These have been busy days for the public relations department at the Airlines Reporting Corp. Since the beginning of the month, the organization announced the next step in its partnership with the International Air Transport Association, enhancements to its data reporting product, volume-based incentives for airlines and a 4 percent cut in personnel.
The job cuts are in response to "the rapidly changing economies of the air travel market." ARC president and CEO David Collins said that "recent results and carrier announcements on capacity changes require us to respond accordingly."
ARC this week also reported a 2 percent year-over-year decline in total U.S. travel agency sales for March 2008, marking the first drop since June 2007. Total transactions fell by 9 percent.
In terms of new products and services, the IATA deal is designed to "create the first truly global data solution for the airline industry." More specifically, ARC's Itinerary Detail data--designed in part to "improve corporate contracts" and "assess agency incentive programs"--will be made available to carriers using IATA's Passenger Intelligence Service, which is similar to MIDT data sold by global distribution systems. ARC and IATA last year announced "a common format" for their respective data products.
ARC also said it enhanced Itinerary Detail by adding "average fare display for other airline transactions and prorated fares on every segment." It also includes nine new optional data elements (such as issuing agency name, total base fare and industry average fare) in addition to the 49 that already detail ARC-reported ticketed transactions.
Meanwhile, ARC's optional "Flex-Rate" model provides to participating carriers "a significant incentive for shifting new volume to the ARC agency reporting and settlement system." Simply put, incremental volume would incur "a dramatically reduced transaction fee."