying the BusinessInternational Air Transport AssociationThe past year saw the paper airline ticket consigned to history and the paper boarding card start a similar journey to oblivion. Having successfully defined a standard for a paper bar-coded boarding pass in 2005, the International Air Transport Association issued a companion standard for a mobile BCBP in October 2008. The response has been rapid, with 13 airlines worldwide already issuing boarding passes by transmitting a bar code to passengers' mobile devices, including five from the United States: Alaska, American, Continental and merger partners Delta and Northwest.
The IATA executive overseeing the transformation to paperless travel...
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