News in brief from VLM, Lufthansa, KDS, clickair, Gatwick and GHO
VLM abandons LCY-Manchester
London City Airport (LCY) will lose its air link with Manchester from the end of the month.
VLM, who plies the route up to three times a day, has announced it will discontinue the route after May 31.
A spokesperson said: "The route has been heavily lossmaking and we are impeded by unfair competition from a subsidised rail network and airline ticket taxes that often make up 50%of the overall fare."
Air service on this route has been in decline for the past few years as Virgin Trains, the London-Manchester rail operator, has gradually made its services more attractive.
Two years ago VLM was fielding seven flights a day between the two cities. That's now been cut to just three flights a day with timings geared more to the needs of Mancunian than London executives.
VLM says it is committed to its other services from Manchester. These operate to Antwerp and Rotterdam.
www.flyvlm.com
Lufthansa recasts Bahrain and Dammam schedules
Lufthansa is to start daily services from Frankfurt to Bahrain and Dammam in Saudi Arabia in the autumn.
Currently the German carrier flies four times a week to Bahrain with Dammam covered three times a week.
Lufthansa will be spreading capacity on the routes by using smaller Boeing 737-800s in place of larger Airbus A330s.
Services are due to start on September 22 with flight LH624 departing Frankfurt in the early afternoon to arrive in the Gulf region in the late evening. Each flight will serve both cities.
www.lufthansa.com
KDS launches new business travel survey
KDS, a provider of automated T&E system, is to launch a new survey on business travellers to find out the reasons for and benefits of business travel in the current economic climate.
The questions fro participants will cover travel polices, professional effectiveness, health and work/life balance.
Anyone wishing to take part in the survey, please go to: http://budurl.com/whytravel
The results will be announced on June 11.
www.kds.com
clickair to move UK routes to Heathrow
Spanish budget airline clickair has announced plans to move all UK routes to London Heathrow.
It hopes to boost passenger volumes to 400,000 this year as a result of the move.
Routes to Vigo and Seville will move to the UK hub airport from London Gatwick effective from June 1.
clickair already flies to Bilbao and La Coruna from Heathrow, and carried around 316,000 passengers last year.
www.clickair.com
One Gatwick bidder remaining
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) has withdrawn its bid for London Gatwick, one of three airports operator BAA has been ordered to sell by the UK Competition Commission (CC).
BAA's Spanish owner Ferrovial now has only one bid remaining, from consortium led by Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and Canadian infrastructure fund Borealis, reports said.
BAA said it was still in talks "with multiple parties".
GIP's departure could see Gatwick sold for less than expected.
The CC's March report ordered BAA to sell three of its seven airports: Gatwick, Stansted and either Glasgow or Edinburgh.
www.baa.com
GHO announces new members
Great Hotels Organisation (GHO) has boosted its membership with the addition of four luxury hotels.
Three Cancun properties join GHO as Great Hotels of the World and Special Hotels of the World.
They are the Hacienda Tres Rios, Laguna Suites Golf and Spa and the Ocean Spa Hotel.
The Les Suites Ching-Cheng Hotel Taipei, Taiwan, has also joined GHO.
www.ghotw.com