A NEW discount travel programme aimed principally at European companies has been developed and launched by Bermuda-based Royal Ocean Corporation Ltd., a company that was founded to research marketing gaps and market products to fill them.

The company has negotiated contracts with Delta Air Lines and Marriott International to market Global Business Pass (GBP), a plan which allows companies to fly business class at discounts up to 50 per cent, with travel costs fixed for five years.

The driving force behind this new scheme is John Bintliff, chairman of the Royal Ocean Group, whose long career has included senior positions in the United Kingdom with Royal Mail, Securicor, where he launched Omega Express, and a DHL subsidiary.

The co-creator of GBP and CEO of Royal Ocean Services Ltd. is long-time Bermuda resident Tony Forster, whose previous business background encompassed many years in the world of insurance. Royal Ocean Services Ltd., which provides programme services for purchasers through a dedicated travel reservation and travel management web site, operated by ADP GSI in Paris, will administer the Global Business Pass Centre from its offices in Hamilton.

The GBP is not available for individuals, but is expected to be attractive to smaller and medium-sized companies which could not otherwise negotiate such steep discounts, and to complement the existing travel purchasing arrangements of large companies.

The GBP air programme is sold in a standard package called an Air Unit. Each unit has a five-year allowance of air travel points which can be used by any designated traveller to buy tickets at the special GBP Air Tariff. A similar system works with the Hotel unit. Any nominated corporate employee can travel from most major business centres in Europe in any class of service on Delta's transatlantic network and then within North America, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Purchasers have the option to buy any combination of Air and Hotel units, provided their overall purchase totals at least $55,000, effectively $11,000 per annum. The hotel programme is with Marriott Worldwide and Ritz Carlton in the United States, and each hotel unit is priced at $5,000.

So, despite its name, the GBP is not exactly global, but it is envisaged that this transatlantic edition of GBP will be the first of a series of regional programmes which will grow into a global series with purchasers opting for those versions that match their travel needs.