Hubert Joly, worldwide president and ceo of Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) reported a year of “good progress” since he took over the company last year.
Mr Joly said that Carlson's sales for the first half of 2005 compared to the same period in 2004 were up by 30% from $465m to $606m, operating income up 99% from $28m to $57m and adjusted net income up 102% from $20m to $41m.
He said there had also been a breakthrough in the level of online booking with now more than 50% of transactions in America made online.
He said that two of his aims when taking over were to exploit opportunities for hotels bookings and to increase CWT's consultancy programme.
On the first, he said that globally hotels spend was now about the same as the traditionally much higher air spend booking while Carlson's sales were up 21% year on year.
On the consulting side, Mr Joly said that income was up 64%.
After a series of acquisitions in both America and Europe, My Joly said the industry was still fragmented and he expected more consolidation. CWT was looking for new acquisitions, quite possibly in Britain where 60% of the market was in the hands of independent travel management companies.
For a fuller look at Mr Joly's presentation see BTW Analysis
AirPlus signs deal with Synergi
Major travel management consortium Synergi has signed a deal with AirPlus International for the group's clients to use the latter's corporate lodged card and data management systems.
AirPlus said the agreement gave Synergi customers a means to “streamline payment and data management processes.”
Paul Tracy, Synergi's's senior vp, said: “The added benefit of simplified data consolidation across multiple locations is highly significant in today's corporate travel marketplace.
“We see the AirPlus solution as a strong strategic fit for a large percentage of our client base, one of the key drivers behind this agreement.”
Synergi president Greg O'Neil said the deal gave potential savings opportunities to his group's clients.