Egencia Bookings Continue Steady '09 Comeback

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Egencia Bookings Continue Steady '09 Comeback

By Seth Harris

OCTOBER 29, 2009 -- Egencia's gross bookings decreased 10 percent year-over-year to $344 million in the third quarter, but its top-line performance has steadily improved since the second half of 2008, said the travel management company's parent Expedia today in its third-quarter earnings report.

During the quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Egencia earned $27 million in revenue, a 1 percent increase compared with the third quarter of 2008 and flat compared with the second quarter of 2009.

Egencia hit its peak performance numbers in the second quarter of 2008, with $30 million in revenue and $421 million in gross bookings, before sharply falling in the following two quarters as the recession set in, settling at $315 million in the fourth quarter. Gross bookings increased to $321 million and $330 million in the first and second quarters of 2009, respectively.

Egencia's positive news joins last week's American Express third-quarter earnings report, which showed stable corporate travel sales, and today's U.S. Department of Commerce announcement that the country's gross domestic product increased for the first time since the second quarter of 2008.

American Express last week reported $3.5 billion in corporate travel sales in the third quarter, down nearly a third from the previous year but in line with the $3.4 billion and $3.6 billion in corporate travel sales in the first and second quarters of 2009, respectively (BTNonline, Oct. 23).

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department today said the U.S. gross domestic product grew 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009. The U.S. GDP contracted 0.7 percent last quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Much of the GDP rise was attributed by the bureau to government stimulus packages and other government spending, and increases in consumer spending, especially on new automobiles and housing.

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