Travel Weekly Recognizes David Collins with a Lifetime Achievement Award

Retired ARC President and CEO Honored for His Contributions to the Travel Industry

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Dec 16, 2011, 09:20 ET

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ARC takes pleasure in announcing that Travel Weekly has bestowed an esteemed Lifetime Achievement Award on David Collins, the company's former president and CEO. Collins was recognized for his leadership and contributions to the travel industry for more than 43 years. The award was presented last evening at The Plaza Hotel in New York.

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Collins, who holds a master's degree in economics and law from Cambridge University in England, retired from ARC in June after serving as the company's president and CEO for 23 years. Previously, he had a 20-year career with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), where he specialized in airline and travel agency relations and helped found two subsidiary IATA companies.

During his tenure at ARC, Collins oversaw substantial growth of the company, which included the opening of additional offices and facilities. He also directed ARC's transition from a paper-based settlement system to an electronic system, positioning the industry to benefit from more efficient business processes and technologic advances. More recently, he led the development of ARC's data warehouse, which now provides ARC's global stakeholders with multiple years of electronically accessible transaction history, data analysis and globally contributed content.

"We are delighted to present this award to a gentleman who has had such a significant impact on the way we travel by air," said Arnie Weissmann, Travel Weekly's vice president and editor in chief. "David brought airline ticketing and settlement into the modern age with ARC's adoption and promotion of electronic ticketing, while also implementing other automated processes to help carriers and agents weather the challenges that have faced our industry. His contributions will be remembered and appreciated for decades to come."

The Travel Weekly Lifetime Achievement Award, first presented in 2003, is given to an individual who has also made significant contributions to the industry as a whole and whose efforts have led to extraordinary results within an enterprise. A recipient's career has provided a model of vision and accomplishment to inspire tomorrow's leaders. Previous honorees include Bill Marriott, Gordon Bethune, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Arthur Tauck, former Carnival Cruise Lines CEO Bob Dickinson, Tim and Nina Zagat, and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. chairman Richard Fain.

About ARC: As the financial backbone of the U.S. travel industry, ARC enables commerce among travel agencies, airlines, and travel suppliers, and offers them secure and accurate financial settlement services. More than 15,000 travel agencies and 190 airlines use the company's transaction settlement services that, in 2010, totaled more than $77 billion in value. ARC also supplies transactional data to organizations, facilitating better business decisions through fact-based market analyses. Established in 1984, ARC is headquartered in Arlington, Va. For more information, visit www.arccorp.com.

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