aviation consultant

Airfare wars and room-rate promotions are usually aimed at vacationers, but airlines and hotels are resorting to similar tactics to regain their traditional cash cow -- the business traveler.

Corporate travelers, who pay higher airfares when they sit in the front cabins of planes or book close to the date of travel, are flying coach more often -- or not traveling at all during the recession. And their employers are booking fewer banquet halls and blocks of rooms, leaving many hotels pining for the sizable and reliable revenue that business meetings used to generate.

Major airlines are scrounging for every dollar now that fewer people are flying amid the economic downturn, yet the carriers have been slow to install in-flight wireless Internet access across their fleets that could generate millions in fees.

Cost, technology and passengers' willingness to pay for the service are issues some of the carriers are dealing with. Others say it simply takes time to install the necessary equipment to allow fliers to surf the Internet and send e-mail from their laptops and PDAs from the comfort of their seats.