American Express Business Travel added public Cisco TelePresence Suites to its virtual meetings eXpert solution. The public suites are available at various locations including some Marriott, Starwood and Taj hotels. "The vmX platform is currently available through an offline reservation desk and is expected to be available online in 2011," Amex stated.

GetThere plans to provide to customers access to Tata Communications' network of Telepresence rooms. Part of GetThere's set of "collaboration" services, the deal would enable GetThere customers to reserve one of Tata's public or private Telepresence locations at a "pay-per-use hourly rate." Tata's network currently includes 15 public rooms throughout Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, India and North America. The company expects to expand that number to "over 30" by year-end. GetThere and Tata said pilot testing would begin "shortly, with plans for a broader rollout later in 2010."

Delta Air Lines and Air France KLM "expect to add Alitalia to the joint venture in the coming weeks," according to Delta president Ed Bastian. SkyTeam partners Delta and Air France KLM began their transatlantic joint venture in 2008. In 2009, Alitalia--also a SkyTeam member--signed a new deal with and agreed to sell a minority stake to Air France KLM.

Delta Air Lines in May collected 63 percent more corporate revenue than it had a year earlier on 35 percent higher corporate ticket volume, according to president Ed Bastian. Speaking Tuesday during the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2010 Global Transportation Conference, Bastian said the differential between the two metrics reflects "the amount of pricing traction we are seeing in the market, which is significant."

China Eastern Airlines began offering UATP accounts to corporate clients.

TRX announced traveler security and tracking enabled by its Traveltrax reporting solution. "Travelers can be instantly notified via integrated e-mail and SMS messaging services during travel disturbances, such as the recent volcanic ash crisis," according to a TRX press release which also indicated that more than 10,000 corporations are using Traveltrax. The new services also offer travel managers and corporate security specialists "enhanced on-demand visibility into traveler whereabouts and new direct communication options to alert travelers of pending travel and security challenges."

Amadeus said BCD Travel signed a letter of intent to use technology based on Amadeus One, the new Amadeus agent desktop currently in testing with Travel Leaders Corporate. Balboa Travel also will use Amadeus One, The Beat reported. BCD will use Amadeus technology to "replace a set of tools used by central service groups based in North America, such as BCD Travel's central fulfillment and after-hours teams. The Amadeus One agency desktop solution will be used as the 'baseline' for the new design," the companies announced.