The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has rejected speculation that it plans to change BSP payments from monthly to weekly.
A spokesperson for the airlines' group told BTE: "This is completely untrue, completely false. We are stayting with the monthly payments and we have no plans in the near future or in any future to change that."
Speculation has been rife in industry circles, including at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives' global education conference in Munich, that changes in the Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) were afoot.
One director of a travel agency who expected the change to go ahead said: "If it does change, I think it will impact on the industry. It will be a sea-change, comparable to the ending of commission payments."
Currently under the BSP scheme, agency payment on a ticket sold in October is made around mid-November.
Some agencies said that if the change came, they would put payments for air tickets to airlines onto credit cards which would have saddled carriers with an extra cost.
Rezidor announces solid growth
Hotel group Rezidor announced solid growth in the first nine months of 2007 with revenue and post-tax profits both substantially up.
It said its revenues during the nine months had risen by 9.6% to 571.9m, compared with 521.9m for the same period in 2006.
Post-tax profit was up from 20.2m to 29m, a rise of just under 50%.
The hotel group also reported that its revenue per available room (revPAR) rose by 8.6% from 73.3 to 79.6 while occupancy was up from 69.8% to 71.1%.
During the last three months, Rezidor said it had added 544 rooms to its portfolio and its Park Inn brand had reached 100 properties.
It had also signed contracts during the quarter for a further 1,600 rooms, the vast bulk (87%) under management agreements.
Kurt Ritter, president and ceo, said: "We have outperformed an already strong market and our revPAR grew in all geographic regions.
"The improvement in EBITDA margin was led by strong revPAR growth, which was driven by rate and increased occupancy, rising contribution from hotels in their ramp up phase, and a gradual shift in our business model towards more fee based revenues.
"We are continuing to grow our hotel pipeline in the attractive mid-market segment, and have signed our 100th Park Inn in September.
"In total, we have secured 85% of our 20,000 room target, and feel confident of achieving it by the end of 2009."
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