The U.K. government beginning in November 2009 will increase the air passenger duty imposed on travelers flying from U.K. airports. Based on four "distance bands" rather than the current two, the reformed duty will range from £11 (US$16) for those flying the shortest distances from the United Kingdom in the "lowest class of service" to £110 (US$165) for those flying the longest distances in all other classes of services. The duties would then increase again in November 2010, ranging from £12 (US$18) to £170 (US$255). The current APD ranges from £10 (US$15) to £80 (US$120). "This reform will ensure that those flying farther, and therefore contributing more to emissions from aviation, will pay more," according to a report by U.K. finance minister Alistair Darling.

More than 70 percent of 330 European companies surveyed in September "intend to stabilize or decrease their travel budgets in 2009," according to a new report by American Express Business Travel EMEA. The average budget reduction among respondents was 12 percent. Among other findings, 71 percent of those polled have international airline agreements, while 29 percent have international car rental deals and 26 percent have international hotel contracts. More than 6 in 10 reported increased use of videoconferencing while 57 percent have deployed an online booking tool.

Delta Air Lines and Alaska Air Group now are "preferred alliance partners on the West Coast" in the United States. After amending a marketing agreement, Alaska with sibling carrier Horizon Air and Delta with subsidiary Northwest Airlines in 2009 plan to expand connecting flight opportunities and offer reciprocal loyalty programs and airport lounge access. The airlines said the deal also would support "the launch of new Delta long-haul transpacific and Latin American routes from the West Coast."

Amadeus executive vice president David Jones will replace José Antonio Tazón as president and CEO on Jan. 1, the company said. Tazón will become non-executive chairman of the Amadeus IT Group board, replacing Stuart McAlpine. Senior vice president Philipe Chérèque will replace Jones.

Sabre Travel Network and United Airlines signed a two-year extension for their existing "full-content" distribution agreement, which was previously set to expire in 2011.

Visa announced global mandates for compliance to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard that "establishes the minimum requirements for Visa Inc. regions," except Europe, which has its own timeline and process for compliance validation. Visa regions previously issued their own deadlines and validation requirements for card security and data storage. The new mandates require Visa merchants processing more than 6 million annual transactions to validate PCI compliance by 30 September 2010. By 30 September 2009, merchants and acquirers processing more than 1 million annual transactions must confirm that they did not retain data from magnetic strips, security codes or PIN data. "Hackers are looking for this type of data because of its use in counterfeiting payment cards, and that is why Visa prohibits its storage," said Eduardo Perez, Visa Inc. head of global data security.