Travelocity Business picked up a major
account, defense contractor Lockheed Martin, believed to be the
largest corporate account to switch to a major online retailer.
The Sabre unit
signed a five-year contract to provide global travel management
services to Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin, which is ranked
47th on the 2005 Fortune 500 list.
Travelocity
Business will replace Navigant International as the travel-services
provider to the 135,000-employee corporation.
Under the
agreement, Travelocity Business will provide Lockheed Martin with
online booking, fulfillment, 24-hour agency support and support
services for VIP, international and meetings-related
trips.
According to an
annual listing of corporate travel accounts compiled by Business
Travel News, Lockheed Martin was No. 4, accounting for $206 million
in U.S. air travel in 2004.
We selected
Travelocity Business after a thorough evaluation of proposals from
a number of travel management companies, including the incumbent
supplier, said Jeff Adams, a spokesman for Lockheed
Martin.
Navigant could not
be reached for comment last week.
Lockheed Martin,
which provides information technology, systems integration and
training services to the federal government, also agreed to work
with the Travelocity Business Consulting unit to explore
opportunities to optimize its supplier programs, Travelocity
stated.
In other news,
Travelocity Business raised its profile in Europe, moving U.S.
multinational customers that were served from an outsourced
facility in the U.K. to a Travelocity Business-owned fulfillment
center in Amersham, U.K. Travelocity Business took ownership of the
fulfillment center through the acquisition of Lastminute.com and
its corporate travel business.
To
contact reporter Dennis Schaal, send e-mail to [email protected].
Harvey Chipkin
contributed to this report.