United is bankrupt. Now United is merging with Delta. Oh, wait, no... United is merging with Continental. No, hang on a sec, United and U.S. Airways are merging. Delta and Northwest. Lufthansa and ….
When senior executives from the airline industry and FAA officials both have no idea what they are doing next, how are we as we as planners supposed to sift through all the clutter to ensure we are making the right decisions for our companies? With all the airlines teetering on the brink of bankruptcy (ATA, Frontier, Aloha and Skybus being recent casualties), the dark cloud of dissolution looming, how do we make strong and confident long-term decisions on preferred providers? The answer... don't.
Meeting planners who arrange meetings near airport hubs will most certainly be affected by the recent changes. The current consolidation will absolutely reduce capacity, increase demand, and increase prices in most second-tier hubs. Delta and Northwest have said that they have no plans to cut any hubs, but that seems to be a fairly premature statement. One which we've all learned, in one way or another, should not be trusted.
As for the correct answer to the question posed in this article, there is none. Every company needs to look at their own travel spend, policies and level of mandate before making any commitments. Here is a great interview with Siemens Shared Services' Director of Mobility:
http://www.management.travel/news.php?cid=Steven-Schoen-Siemens.May-08.14 which was a follow-up on this initial report: http://www.procurement.travel/news.php?cid=Siemens-policy-compliance.Jul-07.23
I posted these links because they discuss how a global company with 40 separate business units consolidated air spend with terrific results.
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