TSA’s first-step towards Risk-Based Airport Security gets acclaim from U.S. Travel Association

A nod of appreciation was given by the U.S. Travel Association on the announcement of the ‘trusted traveler’ program, by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The program is aligned with the Association’s March 2011 recommendations and is expected to test enhancements to TSA’s pre-flight identity-bases screening capabilities a partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. air carriers.

Roger Dow, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association exclaims, “We applaud Administrator Pistole’s courage to find a better way to conduct air travel security screening. We look forward to working with TSA to move our nation’s air travel security away from today’s one-size-fits-all approach.”

TSA allows certain frequent travellers of American and Delta Air Lines and certain members of Custom and Border Protection’s (CBP) existing trusted traveller programmes en route to Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit and Miami to participate in the pilot. Once it gets operationally ready, TSA is looking forward to expand the pilot to other various Airlines.

“Recent studies show that travellers are widely supportive of this concept,” said Dow. “As the program evolves, it is critical that eligibility expands beyond frequent flier programs and that the entirety of the security process – lines and screening – is improved for all travellers.”

ASTA: Changing the Way the Travel Industry Meets

ASTA is changing the way the travel industry meets with the newly revamped Travel Retailing & Destination Expo (Las Vegas, Sept. 11-13), its one-of-a-kind International Destination Expo (Lima, Peru, March 1-3, 2012) and highly segmented member meetings, bringing the industry’s topmost executives together under one roof for in-depth discussion.
“ASTA’s Travel Retailing & Destination Expo is upping the education ante with a complete overhaul of its sessions and speakers, thanks to a redesign by Bruce Tepper, MBA, CTC,” said ASTA CEO Tony Gonchar. “What’s more, no other organization can match our International Destination Expo, which sets the standard for experiential education and presages the next great travel hot spot for consumers.
“Beyond our on-site educational meetings, ASTA’s segmented member meetings, such as our Premium Member Summit and Corporate Advisory Council, gather the industry’s brightest minds together for high-caliber discussions and problem solving. When we come together, no other industry group has this kind of deep leadership experience in one room,” added Gonchar.
Among the new and enhanced features of ASTA’s Travel Retailing & Destination Expo (TheTradeShow) are:
•a fresh take on travel agent education, focusing on high-tech, interactive seminars developed by industry expert Bruce Tepper;
•the much sought-after Hosted Buyers program, which this year will offer complimentary registrations or accommodations to qualified agents from Hilton Hotels, the Bellagio, Starwood Hotels, the Aria Hotel and Vdara Hotel;.
•exclusive events, such as the Advocacy Dinner and the Leadership Luncheon, a new event that will recognize leading industry entities and ASTA’s strongest supporters.
Going beyond the tried-and-true meeting location, ASTA is expanding its destination roster and for 2012 is moving the show to Los Angeles, and considering other destinations for future conferences.

On the international front, ASTA’s International Destination Expo goes beyond the expected with its unique focus on experiential learning and targeted events, offering the best in networking, entertainment and sightseeing opportunities. ASTA’s International Destination Expo, which takes travel agents to the next great destination each year, provides agents with a host of tools and resources to help them further their specialty and grow their market share, including:

•a trade show, featuring local and international suppliers that can’t be found at any other trade show and that provides the inside track on new tours, marketing opportunities and client prospects;
•networking events such as the International Travel Agents Summit that translate into future sales;
•industry-recognized destination certification that can be used to showcase their expertise to their clients at home – now and in the future; and
•complimentary sightseeing tours that take them to the places their clients want to visit.
When it comes to segmented member meetings, ASTA attracts the top executives from the trade’s leading organizations, be they highly-specialized boutique agencies or multi-level international firms. Through ASTA’s Premium Member Summits, for example, high-level representatives from every spectrum of the industry come together for exceptional networking opportunities, peer-to-peer exchange and in-depth, thought-provoking discussions on some of the industry’s most pressing issues.
“Each of these meetings allows for today’s top industry executives to actively participate in the events shaping the travel industry,” noted Gonchar. “They offer a rare opportunity to meet and participate in discussions that address the core issues defining our industry and its future.”
ASTA’s Corporate Advisory Council meetings provide a forum in which industry leaders from major travel agency consortia, franchise organizations and independent agencies can focus on the issues that will affect both their business and their customers. Today, this group, which was originally formed in support of positioning ASTA as the “one voice of the travel industry,” leverages its position within the industry to effect positive change for the travel agency community.

