Interviews

A one-time GDS exec with Amadeus, Farelogix CEO Jim Davidson has been an occasional GDS provocateur, gadfly and agitator, especially when his business was premised on GDS-bypass. Now, he's working more and more with the GDSs and is bullish on the airline distribution complex putting old-fashioned protocols behind it and moving into a more modern era. He recently spoke with The Beat.

Corporate travel industry vet Rock Blanco this month joined World Travel Inc. as chief innovation officer. He caught up to discuss his new role.

This month, New Zealand-based corporate T&E tech company Serko announced its first-ever annual profit, for its fiscal year ending in March, and achieved Level 3 status as a seller in the International Air Transport Association's New Distribution Capability program. CEO Darrin Grafton caught up with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer.

Egencia president Rob Greyber recently caught up with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer to talk about Egencia's growth trajectory and technology investments.

Delta Air Lines stressed that it wants to ensure consistency, transparency and choice across all distribution touch points. VP of global distribution and digital strategy Rhonda Crawford and managing director of global distribution strategy Jeff Lobl caught up with The Beat.

Hotel central reservations systems, or global reservations systems, are having a moment. Major hotel companies are doing away with their legacy infrastructure and adopting cloud-based systems in order to improve capabilities around data, machine learning and distribution. But while the impending CRS launches are typically being developed by third parties, Choice Hotels has gone a different route and fully deployed its own system built in-house, ChoiceEdge. The Beat contributor Julie Sickel spoke this week with Choice president and CEO Pat Pacious.

Nearly two years ago, multibrand travel agency operator Travel Leaders Group appointed Gabe Rizzi to lead the Travel Leaders Corporate division. Since then, he has welcomed several acquisitions into the fold. He recently spoke with The Beat editor-in-chief Jay Boehmer about acquisitions, multinational positioning, mobile strategy and Travel Leaders Corporate's approach to client technology.

British Airways introduced a global distribution system surcharge on Nov. 1 but at the last minute signed "private channel" deals waiving the surcharge for travel agencies that committed to eventually take BA content through New Distribution Capability-standard connections. The Beat’s Amon Cohen talked to BA chief commercial officer Adam Daniels and head of distribution Ian Luck about the thinking behind private channel and how BA and the rest of the travel industry are evolving to a new distribution model.

Air France-KLM in January 2018 will launch a New Distribution Capability-based application programming interface. An agency reservations portal and introduction of an 11 euro (US$13) global distribution system surcharge are scheduled to follow in April. The Beat's Amon Cohen spoke with VP of distribution Emmanuelle Gailland to learn more about the group's views on indirect distribution.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel this year brought Eric Tyree onboard as chief data scientist, a role he'd previously had at U.K.-based professional services company Capita. During an Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference in London this month, The Beat's Michael B. Baker spoke with Tyree about his role and how the mega travel management company plans to transform services for travelers and travel managers by reshaping its approach to data.