Marriott International's "group room nights on the books" are down about 2 percent year over year, according to COO Arne Sorenson.

To improve efficiencies, Marriott is reorganizing global operations into four regional divisions: the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Middle East-Africa, according to Marriott International CEO Bill Marriott. Former executive vice president of global sales and marketing Amy McPherson will lead the European division while former executive vice president for the Eastern United States Dave Grissen will head up the Americas division, according to officials. Managed separately up to this point, oversight of the Ritz-Carlton brand also will be handled within each newly defined regional division. Some Ritz-Carlton operations will be incorporated into Marriott corporate headquarters to provide regional management teams "a bit more power and the ability to make decisions," according to Marriott president and COO Arne Sorenson.

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Middle Eastern airline Emirates posted a net profit of AED752 million (US$205 million) for the six months ending 30 September, up from AED284 million (US$77 million) a year earlier. According to chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, "We expect it will take at least another year or two before demand for air transport and travel services starts picking up again." 

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BCD Travel established a joint venture with Greece's Amphitrion Holidays SA, which serves the corporate, meetings and incentives and leisure markets. The Greek agency has six offices, 250 employees and annual turnover of US$143 million, according to BCD Travel, which during the past 18 months has "noticed growing demand by multinational clients for a strong presence in the Greek market."

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Global premium airline traffic in July dropped 14 percent versus a year earlier, according to the International Air Transport Association. This marked the 14th consecutive month of declining first- and business-class volumes but the smallest drop-off recorded in 2009. "Premium travel on international markets, which is mostly for business, is closely correlated to world trade which bottomed out in May and started to turn up in June," according to IATA. "This improvement in cross-border trade is boosting business travel but demand is still very weak compared to the recent past. Moreover, there are no signs as yet that corporate travel buyers are willing to pay for the more flexible, full service and, for the airlines, higher-yielding premium seats."

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Hogg Robinson Group said it created a new international consulting team to handle growing demand "for advice and consultative expertise." The team is led by head of client consultancy Paul Dear, and includes senior executives based in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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American Express Business Travel Global Advisory Services announced a subscription-based service for industry insights. Led by former Aberdeen analyst Christa Manning, the new offering includes on-demand "access to travel management consulting provided in hourly increments," a monthly newsletter, an existing monthly Amex pricing benchmark and an annual forecast.

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Lufthansa Group reported a net loss of €216 million (US$303 million) for the six months ended 30 June, reversing the €381 million profit achieved in the month earlier period. The Passenger Airline segment result was €66 million (US$93 million) versus €362 million (US$535 million), dragged down by weaker demand and business travelers shifting to "cheaper booking classes." Lufthansa noted that "both the tendency for companies to be restrained about business travel and the structural change in travel behavior persisted into the second quarter of 2009." To improve performance of the Passenger Airline segment, the company announced a target to improve results by "by €1 billion (US$1.4 billion) by the end of 2011; thereby, the focus will lie on cutting costs." Details will be announced in "the upcoming weeks."

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Asia-Pacific firms are "beginning to travel outside the region again" although demand "remains sluggish," according to FCm Travel Solutions, based on data in April and May. The company hailed "the return to long-haul flying."

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In a Wednesday memo to employees, leaders of Delta Air Lines detailed an additional 5 percent reduction in international capacity given "significantly"lower demand, effective from September. Adding to a previously announced 10 percent cut, the new moves include suspension of nonstop services between Atlanta and both Seoul and Shanghai; between New York JFK and Edinburgh; and between Cincinnati and both Frankfurt and London Gatwick. The carrier also will reduce frequencies in other markets and "we again must reassess staffing needs."

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The International Air Transport Association now expects global airlines to lose $9 billion during 2009, nearly double its March forecast of $4.7 billion. "After September 11, revenues fell by 7 percent. It took three years to recover lost ground, even on the back of a strong economy," said IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani. "This time we face a 15 percent drop ... in the middle of a global recession." According to IATA, Asia-Pacific carriers as a group will post the largest losses, around $3.3 billion, followed by European carriers ($1.8 billion) experiencing "collapsing demand for premium services in all major markets."

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