U.S. business air travel on rise again CHICAGO (Reuters) =97 U.S. business air travel has shown signs of recovering= =20 from a steep drop-off because of the war in Iraq, but cost-conscious=20 managers are still hesitant to approve trips because of heightened security= =20 alerts and SARS. "We are now definitely seeing a swing toward more travel," said Pieter=20 Rieder, vice president of international development at business travel=20 manager Rosenbluth International. "I would not characterize it as being=20 dramatic at this point, but steady and definitely a significant=20 improvement." Many large U.S. corporations curbed travel even within the=20 United States during the war and most banned all but essential travel to=20 areas affected by the war or by the pneumonia-like virus SARS, or severe=20 acute respiratory syndrome. The war and SARS were just the latest blows to= =20 U.S. airlines, which have reported billions of dollars of losses in the=20 downturn since the Sept. 11, 2001, hijack attacks. Two airlines, UAL Corp. unit United Airlines and US Airways Group Inc.,=20 filed for bankruptcy and American Airlines parent AMR Corp. narrowly=20 avoided a filing just weeks ago. US Airways exited protection in March.=20 Corporate transactions on travel within and from the United States have=20 risen in recent weeks to about 4 percent below what would have been=20 expected had there been no war or SARS, Rieder said. However, ticket prices= =20 appear to be holding steady and possibly dropping slightly, he said. The=20 slight rise in demand still leaves business travel below last year,=20 American Express Corporate Travel spokeswoman Melissa Abernathy said. "The= =20 good news is that travel appears to be picking up, the bad news is that it= =20 is picking back up to prewar levels, which were horrible," Kevin Mitchell,= =20 chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said. "There is still a lot of=20 anxiety." The war punished trans-Atlantic travel from the United States,=20 and SARS continues to crush traffic to and within Asia. Some companies, however, have managed to save money by using=20 videoconferencing and computers to make international connections because=20 of travel bans. Other companies have lifted travel bans, but remain=20 cautious because SARS reports have varied so much, and have decided to=20 allow only essential travel, Mitchell said. The tightening of travel=20 policies may become permanent, as may a growing move toward business=20 customers acting more like leisure travelers and using cheaper restricted=20 fares to make lean budgets last longer, experts said. In 2000, about 25=20 percent of the tickets American Express corporate customers bought were=20 cheaper nonrefundable fares, Abernathy said. By March 2003, 54 percent of=20 the tickets were nonrefundable, she said. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************