Business Travel News’ fifth birthday year 1989 was pivotal
for the business travel industry, with corporates seemingly gaining power and
the industry overall realizing that in order to serve corporate business, you
can’t operate a “business-as-usual” leisure-style agency. Plus, travel suppliers—with
some very interesting exceptions—seem to be coming to the realization that corporate
deals are worth major coin (and steady-as-she-goes revenue streams), even if discounts
are involved.
We should put this on an important backdrop as well. The
U.S. airline industry in 1989—and BTN generally covered only the U.S. market at
this point in its history—was experiencing really complex dynamics that would
take volumes to…