Franchise Management International, Inc, a premier provider of public charter and transportation services, today announced that the company is entering the online travel market.
Franchise Management was initially created to take advantage of business opportunities that were often too large for smaller companies to fund successfully. The company attempts to obtain the rights to these businesses, and franchise those concepts or ideas with little up-front capital cost. The company has many professional contacts in the brokerage business that are often presented with developing or ‘start-up’ companies, and the company is pleased to announce successful completion of what management believes may be the ‘next big thing’ in online travel.
The airline business is a one trillion dollar worldwide industry and growing. Franchise Management has broad experience in the travel business — one that has gone primarily from ‘brick and mortar’ to predominantly internet-based. Recently, the industry has been marred with tremendous difficulties; the tragedy on September 11, union and worker strikes, and recent soaring fuel costs have certainly not been rallying points for travel businesses. However, one thing is certain, people are still flying.
Today’s travel agent likely works at home and has a very different business philosophy from ten years ago. Franchise Management sees continued growth in this market, and therein believes a significant opportunity exists for the company and its shareholders. Franchise Management principals and consultants successfully created one of the first online travel sites at www.lowairfare.com, well before the major ‘household-name’ companies entered this market.
Building on this concept, the company has completed negotiations for one of the first online reservation systems for public charters, a segment of the air travel industry poorly serviced by traditional online agents. Public charters offer the traveller departure from a new array of smaller airports, while reducing the hassle of luggage and security checks at a competitive price.
This proprietary system and website will have the ability to post a public charter flight to appear on nearly all of the major, discount airfare sites, which do not currently display these flights. An added benefit will be that travellers will be able to enjoy the luxuries of business jets, first class, and individual seating at a fraction of the cost of owning the aircraft or by using fractional ownership programs such as NetJets, which was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 1998.
The reservation system will bring significant exposure to both the charter concept as a whole and specifically the company’s web offering. The system is currently completing beta-testing, and should be released to the general public within 45 days.
Franchise Management has previously been awarded contracts with NASCAR’s logistics company with this model, and the company plans to engage their travel agent contacts to develop specialty routes like New York City to Las Vegas, Chicago to Cancun, and connections to popular cruise lines.