PROMISING, BUT
PROFITLESS Q1
US Air’s Parker, air
CEOs see corporate
travel rebound.
6 10 16
ASH CLOUD’S
SILVER LINING
Crisis enables Reed
Smith’s Russo to
demonstrate value.
CTD MOVE TO
YIELD BENEFITS
Cindy Heston overhauling WellPoint
travel and meetings.
TRAVELPORT’S
GORDON WILSON
ONE-ON-ONE
New United Divides Buyers
GDS Rolling Out Tools
Postmaster: Newspaper Handling/Periodicals Postaage
Travelport group deputy
CEO Gordon Wilson spoke
late last month to BTN contributing editor Amon Cohen
about its Universal Desktop,
set to launch in July, booking
tool Traversa as a product
for large corporations only,
imminent new booking tool
partnerships and plans to
resurrect the group’s abandoned stock market flotation.
Continental and United CEOs Smisek (left) and Tilton to lead the new United.
BTN: What is the latest on
booking unbundled prod-
ucts through Travelport?
Gordon Wilson: The trend
is to unbundle, then rebundle
continued on page 22
BY MICHAEL B. BAKER
Citi is pursuing an ambitious one-year plan to overhaul its travel program, including lobal requests for proposals for the major program components, strict enforcement of
preferred vendor compliance and lowest logical hotel rate programs to drive savings despite
travel volume cuts. Citi Banks On Revamped Hotel Program As Travel Model
continued on page 26
Citi’s Mick Lee
BY JAY BOEHMER
Corporate travel buyers are divided as to how the planned merger between
United Airlines and Continental
Airlines will affect their travel
programs, though a clear majority said U.S. regulators should
approve the deal, according to a
survey of 189 travel buyers BTN
fielded this month.
Respondents who viewed
the merger in a negative light
feared the deal would result in
higher fares, smaller corporate
discounts, less competition, reduced capacity or degraded service. The more optimistic bunch
anticipated the emergence of a
merged carrier that would provide a broader network, more
route coverage and a better corporate negotiating proposition,
representing an inevitable step
to a financially stable domestic
airline industry.
Among the 34 percent who expect an adverse impact, perhaps
the two most common concerns
shared surrounded pricing and
capacity. One respondent echoed
a common refrain: “More power
in the hands of fewer ‘too big to
fail’ airlines will reduce competi-
