The European launch, announced this week, of a new TMC which has global ambitions seems at first glance to buck the trend of what is happening in the continent.
The last years have seen a slow but steady consolidation of the market among the traditional TMCs. The only newcomers are the online agencies which as yet have not made the impact in Europe that they have in North America.
But the arrival of FCm Travel Solutions is in its way yet another consolidation, starting with an extremely strong base in the UK.
The company which Alan Spence founded, formerly Britannic Travel, more recently TQ3 UK and soon to be FCm Travel Solutions UK, is one of the UK's biggest TMCs.
It enjoys a turnover of some £228m a year (compared with BTI UK's £1,050m) and is ranked number four in the country in Business Travel World's annual list of Leading TMCs.
The companies in Europe with which it will be working - although BTE understands they will have some autonomy - are existing agencies rather than new creations. Currently they are partners rather than being owned, as Britannic is, by FCm.
But there seems to be limited room for expansion in Europe. Southern and Eastern Europe has some scope but not that much.
If FCm is really to challenge American Express, Carlson Wagonlit and BTI as a global player, it does not seem likely that Europe will be the battlefield. That's probably going to be out east where the Australian-owned FCm may be better placed totake advantage of the Eastern and Far Eastern regions where business travel really is growing: India, China and, to a lesser extent, Japan.
It will be interesting to see just how serious a challenge FCm mounts against the big players in Europe.