Airlines and Alliances Jan 08

The world of the airline has come under considerable pressure to change in the last couple of years. Increased competition for fewer seats after 911 saw a plethora of airline failures and the drive towards more consolidation.

The clarity of whom owns a stake in whom has become a little murkier since then for those that survived and have even prospered over the last six years. But new pressures exist. The drive to work with cleaner technologies and fuels, the increase in costs of the latter and the changes in the US-European markets due to take place because of "Open Skies" are all contributing to a dramatically changing landscape for the airlines of today. So perhaps the concentration of alliances that has emerged over the last decade has become more important than ever to streamline costs and services for market advantage. But what do these alliances really mean to today's business traveller, are the benefits filtering through to the end users and really making a difference on the purchasing decisions of corporate travel buyers and travellers themselves? This ITM Research survey cross a panel of 165 travel buyers representing over £1.2 billion in corporate travel spend sought to answer some of these questions whilst at the same time gauging the optimism of buyers on the impact of open skies.

This report is now available free to members in the research area of the website.