NBTA Europe scheduled its European conference for 6 September to 8 September in Lisbon, looking to attract travel managers with "pan-European responsibility."

Mega corporate travel agency transactions through ARC grew 8.46 percent in January, faster than the 6.88 percent average for all agencies. Online agencies continued their brisk growth with 15 percent higher year-over-year ARC transactions in January, although the increase was the lowest for OTAs since April. Other agencies, including small or midsize business travel specialists, have not achieved ARC transaction growth in any one month since before the recession.

TripIt launched a free company groups function allowing participating business travelers to see on a map where co-workers are traveling. TripIt already enabled more than 1,000 groups for companies with large numbers of users, "and will create more groups upon request." Those enrolling on the site are asked whether they are a traveler, travel arranger or company travel manager. "Employees must have a valid company email address to join their company's group, can only see travel dates and locations of others in their group, and always have the option of not sharing a trip with their group," according to TripIt.

Lufthansa pilots agreed to suspend strike activity through 8 March, and the airline said a normal intercontinental flight schedule would resume on 26 February.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide in conjunction with Tata Communications opened Cisco TelePresence meetings suites in a W property in Chicago and a Sheraton in Sydney. Two more telepresence suites will open during the first half of 2010 including the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers and Sheraton Centre Toronto, followed later by the Westin Los Angeles Airport and other locations in Brussels, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Paris and San Francisco.

India's Kingfisher Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding to join the oneworld alliance, subject to Indian regulatory approval. "The process to bring any airline on board normally takes around 18 months to complete, so Kingfisher Airlines could be expected to start flying as part of oneworld during 2011," according to the alliance's press statement.

Global distribution system hotel bookings in January 2010 increased 5 percent while average daily rate declined 1.2 percent to $155.19 versus January 2009, according to Pegasus Solutions. In North America, ADR dropped 2.4 percent to $138.85 but net bookings jumped 11 percent compared with January 2009. In contrast to January 2008 and 2007 levels, North America ADR fell 14 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively. Outside North America, year-over-year ADR fell 0.34 percent and bookings grew 1.7 percent in January.