Source: ASTA

ACTE and WTFL will jointly tackle travel industry war

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) will join the World Tourism Forum Lucerne to handle the war for talents in the travel industry. The World Tourism Forum is to embark on two major research studies amongst university level students analyzing expectations and beliefs around how the travel industry will attract, recruit and retain the travel professionals of tomorrow. The two pieces of research will dovetail into the two ACTE initiatives announced last autumn in Berlin – “Around The World in 80 Hours” and the “3 under 33″ campaigns. The results of the research will be used by both for creating a practical programme which will address the issues and challenges raised. The first piece of research will be undertaken by the World Tourism Forum in conjunction with Korn/Ferry International. This piece will focus on talent management in tourism, travel and hospitality companies. The findings are going to be presented at the World Tourism Forum Lucerne (April 13-15, 2011). Simultaneously, the World Tourism Forum is working with PricewaterhouseCoopers to analyze retention strategies and student expectations on reward and commitment from tourism, travel and hospitality companies. The results will be shown at the World Tourism Forum Lucerne in April.

ACI EUROPE & ACI WORLD joint statement following the terrorist attack at Moscow Domodedovo airport

Following the terrorist attack that took place on 24 January at the airport of Domodedovo in Moscow, Airports Council International would like to express its heartfelt support to their colleagues at Domodedovo Airport and deepest sympathy to all those affected by this tragedy. Along with safety, security is an absolute for all airports. Since the terrorist attacks of September 2001, airports have duly implemented and complied with a revamped security regime enacted by the competent national, European and International authorities. Moscow Domodedovo Airport is no exception in this regard. The present aviation security regime in Europe and in other parts of the world has mainly developed in a reactive way, adding new security measures at airports in response to new threats uncovered overtime. These measures are mainly focused on systematic and largely predictable detection at airports, through burdensome screening processes and equipment. ACI EUROPE and ACI WORLD consider that this latest terrorist attack once again demonstrates the limitations of the current regime, as aviation continues to face an ever-evolving and dynamic terrorist threat. It is also a stark reminder of the fact that an airport can only be one of the last opportunities to prevent a terrorist act. ACI EUROPE and ACI WORLD are therefore calling on Governments, European and International institutions to start working without delay on a more effective and sustainable aviation security regime, which would not only focus on detection and proven technology, but also on deterrence and unpredictability as well as more effective use of intelligence. In the wake of the failed terrorist act perpetrated on a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit on 25 December 2009, ACI EUROPE already called for a rethink of European aviation security policy along those same lines, suggesting the establishment of an ad hoc Task Force at EU level. ACI WORLD took a similar stance in relation to ICAO. In cooperation with airlines’ associations, ACI EUROPE and ACI WORLD are currently working on a “Better Security” project, to be presented during the course of 2011, to the European Commission and ICAO. Along with the other ACI Regions, ACI EUROPE and ACI WORLD stand ready to cooperate and work with all competent authorities to improve aviation security.

Travelodge will invest an EURO 300m in new properties

Travelodge has stated that it is going to build a further 35 hotels this year as it continues to develop its presence in the UK market. The company is owned by Dubai International Capital and plans to invest an EURO300 million in the venture. Once complete, the Travelodge estates will total to 495 hotels. Travelodge said the move was part of an aggressive growth plan, which will see the firm increase in the number of hotels it operates to 1,000 by 2025. Guy Parsons, chief executive of Travelodge, stated: “The hotels we will build this year have been a result of Travelodge’s commitment to expand during the recession while many companies put their development on hold. “As a result of the recession, we have successfully acquired superior sites due to lower market property prices, which otherwise would not have been available for hotel use.”

