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The Travel Career Connexxions Opportunities Newsletter
01/18/05 The only weekly newsletter detailing essential trends, news and top executive moves in travel. Opportunities is a free newsletter that provides you with the vision to "see" travel industry opportunities in the making. Whether you are in sales, business development, guiding your company's growth or managing your career, reading opportunities will give you the advantage to succeed. Opportunities is another innovative tool brought to you by Travel Career Connexxions. For more information, visit http://www.TravelExecutive.com This week in Opportunities:
Amadeus Sold to British Investor Group To ensure that you always receive this newsletter and other communications from Travel Career Connexxions, please add our address to your Address Book (newsletter@travelexecutive.com). This will keep most email filters from misinterpreting and discarding these emails. Did you know? As of 01/18/05 there are 116 executive-level travel jobs published in the Travel Career Connexxions employment report. Positions include Director Information Services (01/13), Regional Director - Airport Affairs (01/13), Director of Sales (01/13), Vice President of Merchandising (12/23), Director Product Management (12/28), CEO, Chief Marketing Officer and more. It only takes one person to fill the job of a lifetime - and that someone could be you! http://www.TravelExecutive.com OPPORTUNITIES NEWS & TRENDS! Amadeus Sold to British Investor Group Could a major takeover affect employment at Amadeus? Last week Amadeus Global Travel Distribution agreed to be acquired by two British private investment funds for about 4.34 billion euros ($5.69 billion), the company's main shareholders said in a Jan. 12 statement to regulators. The publicly traded shares of the Madrid-based travel services company will be bought out by Cinven Group and BC Partners, according to the GDS company's airline owners--Iberia, Air France and Lufthansa. According to wire service reports, the three airlines will sell their stakes in Amadeus, but reinvest part of the proceeds in a new company created by the private equity firms, giving the airlines about a 40 percent stake in Amadeus in the future. A report in the Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias said Lufthansa will raise its stake in Amadeus to 11 percent from 5 percent once the transaction is complete, Air France will reduce its stake to 22 percent from 23.3 percent and Iberia will cut its stake to 11 percent from 18.2 percent. The three airlines currently own 47 percent of Amadeus with 86 percent of the voting rights. The company's shares have risen about 50 percent since the three airlines confirmed in mid-August that they had been approached by nearly a dozen potential acquirers. The deal would result in Amadeus being de-listed on the Madrid stock exchange. Spirit Names US Airways' Baldanza as President A top executive at a major airline is heading for the low-cost world. Spirit Airlines named Ben Baldanza as president and chief operating officer. He will join Spirit on Jan. 24, 2005. Baldanza will be directly responsible for Spirit's business, including operations, maintenance, sales and marketing. He most recently served as senior vice president of marketing and planning at US Airways. In this position, he was responsible for route planning, scheduling, pricing and revenue management, as well as marketing, sales, cargo, distribution, and US Airways' international division. Prior to US Airways, Baldanza served as managing director and chief operating officer of Grupo Taca, an airline based in El Salvador currently serving 34 cities in 19 countries. Baldanza previously held positions at Continental Airlines, where he was executive vice president-marketing, Northwest Airlines and American Airlines. US Airways Does Post-Baldanza Executive Shuffle You lose one, you have to get one-or two or three. US Airways Group filled several senior management positions and restructured responsibilities both at US Airways and US Airways Express. These changes will take place between now and the end of January. Bruce Ashby, currently senior vice president of alliances and president of US Airways Express, will become executive vice president of marketing and planning, replacing Ben Baldanza, who left to become president of Spirit Airlines. Ashby will oversee the company's route planning, scheduling, pricing and yield management functions, as well as marketing, sales, reservations, distribution, international, alliances, cargo and US Airways Express. Ashby was the lead negotiator in reaching cost savings labor agreements with the company's pilots and flight attendants. He joined US Airways in April 1996 as vice president-financial planning and analysis. Before that, he was with Delta Air Lines in Atlanta as vice president-marketing development. He also was employed by United Airlines in Chicago as vice