The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) has assembled a task force to find solutions to the challenges airline ancillary fees present for the managed travel industry.

The Airline Ancillary Product Global Task Force represents the spectrum of the international business travel industry that touches on the processes of booking, charging, and tracking air-travel expenses, including: credit-card issuers; global distribution systems (GDS); airlines; travel-management companies (corporate travel agencies); and corporate travel buyers.

Members of the task force include executives from: Air Plus International, Amadeus, American Express, ARC (Airlines Reporting Corporation), ATPCO (Airline Tariff Publishing Company), BCD Travel, Concur, Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, EADS, MasterCard Worldwide, Sabre, Thomson Reuters, 3SIXTY Global, TRX, US Airways, and Visa.

NBTA president/CEO Craig Banikowski explained: “The need arose to create a group of industry leaders to help educate the managed corporate-travel community aboutthis emerging trend. The task force was not created to assess why airlines are adding ancillary products but to provide a centralized repository of information and to evaluate methods that can increase transparency and improve reporting. Travel buyers must understand their total travel spend to successfully manage corporate-travel budgets and policies.”

In addition to working on specific initiatives, this task force is expected to serve as a resource for NBTA members around the world. Initially, the group is charged with developing a best-practices proposal about the improvement of airline data submission to credit-card companies. It was felt improvement in this area would result in enhanced corporate reporting on ancillary fees, regardless of purchase point.