As CEO of Northwest Airlines from October 2004 through October 2008, Doug Steenland oversaw a carrier that embraced new distribution technologies and helped change the economic model to the benefit of airlines. Effective this week, he's sitting on the board of Travelport, a GDS operator that presumably would prefer to forestall another round of upheaval.
After more than 50 years in the airline and travel industries, Travelport GDS vice chairman Robert Coggin will retire in August.
American Airlines last summer famously (or infamously) began offering a package of perks that may interest corporate travelers but withheld that package from the booking channels most likely to be used by those travelers. Delta is doing the same thing.
Air France-KLM U.S. vice president and general manager
Christine Ourmières recently updated us on corporate contracting among SkyTeam's joint venture partners (including Delta). I also asked her about a few distribution topics. Joint alliance-GDS negotiations? Don't hold your breath. Revised agency compensation programs for Delta's TMC clients? There were some questions at first, but now everything is cool, according to Ourmières.
Regarding
AA suing Chuck Imhof, I posted here the actual complaint against Imhof from AA. It's a good read. ~ Tom