president-financial planning and analysis, and as vice president and treasurer. Andrew Nocella, vice president of network and revenue management, will become senior vice president-planning, responsible for the company's route planning, scheduling, pricing and yield management functions. He joined US Airways as vice president of scheduling and planning in April 2002 from America West Airlines, where he was vice president, planning and scheduling. Anita Beier, in addition to her existing role as senior vice president and controller, will now be responsible for the company's organizational re- engineering and priorities. She replaces James Schear, vice president of restructuring, who will become vice president of safety and regulatory compliance. Schear succeeds William Bozin, who has accepted a position at another company. Beier currently is responsible for the management of all accounting functions for US Airways Group, Inc., and its subsidiaries, including financial reporting, revenue accounting, accounts payable, and payroll. She came to US Airways from CSX Corp., where she held a number of positions in financial management, including vice president-financial planning. James Schear joined US Airways in September 2004 from the FAA's Air Traffic Organization, where he was vice president of safety, responsible for safety direction and assurance in all facets of the National Airspace System and international leadership of the FAA's global safety efforts. He also was deputy for aviation operations for the Transportation Security Administration. In that role, he was responsible for an operational chain of 159 Federal Security Directors, and managed over 60,000 employees at 440 airports. Schear, a licensed commercial pilot, started his aviation career with Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1975, which was merged into US Airways in 1988. Janet Dhillon, managing director and associate general counsel, will become vice president and deputy general counsel replacing Kathleen Harris, who left the company in December. Dhillon will be responsible for general corporate matters, including corporate compliance, internal audit, Sarbanes-Oxley implementation and environmental issues. Before joining US Airways in August 2004, Dhillon was a counsel with law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington and Los Angeles. Stephen Morrell, vice president of financial planning and analysis, will become vice president of finance and treasurer, replacing Eilif Serck-Hanssen, who has accepted a position at another company. Morrell will be responsible for US Airways' capital markets and aircraft financing and transactions, insurance programs, risk and cash management, pensions, investments programs, treasury, and fuel. He joined US Airways in 1994 as an analyst, maintenance operations. Since that time he has served in a number of positions, including director of treasury operations and assistant treasurer. Keith Houk, president and chief executive officer of wholly owned US Airways subsidiary Piedmont Airlines, will replace Richard Pfennig, who is retiring as president and chief executive officer of wholly owned US Airways subsidiary PSA. Houk will be replaced by Steven Farrow, currently vice president of flight operations at Piedmont. Houk entered aviation in 1974 in sales at Allegheny Commuter and later joined US Airways in 1988. Steven Farrow served as vice president of flight operations at Piedmont and previously held the same position at Henson Aviation. He is in charge of all Piedmont's flight operations. Cendant Keeps Buying Online Travel Assets Don't look now but Cendant Corporation is increasing its presence in the online travel world yet again. Cendant Travel Distribution Services (TDS) has acquired substantially all of the assets of The Away Network, a leader in online special interest travel. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Away Network operates three sites: Away.com, GORP.com (Great Outdoor Recreation Pages) and Outside Online, the website of Outside Magazine. Combined, these sites averaged nearly two million unique visitors a month in 2004, according to Comscore Media Metrix. Cendant TDS now includes Galileo, a leading global distribution services (GDS); hotel distribution and services businesses (TRUST, THOR, WizCom and Neat Group); online travel agencies (Orbitz, CheapTickets, Lodging.com, HotelClub.com and RatesToGo.com); Shepherd Systems, an airline market intelligence company; Travelwire, an international travel technology and software company; Travel 2/Travel 4, a leading international provider of long-haul air travel and travel product consolidator; and online global corporate travel management solutions, through Travelport and Orbitz for Business. So if you're interested in getting into a growing company in the online travel world, Cendant might be just the ticket. Business Travel Barometer Forecasts More Growth No, business travel is not dead yet. Carlson