A NEW on-line business travel booking service is offering business travellers 550,000 discounted fares with savings on up to 60% on bookings made through the site.
Equator-Net, which will can be used by business travel agents and their clients, boasts it can book more than 500 airlines, 40,000 hotels and all the world’s major car rental companies.
The site is an extension of Equator, the business travel industry news magazine published with Office Secretary magazine. It is backed up by consolidators Hamilton Travel and gets its inventory from Galileo.
As well as discount bookings, the site offers a loyalty scheme, advice on saving costs and a tailored booking engine specifically designed for the business traveller.
Equator-Net founder and managing director Bill Kirkwood said: “The site has been designed to appeal to anyone who travels on business. We will build a proactive relationship with our customers by rewarding them corporately and personally every time they book.”
AERLINGUS will join the Oneworld alliance by the end of the year, as exclusively revealed in Travel Weekly on April 19.
The Irish carrier has agreed a deal with Oneworld founders British Airways and American Airlines to form a strategic alliance.
Aer Lingus confirmed the BA/American agreement was the first step towards joining their global partnership.
Confirmation of the deal rests with the Irish government – which owns Aer Lingus – but industry observers expect this to be a formality. The government has until the end of next month to agree to the plans.
Aer Lingus will then formally agree an alliance bySeptember.
A spokesman for Aer Lingus said passengers will feel the initial results from co-operation with BA/American during the winter, with full integration starting in summer 2000.
He said codesharing with BA on UK-Ireland routes was under consideration. This will allow BA to offer Heathrow-Dublin flights.
However, the first codesharing is likely to be with American on Aer Lingus flights to the US. This will allow the Irish airline to boost traffic on transatlantic services, while allowing passengers to connect onto American’s extensive USnetwork.
The spokesman said: “We are not discounting codesharing in any market, but the main benefits of our partnership will be on transatlantic flights.
“The alliances fulfil our objectives for a transatlantic partner and we have made sure we also do not lose out on European traffic as BA will help that.”
The Irish government is believed to have rejected BA and American’s proposals for taking a joint 10% stake in Aer Lingus as it considered a deal would not raise enough capital for the carrier.
Instead the government is set to announce a flotation of Aer Lingus to raise additional money for aircraft and network expansion.
Aer Lingus is currently explaining the implications of a BA/American deal to staff in Ireland and the UK.
It said there will not be redundancies once integration with BA starts as it is planning to expand.
As a result of the BA/American deal, Delta Air Lines has scrapped its codeshare agreement with Aer Lingus.
n room rates rise
Prices for deluxe andfirst-class rooms rose in almost all parts of the world in the first quarter of 1999, according to the latestquarterly American Express European Corporate Travel Index. In western Europe
first-class accommodation experienced the biggest increase with rates going up by 4% over the previous quarter. The cost ofaccommodation in London remains high, rising 6% in the last quarter. Frankfurt and Oslo were the only cities to record a downturn in prices.
n ryanair in derry move
Ryanair will launch its first service from NorthernIreland on July 1 withdouble-dailyDerry-Stansted flights. Fares lead in at £49.99 return on weekdays and £69.99 for weekends. The low-cost carrier said it was reacting to demand as 20% of its traffic from its Dublin hub originates from Northern Ireland.
n operator in radio bid
Wallace Arnold has spent £30,000 on a radioadvertising campaign to encourage the public to use the trade. The campaign, running on Classic FM, urges listeners thinking of booking a coach holiday through the operator to go to their travel agent instead of booking direct.
Independent Toucan Travel of Basingstoke and multiple Thomas Cook of Queen Street, Salisbury were honoured as the best in the business at the 1999 Agent Achievement Awards in London.
The retailers won Best Independent Shop and Best Multiple Branch respectively in the Travel Weekly Mystery Shopper Awards. Each week Travel Weekly’s undercover reporter visits travel agents in different towns to test how the companies perform.
The best agents over the past year were tested twice and Toucan Travel and Thomas Cook’s Queen Street, Salisbury branch came out ahead of the rest. Full picture coverage of the awards start onpage 59.
IMPROVED branch productivity and the development of its direct sell operation have helped Co-op Travelcare to increase profits by 40% in 1998.
The 260-strong chain also saw sales rise 13% from £269m to £300m.
But the Manchester-based company refused to reveal specific profit figures for the travel sector. It would only say that the Co-op’s specialist division – which includes travel, funerals and optical – saw a dip of £300,000 to £14.6m.
“It is historical that we never break down the performances of individual businesses,” said a spokesman.
The majority of the profits in the specialist division is believed to have come from the travel operation, which saw productivity increase by an average 8% per branch.
Group general manager Yvonne Rankin said:”We made substantial progress in pursuing our twin aims which were to improve productivity and develop our direct-sell operations.
“Both made an excellent contribution to an excellent set of figures.”
During the year, Co-op Travelcare also developed cross marketing with the Co-op’s retail and banking operation.
COMMISSIONS earned by agents who booked passengers on P&O Cruises’ cancelled cruise to Holland, Denmark and Norway will be protected, the operator has promised. The cruise, on P&O’s Oriana, was called off five days before yesterday’s sail date after a mechanical problem emerged. Around 1,800 customers had paid up to £4,565 to take the 11-day cruise. P&O staff have already sent out letters to passengers explaining that customers should go back to their agents either to get their refunds or rebook.
AVIS vice-president and general manager of Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia, Gene Barkatullah, is to retire in September.
Barkatullah’s retirement means Michael White, vice-president of sales and marketing for the group, will be promoted to vice-president and general manager with responsibility for corporate countries formerly reporting to Barkatullah.