Hogg Robinson has stepped into the US market to buy a New York-based corporate travel agency the Sea Gate Travel Group.
The US company, besides its business travel management arm, has a meetings and incentive department and also specialises in air charter management, a currently buoyant part of business travel.
It has a client base in banking, media, sport and entertainment.
The existing management team will be kept on although Roger Westwood, Hogg's overseas investment director, will take over as chairman and a new chief operating officer will be appointed.
Hogg said that Sea Gate will continue to operate under that name and independently of its global brand BTI whose service in the States will still be provided by WorldTravel BTI.
US-EU Open Skies talks to resume
EU transport ministers are likely to give the go ahead for the resumption of Open Skies talks with the USA.
EC transport spokesman Stefaan de Rynck told a news briefing in Brussels that that he expected ministers to give a “clear signal to relaunch negotiations and get a good deal with the Americans” when they met in Luxembourg on Thursday (April 21).
The talks are aimed at removing restrictions on the transatlantic aviation market, including the right of European companies to set up and own airlines in America.
The two sides came close to an agreement last year but it eventually broke down over the prospect of European carriers being allowed to fly US domestic routes.
A meeting last month in Washington between EC transport commissioner Jacques Barrot and the US transportation secretary Norman Mineta opened the way for the likely renewal of talks.