Wagonlit Travel's first annual "Business Travel Barometer" survey found that more than 60 percent of travel managers polled expect their company's business travel spending to increase this year, while 34 percent of business travelers anticipate more travel and 49 percent expect to stay about the same as 2004. It also found business travelers in North America cite airport security lines as having the largest effect on corporate travel today, with a higher negative impact than safety/terrorist concerns, flight delays, customer service or corporate travel policy restrictions. Yet despite the inconvenience of long lines, business travelers welcome more security precautions, believing that advanced passenger screening, such as fingerprint or eye print technology, is the most effective action government can take to ensure the safety of flying travelers. The survey gauged attitudes and perceptions of North American business travelers and corporate travel managers about the current and future state of business travel. It sampled opinions of 1,200 business travelers and 300 travel managers in the United States and Canada. The survey results also indicate work-life balance is of greater concern to business travelers than many corporate travel managers realize. Twenty-three percent of business travelers ranked work-life balance as the most negative impact of business travel, while only 14 percent of travel managers considered that to be the case for their company's traveling executives. And while travel managers believe their travelers think corporate travel policy restrictions pose a significant problem (22 percent), only 8 percent of business travelers actually cited corporate policy as a concern. Other key findings of the survey include: Travel managers are likely to think their travelers' biggest pet peeves during travel are long lines for security check-ins (29 percent) and discovering another passenger paid less for their ticket (19 percent). Business travelers, however, say their biggest pet peeve is travelers who don't check their bags when they should (32 percent), followed by crying babies (13 percent). U.S. business travelers are more likely than their Canadian counterparts to say their biggest pet peeve is travelers who don't check their luggage (32 percent versus 19 percent, respectively). Canadian business travelers' biggest pet peeves are travelers who disturb them by not letting them work, sleep or read (31 percent versus 10 percent for U.S. travelers). Seventy-one percent of North American business travelers said they are very hesitant to travel to the Middle East, while only half (52 percent) of travel managers thought that their business travelers would be very hesitant. Nearly nine out of 10 travel managers (87 percent) believe it is likely that advanced security check-ins will be a part of business travel in the future. Fifty-nine percent think it is very likely, as do 43 percent of business travelers. Travel managers are considerably more confident than business travelers that there will be fewer major airlines (47 percent versus 26 percent).Travel managers and business travelers think it is very likely that travel bookings will be primarily completed online (44 percent and 54 percent, respectively) in five years. Nine out of 10 business travelers (89 percent) think it is likely that virtually all bookings will be completed online in five years. Business travelers from Canada were more likely to believe that there will be a return to more enhanced food and beverage service than U.S. travelers (44 percent and 34 percent, respectively). Boost Reported for Meetings & Incentive Market Another travel market that continues to strong is meetings and incentives. For the second consecutive year, the multi-billion dollar global meetings industry will experience solid increases in key economic impact indicators including spending, international travel, employment and training budgets underscoring overall fiscal and corporate health, according to FutureWatch 2005, an annual report by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and American Express. Globally, meeting planners in segments such as corporate, independent and association/non-profit, forecast a 5 percent budget increase in 2005, building on a 3 percent increase in 2004. For suppliers, overall revenues are projected to increase 13 percent in 2005 over 10 percent in 2004, increasing a gap between planner spend and supplier revenue projections to 8 percent versus 7 percent last year. There also are expectations for sustained increases in international meetings and business travel, employment and training budgets. From Europe, outbound meetings will increase to 28 percent of all planned meetings in 2005 over 17 percent in 2004, and from Canada, 29 percent of meetings will be international in 2005 vs. 23 percent in 2004. In both cases, the United States is the top destination choice. U.S. planner expectations for outbound meetings are up one