NBTA Aviation Committee to Unveil New Airline RFP Created to Serve as Industry Standard

Los Angeles, CA (July 22, 2008) – The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) this week announced that the NBTA Airline Request for Proposal (RFP) has been completely re-created to meet travel buyer needs within today"s dynamic market. Designed to serve as an industry standard, the NBTA Airline RFP will be unveiled at and made available to all attendees of the 2008 NBTA International Convention & Exposition in Los Angeles July 27-30.

The new NBTA Airline RFP was created by the NBTA Aviation Committee with valuable industry insight from airlines, consultants and corporate travel managers to serve companies of all sizes, including those with both national and international reach. Businesses can customize the RFP to include only necessary features based on the demographics of a company and its travelers. Airlines can also expect greater ease through the RFP process with this new industry standard, which will allow for uniform proposal sections to be quickly modified upon each request.

NBTA Aviation Committee Co-Chair Doug DeBaltzo said: "In today"s changing and challenging aviation market, corporate travel managers and airlines are more concerned than ever about proposal and contract specifics. After having received enthusiastic reactions from both industry segments, we are sure this new RFP will help to target valuable individualized business-specific information and smooth the entire proposal process."

In addition to the official RFP document, the Aviation Committee has created corresponding resources to benefit both travel buyers and airlines. An Airline Pricing and Targets feature will help both airlines and travel managers organize and simplify pricing categories, while a timeline feature will assist travel buyers with gauging an RFP process timeframe from initial request to contract.

Committee Co-Chair Susan Mays commented, "The NBTA Aviation Committee is excited to introduce this new Airline RFP to our corporate travel colleagues across the globe. We are particularly looking forward to both positive feedback and suggestions for future consideration, as we plan to keep this new RFP updated to address changes in years to come."

DeBaltzo added, "On behalf of NBTA, I"d like to thank Aviation Committee member Jack Lever for spearheading the effort to re-create the Airline RFP, as well as all Committee members for their dedication to the advancement of the corporate travel industry."

The Airline RFP will be available to NBTA 2008 Convention attendees at the Discover NBTA Booth (#1625) and can be downloaded onto thumb drives at NBTA Resource Kiosks around the Los Angeles Convention Center. NBTA members will have access to the new RFP via the NBTA website www.nbta.org. Members of the media should email [email protected] to request a copy.

About NBTA

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) is the world"s premier business travel and corporate meetings organization. NBTA and its regional affiliates – NBTA Asia Pacific, NBTA Canada, NBTA Mexico and NBTA USA – serve a network of more than 15,000 business travel professionals around the globe with industry-leading events, networking, education & professional development, research, news & information, and advocacy. NBTA members, numbering more than 4,000 in 30 nations, are corporate and government travel and meetings managers, as well as travel service providers. They collectively manage and direct more than US$200 billion of global business travel and meetings expenditures annually on behalf of more than 10 million business travelers within their organizations. For more information, visit www.nbta.org.

About the NBTA Convention

Widely recognized as the must-attend event for business travel buyers, suppliers, industry leaders and business travel journalists, the 2008 NBTA International Convention & Exposition will be held in Los Angeles from July 27-30. More than 6,000 travel professionals are expected to take advantage of the convention"s programming, designed to empower attendees to maximize value for their companies, including more than 40 seminars on the most important topics in business travel, more than 460 companies exhibiting in the Expo and countless opportunities for networking with peers. For details, visit www.nbtaconvention.org.

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