ACTE PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
ACTE TAKES AIRLINE REGULATION ROW
TO THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
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Paris, France - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 -- The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has started a vast multinational petition demanding European Commission president Romano Prodi to force the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to change its rules.
ACTE and travel management groups, such as the Corporate Travel Action Group (CTAG) have successfully worked with the European Community to modernize IATA's rules. However progress still remains to be made and the Associations say that outdated IATA regulations are costing European businesses around _1bn a year by keeping travel costs unnecessarily high. Having challenged IATA several times, the Associations now ask Romano Prodi to step in.
ACTE has posted an open letter to the European Commission's President on its website and is urging its 2,500 members and other interested parties to sign up, as part of a massive online petition. An email was sent on Monday requesting ACTE members to sign the petition. The letter to President Romano Prodi can be accessed at http://www.acte.org/initiatives/petition.shtml.
ACTE President Garth Jopling and the association's Executive Director Nancy Holtzman have already signed the petition, as have Nadine Dewart and Stanislas Berteloot, respectively Chair and Director of the organisation for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
"We have been communicating with IATA directly, but have made little headway," Dewart said. "Now we're taking the fight to a higher level. Travel programmes make a vital contribution to corporate growth and profitability, but an estimated _1 billion a year is simply being wasted. If IATA won't change its ways voluntarily, we want the European Commission to force it to do so."
The letter to Romano Prodi includes a five-point list of demands. These include:
- Ensuring the continued modification of the IATA rules so that ticket costs are standardised regardless of the booking or ticketing location;
- Removing cross-border booking and ticketing restrictions;
- Replacing country-specific BSPs with pan-European settlement system;
- Standardising IATA agency accreditation requirements throughout Europe;
- Standardising and simplifying the accreditation application process across Europe.
The missive goes on: "Advances in technology, progressive legislation, and economic restructuring have introduced the potential for new efficiencies resulting in significant cost savings. Airlines within the EU are aggressively capitalising on these efficiencies to cut distribution costs.
"Yet travel agencies and corporations are unable to maximise efficiencies because the current IATA regulations have failed to adapt to new market potential, while hindering business and increasing costs."
Preliminary results of the petition will be announced in Stockholm during ACTE Global Conference from October 17 to 19.
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