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Posted Jul 13, 2010
Anyone else think it's odd that tomorrow's hearing scheduled by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure's Subcommittee on Aviation will not include American, Continental, Delta, United or US Airways? Or even the Air Transport Association? I do.
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
US Airways executives this week during the carrier's annual media day in Phoenix fielded a question on language in the Senate version of the FAA Reauthorization bill which deals with required fee disclosures.
Posted Apr 14, 2010
So here we are, Merchandising WIIFM Series Installment 5, and instead of the planned content (a rather pithy piece on portable merchandising), I'm grumpy and have decided to vent. Hopefully my rantings will prove interesting enough for you to keep reading.
I recently attended a CASMA (Computerized Airline Sales and Marketing Association) meeting in Montreal. I was invited to participate in a panel discussion entitled, "Value-based Merchandising." In fact, this year, the entire CASMA conference appeared to be dedicated to the topic of ancillary services and merchandising. This was not cause for grumpiness, in fact quite the opposite –- I was delighted to see so much discussion and interchange on the topic.
Posted Mar 22, 2010
A recent report by American Express Business Travel includes lists of airline service fees charged by U.S. and non-U.S. carriers, as well as other stats, a good overview of the ancillary fee topic and some advice on how to manage through the complexities. It is available here.
Posted Mar 16, 2010
Continental Airlines will charge for meals this fall. It’s about time. And money, and choice. Lots of travel managers and many more travelers will hate seeing this movie.
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