percent to 23 percent, primarily to Europe and Canada. Occidental Adds Grand Papagayo in Costa Rica Interested in a lodging company that just keeps adding resorts? Occidental Hotels & Resorts unveiled its newest resort, Grand Papagayo in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. The Grand Papagayo marks the third property in the company's Costa Rica portfolio. The 169-room Grand Papagayo Resort was designed to cater to the upscale traveler and family. JW Marriott to Open Tucson Resort in February A The first new resort to the Tucson area in 18 years, the JW Marriott Starr Pass Resort & Spa, will open next month. Located on 50 acres in the Tucson Mountains and 10 minutes from downtown Tucson, the 575-room resort will feature a 27-hold Arnold Palmer signature golf facility at the renovated Starr Pass Golf Club, a 20,000-square-foot Hashani Spa with 23 treatment rooms, 88,000 square feet of meeting space, three pools, two tennis courts and seven dining and lounge venues. Sofitel Expands with New Hotels Worldwide in 2005 Want to know about another growing hotel company? Sofitel, the premium brand of Accor hotels, said it will continue to expand its portfolio with 11 new four- and five-star hotels around the world in 2005. Joining the established 180 hotels in more than 50 countries will be Sofitel Phi Phi Villa & Spa in Thailand; Sofitel Gold Coast in Australia; Sofitel Queenstown in New Zealand; Sofitel Fiji Resort & Spa; Sofitel Florianpolis in Brazil and Sofitel El Gezira in Egypt. Five new properties will also open in China, including: Sofitel on Renmin Dasha Xian; Sofitel Suzhou; Sofitel Plaza Xiamen; Sofitel Shanghai New Town Anting; and Sofitel Sunny Plaza Shijiazhuang. Starwood Plans 30th Hotel in China Sofitel isn't the only hotel company with major expansion plans for China. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc and Chongqing Taizheng Company Limited have announced an agreement whereby Starwood will manage the Sheraton Chongqing Hotel in China. This newly built 330-room Sheraton Chongqing Hotel is scheduled to open in January 2008. Starwood Hotels & Resorts has expanded its portfolio in China significantly since last year with the opening of Sheraton hotels in Sanya on Hainan Island, Dongguan in Guangdong province, Jiuzhaigou in Sichuan province in 2003 and Four Points by Sheraton Shenzhen in 2004. In the past 12 months, the company also signed eight agreements to manage new hotels in Shenzhen, Ningbo, Xiamen, Beijing, Changsha, Haikou, Hong Kong and Shanghai. With the signing of Sheraton Chongqing Hotel, Starwood now has 30 hotels open or under construction in China under the St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton, W Hotels and Four Points by Sheraton brands. OPPORTUNITIES EXECUTIVE MOVERS! AIRLINES: The oneworld alliance appointed Ken Gilbert, a 25-year veteran of oneworld member American Airlines, as vice president-customer experience and airports. Gilbert will lead the delivery and development of the alliance's customer services, including the final stages of its interline e-ticketing program that will be completed in the coming weeks, making oneworld the first of the global airline alliances with IET in place between all partnersÖATA Holdings Corp., parent of ATA Airlines, named Gilbert Viets as executive vice president and CFO. Viets had served as ATA's chief restructuring officer and replaces David Wing, who left ATA to pursue other opportunities. In other management changes at ATA, Sean Frick, named vice president of strategic planning in 2004, will add duties as ATA's chief restructuring officer and will continue to report to Viets. Frick, who joined ATA in 1997, had been director of strategic planning. Richard Meyer, Jr., has been promoted to senior vice president of employee relations. Meyer, who joined ATA in 1989, had been vice president of labor relations. Meyer's new position combines the functions of human resources and labor relations for all of ATA's work groups. Brian Hunt, vice president and general counsel, has been promoted to senior vice president and general counsel. Hunt, who joined ATA in 1990, is also ATA's corporate secretary. Wisty Malone, named vice president and controller in 2003, will now assume additional responsibility as ATA's treasurer. Malone, who joined ATA in 1995, had previously been director of financial reportingÖGCW Consulting, an international strategic consultancy for organizations in the aviation sector announced that 37-year airport planning veteran Hans Fischer has joined the firm. As vice president and head of GCW's new Rome office, Fischer will be responsible for continued development of the firm's work in Europe and its global airport practice. CRUISES: Swan Hellenic has announced a number of senior management appointments. Tony Dyson has been named to the post of managing director of Swan Hellenic, four months after his promotion from executive director to deputy managing director in August this