Jay Boehmer

App in the Air, an itinerary management, trip booking and flight tracking app that made a play for the unmanaged business travel segment, last week discontinued its services and pulled its app from mobile stores. The company has directed users to SAP Concur-owned TripIt as an alternative, though flight-tracking app Flighty also is targeting App in the Air customers.

Gant Travel Management has acquired Aimendo, a natural-language and agency automation AI firm co-founded by industry vet Vic Pynn, the travel management company announced last week. The acquisition comes just months after Pynn joined Gant as chief operating officer.

Management consulting and professional services firm ZS plans to move to Direct Travel and Spotnana early next year. Asked what prompted the next chapter in reinventing the ZS program, global meetings and travel manager Suzanne Boyan said: "It all starts with American Airlines."

Among the major decisions for airline newlyweds Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines is which passenger services system the combo will operate. A spokesperson last week said the airlines, which consummated their merger last month, have not yet confirmed a system provider.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has denied a protest filed by CWT over this year's awarding of the FedRooms contract to travel management company Adtrav, according to a notice last week in GAO's protest docket.

In response to the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, American Express Global Business Travel and CWT in a filing released Friday defended their proposed merger, attested to the competitiveness of the travel management company market and assailed the regulator's analyses.

The airline this week renewed a motion for $139 million in costs and attorneys' fees from the global distribution system operator after fruitless settlement talks this year, according to a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Finnair has decided to hold off on plans to withdraw additional content from EDIFACT as part of its New Distribution Capability strategy.

Altour last week filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the operator of Milne Travel, casting the Vermont-based travel agency's complaint as "opportunism masquerading as legal injury."

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals this week scheduled Nov. 18 for oral arguments between airlines and the U.S. Department of Transportation over this year's ancillary fee disclosure rule, where carriers hope to level a knockout punch.