Airlines and business travel industry consultants are working to “relieve some of the pain” of the airline request for proposal and contracting process, Business Travel News reported.
One major step toward air RFP simplification is a recent push toward standardization, Advito global air practice leader Olivier Benoit told the industry news outlet. Benoit was a member of the Global Business Travel Association committee that developed an air RFP toolkit released earlier this year.
“The new air RFP toolkit modernizes and globalizes the previous version, making it less United States-centric, factoring in the latest industry trends and updating data-analysis capabilities,” BTN reported. In the article, Benoit detailed the GBTA air toolkit’s four basic elements:
- Project plan and timeline
- RFP guidelines
- Air carrier data pack
- Proposal template
Benoit told BTN that the ultimate goal is not necessarily to have every corporate travel program use the same tool, but to simplify key elements of the air RFP process through standardization. Once that’s achieved, a next step would be for airlines to automate data delivery, he said.
