Corporate Travel Management (CTM) said the Qantas grounding on Saturday has had no material effect on its business, with 95 percent of impacted clients moved onto alternate flights.
According to CTM managing director Jamie Pherous, the company had a large number of employees working over the weekend to take care of affected clients, but it expects the “cost to minimal and for the dispute to have no material impact.”
“We had $1.5m of invoiced travel issued from Saturday afternoon through to this morning relating specifically to the Qantas grounding and we were able to move 95 percent of affected clients onto alternate flights, which is an amazing result given the circumstances.”
Pherous said CTM re-booked close to 5,000 travellers, a result he attributes to the dedication of the team and its mobile technology platform ‘assist-u.’
“…clients using the assist-u product were automatically notified and had first access to seats on alternative carriers.”
“Our strong supplier relationships also played a critical part in CTM’s response to the crisis, allowing us to secure seats and charters in advance of the public to the exclusive benefit of CTM clients.”
Qantas has now announced limited domestic and international flights will begin again this afternoon, after Fair Work Australia ordered the unions to cease industrial action against the airline. The two parties now have 21 days to reach an agreement, before they’ll be forced to attend arbitration.
Qantas expects flights to be running normally again within the next 24 hours.