Brisbane urges citizens for evacuation

Authorities of Brisbane city are urging citizens to evacuate as flood waters are posing danger at the low lying areas. About 70 people have been missing in Queensland, with nine confirmed dead. Flood waters are sweeping the state for three weeks and more than 200,000 have been affected. Tsunami conditions are expected to hit the city over the next 48 hours and police is requesting the residents in low-lying areas of the riverside city to move to higher ground. The Brisbane River makes its way through the centre of the Queensland state capital, and it has burst its banks already at several places. Lower lying suburbs – like the West End – are already inundated by water. Sandbags have been distributed to the population, with city mayor Campbell Newman warning 6,500 homes, businesses and other properties were likely to be flooded by Thursday. Across Queensland flooding is now into its third week. Harvests of wheat, sugar cane and cotton have also been wrecked. The infrastructure repair bill is conservatively estimated at US4.9 billion.

Lights turned on at Olympic Stadium

British Prime Minister David Cameron has turned on the London 2012 Olympic Stadium’s floodlights for the first time.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson, London Organising Committee chairman Sebastian Coe, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chairman John Armitt and Olympic Park workers, members of the local community and many schoolchildren were present there to witness the Stadium light up.
The Stadium is lit by 532 individual floodlights housed in 14 towers suspended 70 metres above the field of play. The lights on moment came as work to install all spectator seats within the Stadium was completed. It means the venue remains on track to be completed more than a year ahead of the London 2012 Games.
The floodlights are positioned to conform to standards required for international athletics events and current broadcast criteria regarding high definition.
The Stadium will host the Athletics events during the Olympic and Paralympic Games and it will also be the venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.

ACI Airport Economics Survey 2010

Gittens announced the findings, “As background on the financial results in 2009, it is important to consider the traffic trends during the reporting period. The first quarter of 2009 represented the peak of the crisis for air travel with a 9 percent decline in passengers and 20 percent decline in air freight. Results were improving steadily over the following quarters and the year wound up with 3.5 percent growth in the fourth quarter. This 15th edition of the ACI Airport Economics Survey presents airport data and analysis for the financial year 2009 / 2010, based on ACI member input through a survey conducted in 2010 (2nd and 3rd quarter). Revenues Worldwide total airport income in 2009, based on ACI extrapolation from the survey results, reached USD 95 billion, including an estimated USD 4.3 billion revenue for the Middle East. Compared to the income reported in 2008, industry revenue declined by roughly 2 percent in 2009. The global airport industry generated USD 51 billion in aeronautical revenues in 2009 (including ground handling). Aeronautical revenue from passenger and airline user charges accounted for 53.5 percent of industry-wide income, a slightly lower proportion than 2008. While non-aeronautical revenues overall declined by 1.5 percent worldwide relative to 2008 figures, revenues from the core commercial areas rose by 3 percent in 2009, driven by retail (+2%), real estate (+10%), car rental concessions (+9%) and Food & Beverage (+7%). Car parking (-3.5%) and advertising (-11%) revenues dropped. Gittens commented, ‘Non-aeronautical revenues are a vital component in the economics of airports. During the downturn the diversification of airport revenues cushioned the impact of lower passenger and freight volumes. Non-aeronautical revenues critically determine the financial viability of an airport as they tend to generate higher profit margins than aeronautical activities, which are typically cost recovery only, or operate at a deficit’. Operating expenses Airports worldwide in 2009 incurred operating expenses in the amount of USD 57 billion or 60 percent of revenues. The largest expense item reported was personnel cost, accounting for 39.5 percent of operating expenses, followed by contracted services (outsourcing cost to third parties) as the second biggest cost item at 23 percent of total operating cost. Capital Expenditure Capital expenditure at airports worldwide was almost 20 percent lower than predicted for 2009, with USD 34.6 billion spent on airport upgrades or expansions of existing airport infrastructure. For 2010, airports expect capital expenditure to rise by 11 percent to USD 38.5 billion. Capital Costs:In 2009, capital costs industry-wide (including depreciation) amounted to USD 29.5 billion or 31 percent of total revenue. 40 percent of that cost is for interest while the remainder constitutes depreciation. Of the 646 airports reporting, 165 airports (25%) made a net loss in 2009. For long term debt (financial liabilities with a maturity of more than one year), based on two years of data, ACI revised its calculation of global airport industry debt upwards from USD 240 billion to USD 280 billion. This means that industry debt is three times higher than annual industry revenues.

