The U.S. Transportation Department wants airlines to be more transparent about their ancillary fees. In theory it would help businesses, but the corporate travel sector has been grappling with this issue for years already.
The company, which is backed by Concur co-founder Steve Singh, is still on its mission to quietly dismantle the underlying technology and commercial kickbacks that the corporate travel industry was built on. That costs a lot of money.
Travelport is certainly firming up a lot of the themes alluded to in its rebranding. And it's good timing, as the travel tech giant's reincarnation may well coincide with the business travel sector's delayed recovery.
Rather than guessing how people will compare flights and shop in the future, it's going to focus on giving travel agencies and other channels the right airline data via its next generation storefront, and let them figure it out. It makes perfect sense in today's unpredictable world.
ATPCO's acquisition of fare management tech from SITA probably won't be the last project airlines will reassign. This month's appointment of Alex Zoghlin as CEO of ATPCO suggests further changes are looming.
Airlines need to choose their battles carefully. In Southwest's case, will this combination of technology partnerships and airport testing be enough to bring business trips back at scale?
The pandemic will have marred the first anniversary celebrations, but this fledgling corporate travel unit should have enough experience behind it to ride out the storm.