Commercial travelers, who can't plan a trip in advance and don't want to be away from home over a weekend, are paying at least one-third more to fly on major airlines than in 1996, according to the American Express Airfare Index. And when business travel is unavoidable, some businesses are requiring their employees to stay a Saturday night, a tactic that usually discounts a ticket. At Abilene Regional Medical Center, that's precisely the case. It may have several people in the air, heading in various directions at the same time. Its corporate office is in Memphis.
Medical professionals attend seminars and conventions nationwide.
The medical center flys plenty of people around when it is recruiting physicians. And when we have employees fly to conferences or seminars, then we can generally take advantage of early booking discounts and make reservations 21 to 45 days in advance. The House Transportation Committee unanimously approved a bill that gives the U.S. Department of Transportation greater power over competition issues. The legislation, which still needs full House and Senate approval, is the most sweeping effort in Congress since airline deregulation in 1978 to fine-tune the market by helping small airlines compete against the giants. The transportation department reports every quarter on the average fares on the 1,000 busiest routes in the country.