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Airlines “their own worst enemy”
In the corporate market, an airline’s toughest competition is its own website, says BTI UK managing director Mike Platt.
Mr Platt told TravelMole: “The lines are being blurred between business and leisure travellers because business travellers are behaving like leisure travellers and booking online.
“Yields will go down because business travellers are getting access to fares they didn’t previously have access to.
“Before the growth of the internet airlines could compartmentalise the market by the inflexible business traveller and the flexible leisure traveller, but nowadays business travellers aren’t prepared to pay a premium.”
Business traveller booking leisure fares direct isn’t just a problem for airlines. Mr Platt added that as business travellers increasingly book their own travel it is up to travel management companies to prove their worth. He said his own company is working with travel managers to get across the value of TMCs, such as tracking executives when they are away on business or implementing travel policy to boost cost savings.
Despite increasing competition from the likes of Expedia Corporate Travel, “traditional” TMCs remain positive. Speaking at the Guild of Travel Management Companies’ annual lunch, the first official use of the organisation’s new name, chairman Richard Lovell said TMCs were maintaining a stable market share with business at 2002 levels.
Report by Ginny McGrath
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