ARLINGTON, Va. --
ARC closed the books on 2005 with a smile. Sales were up 7% to
$70.5 billion, the best year since 2001, when the 9/11 attacks sent
travel sales into a tailspin.
It was the second
consecutive year of 7% growth, and it ended on a strong December,
with monthly sales rising 11% to nearly $5.3 billion.
Most of the
growth was on the international side. Excluding taxes, ARC said
international sales were up 12% for the year, while domestic sales
were up 3%.
ARCs annual
report carried the additional good news that e-ticketing continued
to grow, accounting at year-end for 89.47% of all transactions
processed through ARC travel agencies and corporate travel
departments.
And for agency
managers, the report showed that the weekly sales per location
averaged $60,205 last year, a 16% increase over 2004.
The downside, of
course, is that this increase is driven in part by a continued
reduction in the number of locations. ARC ended the year with
20,003 retail locations, a 4% decline from 2004, and 2,010 STP
branches, an 18% decline.
On the bright
side, the surviving agencies appear to be stronger. ARC reported
only 148 default declarations in 2005, a 47% decline from the
previous year, and a supplier loss of just under $2.3 million, a
62% decline.
ARCs report also
shows that, excluding taxes, international sales accounted for 43%
of the dollar volume of revenue remitted to suppliers, an apparent
all-time high that reflects a continuing shift of the ARC business
mix. Ten years ago, domestic sales accounted for 71.5% of the
total, and international fares accounted for only 28.5%.
That shift is
thought to reflect the domestic airlines reduced reliance on agency
business in recent years as well as the overall lowering of
domestic fares because of low-fare competition.
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