For Immediate Release
February 27, 2003

Travel Managers: Proposed ARC Changes Need More Dialogue

(Alexandria, VA -- Feb. 27) Business travel managers representing the nation's largest companies -- and the airlines' best customers -- want the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) to participate in an industry wide dialogue, before invoking proposed rule changes that will further pound corporate travel budgets.  According to a statement released today by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, travel managers believe the proposed rule changes intended to introduce greater efficiencies for ARC, will generate additional expenses and further reduce business travel in the current economic environment.

"We understand that ARC is committed to greater efficiencies and eliminating abuse of the system," said ACTE President Mark Williams.  "But a majority of our members interpret the proposed rule changes as an opportunity to introduce these efficiencies at increased expense on their end.  This sort of misunderstanding could be alleviated by an industry summit involving the carriers, travel agencies, ARC and ACTE members.  In fact, I'm offering our Global Conference in April to serve as the forum.  Just about everybody involved will be there anyway."

An ACTE membership survey conducted last week indicated that travel managers wanted more time to study ARC's proposed rule changes.  Initial assessments indicate that if implemented, these changes will significantly increase costs on a substantial percentage of the respondents' travel budgets.

In a letter to Barry Lemley dated February 24, Williams wrote:
"The majority of our members believe we need to have an industry-wide dialogue between carriers, ARC, travel agencies, and the corporate customer before invoking a process that affects everyone.  (This sentiment is preferred to it's inverse -- 'that this is just another way for carriers to suppress the use of nonrefundable tickets by business travelers' -- the second most popular opinion that expressed in our survey.)

"I believe the candid conversation we had earlier this week went a long way to establishing carrier needs and customer concerns.  I believe that by broadening similar discussions, we can meet each other halfway.  Speaking on behalf of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.  I wanted to emphasize that:

1. ACTE believes that a nonrefundable is a nonrefundable and processing procedures should not be a means to avoid fare rules and regulations
2. ACTE does not believe that the majority of our members use the weekly reporting process for this purpose.
3. ACTE does not believe that creating new burdensome processing (daily reporting) should be implemented until it is clearly understood the burden and additional work load that must be funded.
4. ACTE might suggest that if daily reporting is implemented that airlines should move towards a more expeditious processing of refunds.”

 

"This isn't the time to further divide our industry," said Williams.  "Dialogue generally sparks alternatives."

  Founded in 1988, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) is a member-driven organization wholly dedicated to the science of business travel management with an international constituency. ACTE membership totals more than 2,400, including business travel executives in Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the United States. The organization is headquartered in Alexandria, Va., with regional offices located in Brussels, and Singapore. ACTE's web site is www.acte.org.