Travel and Transport, in a blockbuster corporate travel management deal, has acquired Ultramar Travel Management. The deal, announced on Oct. 9, creates a “game-changing new combination that will positively impact the travel industry,” according to the CEOs of both travel management companies. New York-based Ultramar has roughly 270 employees and $500 million in sales. Omaha, Neb.-based Travel and Transport has more than 1,000 employees with total sales of more than $2 billion.

“We are very excited about this merger, which brings together our two companies under single ownership, while maintaining our valuable, separate identities, brands, management and staff,” wrote Bill Tech, CTC, CTIE, president and CEO of Travel and Transport, and Peter Klebanow, president and CEO of Ultramar, in a website post on their agencies’ combination.

The two CEOs called the degree to which their two companies complement each other “extraordinary, from the difference in our client bases, to our common service-centric approach to business.” They said he combined effect of their merger gives their agencies the opportunity to accelerate their growth with greater resources from an enhanced competitive position.

"As the CEOs of those two travel management industry leaders, we are very excited about this merger, which brings together our two companies under single ownership, while maintaining our valuable separate identities, brands, management and staffs," said Tech and Klebanow.

They added that Ultramar would immediately add revenue and value to Travel and Transport, which is owned by its employees. Ultramar's staff also will become shareholders of the newly combined agency under a new that offers them the advantages of ownership status. “Our combined customers will benefit from the added strength and resources we will apply on their behalf, even as they continue to enjoy the same paralleled level of service from the same professionals they know and trust,” Tech and Klebanow said.