IATA must change – Harrop
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) must change some of its 50 year old rules, Bernard Harrop, American Express's director of corporate services industry affairs, told the ITM conference.
Since the association drew up its rules, the industry's business model had changed, he told the session on the European Industry Overview.
“But IATA is not used to change and it is difficult to push it through. But we need the changes to get a more level playing field. That is the message: ‘Let's have fair competition,'” he said.
“We have been lobbying IATA directly. The changes are worldwide but Europe is the battleground. No one wants to get rid of IATA but there are some parts that have to change.”
What Europe does for travel
ITM's guest speaker Brian Gray, chief financial officer for the EC, said a “joined up transport policy” of integrated air, rail, road and water transport was one of the Commission's main aims.
This policy would include a single air space over Europe, more high speed train links and more competition among airlines.
“We set up Airbus and without it, Boeing would have a monopoly supply and prices would rise. We have opposed mergers where it would give a single supplier a dominant position in the market and we aim to keep a lot of competition going. We also oppose cartels.
“The high speed train network is now competing with airlines and we are having talks on Open Skies with the US,” he said.
Delegates approve self booking
A motion saying that online self-booking was over-hyped was soundly rejected by delegates at the ITM conference.
Trevor Elswood, a hotel buyer for BSI, a hotel booking agency, said that self booking was a channel not a total travel solutions.
But Chris Reynolds, UK travel manager for Siemens, said that with 85% of his company's travel point to point, self booking helped him make considerable savings each year.
Avery steps up
Mark Avery, head of business services at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was appointed ITM's new vice chair and chairman elect.
He said the planned merger between ITM and ACTE would be the Institute's immediate priority. Under the plans, which ITM members are now voting on, ITM would not be swallowed up but run “entirely separately” and would remain a self-contained region,” he said.