year. Dyson's appointment comes in the wake of increased responsibilities for Carol Marlow. Following her recent promotion to director EMEA for Cunard in addition to her Princess Cruises and Swan Hellenic roles, she is now taking on the role of chairman of Swan Hellenic. Furthermore, following the departure of Marketing Director Carolanne Dieleman at the end of the month, Sales Director Andrew Magowan has been promoted to sales and marketing director. Magowan will assume responsibility for developing the Swan Hellenic brand and marketing strategy in addition to his sales role. HOTELS & RESORTS: Choice Hotels International has promoted Brian Parker to vice president-emerging markets and new business development, where he will focus on expanding and diversifying Choice's customer base by selling franchises to minority developers and successful entrepreneurs outside of the lodging industryÖOutrigger Hotels & Resorts' Beachfront Division has named two key managers to the company's two beachfront hotels in Waikiki. Elliot Mills has been promoted to general manager of the Outrigger Reef on the Beach, and Jim Heather has been appointed general manager of the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach. Both positions are effective January 1, 2005. Mills has been director of operations for the Outrigger Reef since April 2004, where he has worked closely with the operations management team to enhance the guest experience and improve operational effectiveness. Heather moves to the Outrigger Waikiki from his most recent position as general manager of the Outrigger Kanaloa at Kona on Hawaii's Big Island, where he had the overall responsibility of the management, maintenance and improvements of the 16-acre property with 38 buildingsÖWyndham International, Inc. named Mark Hedley as executive vice president and chief information officer, responsible for driving strategic technology initiatives throughout the company and overseeing casino gaming operations in Puerto Rico. Since joining Wyndham in 2000 as senior vice president and chief technology officer, Hedley has helped the company secure consecutive spots on the prestigious InformationWeek 500 listing as well as receive the coveted CIO 100 Award from CIO MagazineÖKimpton Hotel & Restaurant Group appointed Maria Streeby as general manager of the 224-room Cypress Hotel, located in Cupertino, Calif., the heart of the Silicon Valley. Streeby has served in several diverse positions during her career, primarily with large hotel groups such as Westin Hotels and Resorts and Doubletree Hotels. Most recently, she served at Accenture as facilities and services manager, responsible for all operational aspects of two major locations totaling 140,000 square feet and caring for 1,300 customersÖ TRAVEL AGENTS: Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) has appointed Berthold Trenkel as chief operating officer of CWT's Asia Pacific region. For the past four years, prior to joining CWT on Jan. 3, Trenkel co-led McKinsey & Co.'s travel and logistics practice and oversaw the airline sector in Asia. Geoffrey Marshall, until now president of Asia Pacific and Latin America at CWT, will focus on the Latin American region and continue in his responsibilities with the company's Partners' Network. TOUR OPERATORS: Group Voyagers, Inc., the privately held company that markets and sells the Globus family of brands, named J. Patrick Clark, Jr. as the new managing director for Avalon Waterways, the company's river cruise brand. Clark, formerly vice president of sales for Uniworld, is based in Los Angeles. In his new role, he is responsible for all marketing, advertising, sales and operations of Avalon Waterways. Launched in 2003 and backed with Globus' 75 years of experience taking travelers around the world, Avalon Waterways offers European river cruises with the continent's newest ships. Mike Schields, who previously held this position for Avalon Waterways while also managing the company's group strategy, will take a larger role in developing the overall groups effort for Globus and Cosmos--an area that has shown dramatic growth in the past year. DESTINATIONS: Puerto Rico's new governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila, appointed Terestella Gonzalez Denton as executive director of the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. (PRTC). Denton replaced Jose Suarez, who moved over to the hotel sector in the Bahamas as managing director of the Westin and the Sheraton at Our Lucaya on Grand Bahama IslandÖPilar Bush has been promoted to director of tourism in the Cayman Islands. Bush had served as acting director since last March when the former director resigned to join the cruise industry in Florida. Bush also had served at the same time as deputy director, U.S. sales and marketing, a post she had held since February 2001. A new director has not yet been named. Bush will be based in Grand Cayman.
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