Press Release

For Immediate Release
9 March 2005

Corporate Buyers Weigh-In on Airline Distribution

Alexandria, VA -- -- Global distribution system alternatives are not yet sufficiently developed to handle business travel, according to 50 percent of the respondents to a recent survey conducted by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. This conclusion is deemed credible as 46 percent of the survey respondents have already considered GDS alternatives. Furthermore, 25 percent indicated that GDS fees represent a tiny portion of the expenses airlines could reduce, which may be enough justification not to take the alternatives seriously.

The survey was conducted as advance research for an ACTE Executive Forum, held in Newark, NJ on March 2, 2005, in which executives from an airline, a GDS, and two GDS alternatives met to draw the lines about carrier efforts pushing GDS alternatives.

"The high response rate to this survey clearly indicates the significance of this issue to our members," said ACTE President Greeley Koch. "By getting all the available facts on the table at the Newark forum, we're hoping to keep a major issue from becoming an industry confrontation."

Sixty-four percent of the the survey's respondents agreed that incentives paid by GDSs to use their system should end. That leaves more than a third (36 percent) still a substantial number, who think the incentives should continue. Still, the survey calls the value of those incentives into question, as a combined 68 percent of respondents stated a rebate is not a deal-breaker in the overall equation. Of that majority, 38 percent claimed their company did not have a direct relationship with a GDS and 27 percent said a rebate simply wasn't important. It should be noted that some companies still apparently regard every conceivable revenue source as significant. Twenty-nine percent claimed a rebate was "somewhat important," while 9 percent said the rebate was a deal-breaker.

In answer to the question of whether the choice of a GDS was based on technology or economics, the largest percentage of respondents (42 percent) claimed it was both, while the third largest group (22 percent) said technology was the deciding factor. Thirty-one percent stated they were not involved in the GDS decision, and left the decision to their travel management company. Twenty-nine percent reported they were very involved and drove the decision to pick the GDS, while 40 percent indicated it was a mutual decision involving input from the travel management company.

To view the survey results please click here.

For more information, contact:
Debbie Flynn
CEO
Brighter Group
The Pod, London's Vertical Gateway
Bridges Wharf, Battersea
London SW11 3BE England
T: 020 7326 9880
F: 020 7326 9890
E: [email protected]
W: www.brightergroup.com