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AirPlus, an award winning business travel payment provider looks back on a successful 2009 financial year. Despite the decline in the global economy and subsequent travel embargoes implemented by companies, AirPlus remained profitable, achieving 17.2 million euros before tax. As a result of the recession, the settlement turnover was six percent below the previous year (18.1 billion euros). On a worldwide scale, 856 AirPlus staff members supported more than 33,000 business customers last year. The share of the international settlement turnover rose to 48%, compared to 41% last year.
“The response of many companies in the face of the recession was to cut travel budgets and tighten their company’s travel policies. For this reason, business travellers travelled less than in the previous year,” explained AirPlus’ CEO Patrick W. Diemer at the annual Press Talks held in Neu-Isenburg, Germany in March 2010. “However, by acquiring new customers we cushioned the negative impact of business travel embargoes implemented by some of our existing clients. This played a big part in securing jobs at AirPlus – worldwide”, said Diemer.
In 2009, AirPlus continued to assert its unchallenged market leadership in Germany and maintain its favourable positioning in other business travel markets across the globe. “Our goal to become the preferred global provider of business travel payment and MIS solutions by 2012 is still a realistic goal that does not need to be adjusted after 2009,” said Diemer. Looking at the next 12 months, Diemer remains optimistic, stating: “Our current settlement turnover shows us that the economic situation is improving when it comes to business travel. This is even more obvious abroad than in our home market in Germany.” For many companies, the pressure of saving costs has lead to changes in internal practices where travel management is concerned. “We have noticed that many travel managers used the influence they gained within their organisations during the recession to introduce professional payment and analysis solutions offered by AirPlus. This enabled them to keep up the required mobility for their companies in spite of travel budgets cuts” said Diemer. An overview of AirPlus’ activities in 2009:
In 2009, AirPlus continued to expand its international network by entering into a strategic partnership with Banco Santander. With this alliance, companies in Portugal and Latin America can now benefit from a global payment solution for their business travel expense management. By partnering with Banco Santander, AirPlus is in a position to service new growing markets where the need for professional travel expense management solutions is increasing. Moreover, AirPlus and Hertz announced their partnership in 2009, offering an enhanced choice to existing AirPlus customers across nine European countries. Companies are now able to pay for a Hertz car-rental and analyse their spend in detail using AirPlus’ payment and MIS solutions. The cooperation with Hertz complements the existing partnerships with the leading car-rental companies, such as Avis, Europcar and Sixt.
TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific editorial team has an experience of over 35 years in B2B travel journalism as well as in tourism & hospitality marketing and communications.
