American Express Business Travel announced a series of recent new customer wins and contract extensions across a broad range of industry groups and geographies. To further capitalize on its early first quarter sales acquisitions momentum and to ensure that client needs continue to be met on every level, the Company also announced key reinforcements to its leadership structure, effective immediately.

Delta intends to terminate its agreement with Mesa Air Group’s Freedom Airlines to operate Delta Connection flights, but Mesa insists that Delta has no legal basis for doing so.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) downgraded its industry profit expectations for 2008 to $4.5 billion based on global economic growth slowing to 2.6 percent and an average annualized oil price of $86 per barrel (Brent Crude).

The second annual Financial Benchmarking Report, the results of which provide travel agencies with data that can be used to pinpoint areas of excellence, as well as areas which can be improved was released by ASTA. Among the key findings, the report discovered that of those surveyed, the majority (75.6 percent) were profitable in 2006 and similarly expect to be profitable again in 2007 and 2008.

Citing the high price of oil and other factors, charter airline Champion Air will cease flight operations on May 31. Champion is a partner of wholesaler Worry Free Vacations and regularly flies to Las Vegas and Cancun, Mexico.

Online travel agencies (OTAs) have spent more than a decade bidding to become the travel agents of the future. In the process of aggregating millions of transactions every day, they’ve grown into multinational corporations that take in billions of dollars in revenue each year and set the pace for Internet bookings, new online marketing tools, rich inventory content and innovative online services for travelers.