IATA and Innovata’s strategic partnership

The International Air Transport Association has signed an agreement to resell services of aviation and hospitality data specialist Innovata. The deal marks a multi-year extension to a strategic marketing partnership that was formed by the two organisations in March 2003. IATA is going to continue to promote Innovata’s SRS (Schedules Reference Service). Upon signing the agreement, Richard Thorne, Managing Director Aviation, Innovata stated: Innovata has made enormous strides in putting down a huge footprint in this industry over the past several years and the SRS strategic marketing partnership with IATA has been a key element in helping secure that footprint.With this renewed agreement, IATA’s member airlines will continue to benefit from cost savings delivered through Innovata’s SRS worldwide airline schedules database ” a service built on Innovata’s advanced database platform and technical infrastructure that includes schedules for over 900 participating airlines. The SRS Analyser ” an online schedules analysis tool powered by Innovata data ” will continue to be sold as an embedded module within IATA’s PaxIS and AirportIS market intelligence products. In addition, the agreement is broadened to appoint IATA the exclusive reseller in designated world markets for Innovata’s full range of SRS schedules and related data products, plus its complete portfolio of timetable and route network mapping services ” greatly enhancing IATA’s ability to deliver significant cost-savings and efficiencies to airlines around the globe. Innovata, in association with IATA, maintains an industry leading airline schedules database with over 900 participating airlines. It also provides a range of electronic timetable and mapping services to over 100 airline, airport and travel website companies and provides its data to several online analytical services used by well over 300 industry related companies. Richard Thorne added, The original SRS strategic agreement with IATA set up in 2003 was designed to ensure, from IATA’s perspective, that there would always be a strong and reliable source for a comprehensive high quality industry schedules database available for its airline members that would be priced in an open transparent way. Also, with Innovata operating a lean and efficient company we were able to pass on that efficiency in lower fees to airlines and save them money compared to the historically high prices they had hitherto been paying , and in some cases still are for data from Innovata’s only competitor in this market.The extension of this agreement means IATA airlines members can still enjoy a source of low-cost high-quality aggregated schedules and minimum connect time industry data for years to come.Additionally the extension of the agreement to incorporate an exclusive reseller arrangement means that airlines in parts of the world where Innovata has limited or no sales presence can now be serviced by IATA and benefit from the opportunity to buy Innovata products via IATA – not just our range of data services but also our portfolio of electronic timetables and route network mapping products. These are the leading products in the market today in terms of use and adoption by airlines and airports,he said.

New association for promotion of Arabian tourism

A new travel industry association has been launched for promoting tourism to the Arab world. The Middle East & North Africa Travel Association (MENATA) hopes to perform a similar role to other regional tourism bodies including PATA, the CTO and LATA, the respective travel associations for Pacific-Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Stretching 6,500 kms from the Atlantic coast to the Indian Ocean, the MENATA region covers 18 Arab countries plus Turkey, Cyprus and Iran. It brings together high-profile tourist destinations such as Dubai, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco with countries still waiting to be discovered. MENATA is initially going to target UK-based companies with an interest in Middle East and North Africa tourism plus travel-related companies operating within the MENA region itself. Membership is open to all sectors of the travel industry including national tourist offices, airlines, hotels, tour operators, car rental suppliers, destination management companies and tourist attractions. The announcement of the new travel association coincides with the launch of the MENATA website (www.menata.org) which presents colourful portraits of every country in the region, together with details of members’ benefits and how to join. MENATA will formally start operations in January 2011. Companies signing up before February 28, 2011 will qualify for Founder Member status including paying no joining fee. The MENATA region covers the following countries and territories: Algeria, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia. Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (including Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah & Umm Al Qaiwain) and Yemen.