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Posted Aug 2, 2010
A Congressional subcommittee last month noted that a non-binding IRS ruling leaves "unsettled" the question of whether ancillary airline fees for bags and add-ons should be taxed. As the National Journal's Transportation Experts blog explores the debate, the National Business Travel Association is undecided for now, executive director Mike McCormick said.
Posted Jul 20, 2010
United Airlines parent UAL Corp. posted a second quarter profit of $273 million, emerging from a long financial slump and improving on some closely watched year-over-two numbers. The company cited favorable corporate and premium booking trends and particularly strong transoceanic performance. Analysts speaking with the company's executives on a Tuesday conference call sounded generally impressed. UAL's stock closed the day up more than a buck to $22.01. Why? According to UAL executives, capacity discipline and fees.
Posted Jul 13, 2010
Air Canada, American Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways, plus the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, announced the formation of their Open Airline XML Integration Standard group to "promote a standardized XML (eXtensible Markup Language) schema as the optimal electronic messaging structure for airline system connectivity used in content distribution." The group named as executive director Jim Young, a travel distribution veteran who helped found the industry's existing XML standards body, now called OpenTravel.
Posted Jun 16, 2010
Let’s cut to the nub of this issue. No one will ever know for sure if ancillary revenues make airlines more profitable. There are just too many moving parts in an airline’s revenue stream. Sure, airlines may report an extra billion dollars in ancillary revenue (AR, from here on) – but what did fares do?
Posted May 20, 2010
Two readers responded to "Distribution Standards And The 'Fare Of One' " published here yesterday in The Beat ...
Posted May 12, 2010
Farelogix is highly supportive of management and settlement standards being developed around the merchandising process. We have been the leaders in developing the first ARC certified EMD (both EMD-A and EMD-S), which is in full accordance to the IATA reporting standard. Farelogix merchandising solutions also fully support ATPCO fare filings if airlines opt to use ATP instead of alternative merchandising solutions in the market.
However, Farelogix is concerned about the recent announcement to extend the "standards movement" to the actual airline product definition and sales process.
Posted Apr 30, 2010
There are still many questions that need to be answered about airline ancillary fees. What else might the airlines charge for? Will there be a good way for managed travel programs to track them? When will TMCs be able to collect them at point of sale? And the list could go on for quite awhile from there. One thing we do know for sure, airline ancillary fees are here to stay.
Posted Apr 30, 2010
Some airlines have said they support use of ARC's electronic miscellaneous document as a means to better equip themselves to sell and account for ancillary revenue items, while others haven't publicly said a thing about it. AirTran is one exception. It's not interested.
Posted Apr 15, 2010
We reported in The Beat on Wednesday that American Airlines said it had not disclosed economic terms for its planned direct connect initiative. Today, the airline issued a slightly more specific statement:
Posted Apr 13, 2010
Mergers in the Air...
Goodness, gracious! We have a lot to talk about this week. United and US Airways have announced they are in serious merger discussions. I honestly think my chances of winning the Masters are greater than the chances of this merger actually happening. The list of reasons why United and US Air cannot pull off this merger is longer than my arm, and I have long arms:
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