Unsung Workers Struggle to Pull Through Downturn
By Chris Woodyard
USA Today

LOS ANGELES – April 9, 2002 -- It takes a lot of faces to launch a thousand trips.

And most of them belong to unsung helpers, both seen and unseen by the traveler. They may be a smiling skycap or hotel desk clerk. Or employees of a small company — the hotel florist, airport parking operator or airline caterer — who work behind the scenes.

Airlines, hotels, restaurants and rental-car firms may be the stars of the business-travel economy, but often overlooked are thousands of other companies whose prosperity also depends on lots of people taking lots of business trips. Many of those companies were hurt last year by a weakening economy, then clobbered after the Sept. 11 attacks decimated travel.

Finally, after months of cutbacks, layoffs and out-and-out failures, there is hope. And, yes, in the $563 billion-a-year travel industry, it's the little guy who appears to be leading the way.

"We're right on the front lines," says 30-year skycap Kevin Smith at Los Angeles International Airport.

When it comes to travel, the breadth of the supporting cast is staggering. "No matter how small your job, it's important," says Dee Minic of the Travel Industry Association.

Hilton Hotels has 3,500 suppliers who deliver everything from paper towels to caviar to its 2,000 hotels. Fifteen trucks may pull up to unload at one hotel in a given day, says Senior Vice President Tony Nieves.

Hilton's central laundry for the New York area alone cleans and presses 100,000 pounds of sheets and pillowcases with 160 workers and loads of high-tech machines — a process entirely unseen by guests.

As more travelers return to the skies, travel-related businesses are cautiously optimistic.

"You feel it," says Stephanie Haymes, co-owner of Cicada, a fancy restaurant in downtown Los Angeles that specializes in group business. "I think it's coming back."

But it's got a ways to go.

Cicada's fortunes are tied to the city's convention business, which has fallen about 20% since Sept. 11.

Here's how a few of the companies that serve travelers are faring:

Airport parking lot operator. "We're coming back very fast," says Rick West, CEO of AviStar, which runs off-airport parking at six airports, including Chicago O'Hare and New York LaGuardia.

But West says the recovery isn't because of more passengers showing up at the airport, but because of the aggressive steps his firm took, starting the day after the terrorist attacks. In the first month after the attacks, business had fallen 40%.

"On Sept. 12, we said, 'Our pie just got smaller. We don't want to wait all of 2002 for the pie to get bigger,' " he says.

AviStar discounted. It gave deals with Internet travel sites. It even gave two days of free parking, to lure leisure passengers. It drew more private lots into the fold at other airports and created a Web site to distribute the freebies.

The result, West says, is that thousands of travelers tried Avi-Star who would not have otherwise.

Airline caterer. As soon as airlines were flying after Sept. 11, many quickly curtailed in-flight meals. The measure, taken to reduce costs, simplifies the operation and alleviates concerns about cutlery, dealt a blow to the airline catering industry.

Little by little, food has found its way back aboard planes.

"We're coming out of the trough," says Darwin Day, senior vice president of LSG Sky Chefs, the nation's largest airline caterer.
The company closed only two of its 83 flight kitchens and still employs 9,100, on the way back toward the 12,000 on the payroll before Sept. 11.

Business travel magazine. The outlook was grim when travel came to a standstill after Sept. 11. "When it happened, I got a lot of calls wishing us well," says Francis Gallagher, publisher of Business Traveler magazine.

Airline ads dried up. Airport newsstand sales dwindled.

The magazine retooled. Gallagher says the staff started an e-mail newsletter to improve contact with readers and beefed up the Web site, Businesstravelerusa.com. They tried harder to bring back big accounts. "We never worked harder in our lives," he says.

It's paying off. American Airlines and British Airways, two big advertisers, are coming back to Business Traveler's pages. Airport sales are rising.

Airport luggage-cart provider. For a company that's been around 30 years, Smarte Carte isn't exactly a household name. It provides the luggage carts for rent at almost every U.S. airport. Passengers use them to wheel their bags from carousel to curb.

Business fell 40% after the terrorist attacks. The company was forced to lay off workers, most of them at its headquarters near Minneapolis. About 250 of the company's 1,300 jobs were lost.

The company is still about 15% behind last year's sales but on the mend. Its outlook depends on how quickly flight schedules bounce back. "We don't know what normal means anymore, what with the capacity that's been taken out of the system," says Smarte Carte CEO Ed Rudis.

In-flight entertainment network. Sky Radio had a big business broadcasting radio-style talk shows on airline entertainment systems. It packaged celebrity business leaders with CEOs of companies who paid for the chance to be interviewed by founder and moderator Marc Holland. Overnight, business evaporated.

"It died," Holland says. "Did it seem like the sky was falling? For sure." He had to lay off nine of the operation's 19 employees and searched for a way out.

The future, Holland decided, depended on changing the business model. Holland signed deals to give companies exposure not only through Sky Radio, but also through airport signs and billboards. And he changed the pricing to reflect the cost of reaching actual listeners, rather than just the cost to be placed aboard a certain airline. He also created special programming to address travel fears.

Business is picking up, he says, but it's not back to normal.

Passport provider. Instant Passport & Visa, a Providence-based company that expedites travel document issuances to passengers in a hurry, saw revenue drop by half after the attacks.

Its founders ripped up their paychecks to conserve cash, laid off three workers who were in training to join the staff of 20 and looked for new opportunities.

They reasoned: With the world a more dangerous place, wouldn't travelers want to know safety in the places they intend to go? Instant Passport teamed with iJet Travel Intelligence and WorldCell, an international cell phone company, to bundle their services. Something else good happened, too.

With airlines' bargain-basement deals, up popped vacationers who might not have gone anywhere otherwise. They needed passports and visas — right away. "Prices dropped, and a lot of people said, 'It's a great time to go to Scotland,' " says Vice President Eric Bulock.

The turnaround was complete. Instant Passport's business is 20% higher than before Sept. 11.

In-room entertainment provider. On Command suffered as hotel-room occupancy plummeted late last year.

The decline was particularly felt in the loss of business travelers, whose expense accounts and hectic lifestyles on the road make them more apt to pay for an in-room movie.

The company's net loss in the fourth quarter was $34.1 million, compared with a $19 million loss during the same quarter of 2000.

The business traveler is returning but often is on a tighter budget and has less time to watch a movie, CEO Chris Sophinos says. So On Command packaged a channel of shorts — Seinfeld reruns, classic ESPN game match-ups, HBO's The Sopranos - as a lower-cost alternative.

"It's the hotel that brings the guest in. We're a continuation of that service," says Sophinos.

Airline nut roaster. King Nut, which packages peanuts and snacks for six of the nation's eight largest airlines, is in the unusual position of having seen business pick up after Sept. 11.

Sure, it was caught in the airline shutdown right after the attacks. But as more airlines switched away from full in-flight meals, they tried to make up for it by adding low-cost snacks.

"When everything stopped, we probably laid off half our company," says Executive Vice President Martin Kanan. "They started flying again, and we were able to get new business and contracts."

Of course, it didn't hurt the 125-employee company that its largest customer, peanut-happy Southwest Airlines, didn't reduce its flight schedule like other airlines.

As long as peanuts are cheaper than chicken breasts, King Nut knows it has the sky covered.

Contact:
Ann Given
Sky Radio Network
ag@skyradionet.com