Estelle Camusard, travel manager at Aéroports de Paris

How does Aéroports de Paris (ADP) carry out business travel?

Estelle Camusard: Aéroports de Paris' core business is the management of our airport infrastructure in France, airport services and airport real estate. We also export our expertise in architecture and engineering, airport management, specialised telecoms and IT. The architects and engineers of ADPI, a subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris, are constantly responding to international calls for tender. ADP spends around three million euros a year on business travel.

With such a large travel budget, have you had to adopt payment solutions?

E. C. : In 2002, the General Management introduced corporate payment cards for top management. In 2003, we wanted to roll out 'personal' debit cards for senior managers who travel a lot. In 2006, we began looking at ways of improving and simplifying the processing and management of travel and business expenses, using an online booking tool. We selected Notilus from Dimo-Gestion. Certain internal rules have changed: we have abolished the system of paying advances to employees and made it compulsory to declare expense claims on the management tool. Some 200 travellers are now equipped with a payment card.

At the same time, what initiative has ADP taken with regard to lodged cards?

E. C.: In 2004, we began working with AirPlus for the corporate card and BNP Paribas for the corporate card. In terms of direct costs, i.e. the purchase of plane or train tickets and the invoicing of travel agency service charges, the savings were rapid: between 2004 and 2005, we recorded a saving of 157,000 euros. The introduction of the embedded card has also led to savings in indirect costs. Automating the processing of debit card transactions and expense reports generated savings of more than 134,000 euros for ADP between 2004 and 2005.