UK high speed rail, GCB, Finnair, London Heathrow, Oman Air, Moran Bewley Hotels, bmibaby, BAA, Qantas and Lodging Econometrics
"Major cities will all benefit from high speed rail"
Lord Adonis, the UK transport secretary, said that major cities not directly served by the country's planned high speed rail route would all benefit from improved journey times.
Speaking at a conference organised by consultants Steer, Gleave and Davies, he said that the route would be designed to ensure all cities benefited.
The government is due to announce the route later this year but initial speculation suggests it will only serve London, Birmingham and Manchester.
Cities like Sheffield, Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow are worried that they may miss out.
But Lord Adonis said the trains would be able to use the high speed route and the existing track which would cut journey times to cities even if they were not on the direct route.
www.dft.gov.uk
GCB launches CO2 calculator for events
The German Convention Bureau (GCB) has launched a calculator to measure the carbon footprint of events and conferences.
Working with Co2OL, a company involved in gauging CO2 emissions in the MICE industry, the GCB said the new tool could be used by any meeting planners or evaluators.
The new software will also offer advice on how to cut CO2 emissions and how to off set those used.
Lutz Vogt, the GCB's managing director, said the calculator gave Germany the chance to establish itself as a leading destination for green events.
He added: "Not only the German government is setting standards in environmental protection and energy efficiency worldwide but German convention centres and meeting hotels are also among the international pioneers."
www.co2ol.de www.germany-meetings.com
Finnair reports falling demand
Finnair said passenger traffic fell by 7.2% in August while capacity was down 9% compared with the same month in 2008.
The Nordic carrier said its load factor rose 1.5% in the month to 80.2%.
Passenger traffic on European flights dropped by 6% while demand in Asia fell by 13%.
But on North American routes where the number of flights has been increased, passenger numbers rose by 37% and there was a load factor of 92%.
The airline said it expected demand to fall further during the winter and was prepared to cut capacity again.
Christer Haglund, Finnair's senior vp communications, said: "Capacity was cut to match falling demand as well as possible.
"With our capacity cuts of around 10%, we kept the load factor at a good level, but the price level is still decreasing.
"As the holiday season comes to an end, demand is expected to fall, so we will adjust traffic further."
www.finnair.com
Heathrow punctuality improves
Heathrow Airport enjoyed a 14% rise in punctuality of flights between April and June this year according to figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The CAA said the average delay also fell by eight minutes from 18 to ten minutes.
Mike Brown, Heathrow's chief operating officer said: "We are working very hard to make every passenger's journey to or from Heathrow better than the last one, and these figures demonstrate that we are making good progress."
www.caa.co.uk
Oman launches new European routes
Oman Air has launched three new routes in Europe.
The national carrier for the Middle East state said it would start a four times a week service from Muscat, the capital, to Frankfurt this month.
This would be followed by three times a week service to Munich and a four times a week service to Paris, both due to start in October.
The airline is also launching new services from Muscat to the Maldives and Sri Lanka.
Oman Air said it was also introducing new economy, business and first class cabins on its daily service to London Heathrow.
www.oman-air.com
Moran Bewley Hotels adopt new meetings software
Moran Bewley Hotels, a chain of ten properties in the UK and Ireland, has adopted new software for clients to book meetings online.
The meetingsbroker.com software provides the individual hotel websites with their own online booking facility.
As part of the deal, Moran Bewley will also sell their meeting rooms on the www.meetingsbooker.com site.
Adrian Sherry, Moran Bewley's group marketing manager, said the new software would enable the chain to offer customers an improved service.
www.moranhotels.com www.bewleyshotels.com www.meetingsbooker.com
bmibaby to expand at East Midlands
bmibaby is to expand its operation at the East Midlands Airport.
It will base three more aircraft at the airport and bring in eight new European routes: Alghero (Sardinia), Barcelona, Bastia (Corsica), Cork, Dubrovnik (Croatia), Malta, Newquay and Venice.
The carrier, part of the bmi group, also said it planned to increase frequency on several routes, including Prague, Geneva, Malaga, Faro and Alicante.
The airline said the expansion would increase its operations at the airport by 40% and attract an extra 350,000 passengers.
The move comes a week after low cost carrier easyJet abandoned its operations at the airport.
Crawford Rix, bmibaby's managing director, said: "Our rapid expansion programme at East Midlands Airport is fantastic news for the Midlands.
"It not only further demonstrates our commitment to the airport, but also to the people of the region, as we continue to offer low fares to a range of exciting new European destinations."
www.bmibaby.com
BAA reports record Heathrow traffic
BAA has reported its busiest ever August at London Heathrow airport with passenger traffic up 0.3% year-on-year.
The airport operator said a strong leisure market and a growing international route network had boosted figures.
Heathrow handled 6.4 million passenger in August.
BAA said the figures suggested leisure demand had not fallen as much as business travel.
In total BAA's seven UK airports handled a 14.4 million passengers in August, a drop of 3.1% on the same month last year.
London Gatwick was the only BAA-owned airport to see growth in the domestic market of 1.2% year-on-year.
Edinburgh airport's numbers were up for the fifth consecutive month due in part to new low cost scheduled services to Europe.
www.baa.com
Qantas to sell Air Pacific stake
Qantas is considering selling its stake in Air Pacific to allow it to compete with Virgin on Fijian routes, reports said today.
The Australian airline is said to have applied to Australian regulators for extra capacity to Fiji for its subsidiary Jetstar Airways.
But Qantas must sell its 46.3% stake in Fiji's flag carrier Air Pacific.
Qantas hopes to begin new Jetstar routes between Australia and Fiji, in competition with Virgin-owned Pacific Blue.
www.qantas.com.au www.jetstar.com
LE lowers hotel pipeline forecast
Lodging Econometrics (LE) has lowered its European hotel pipeline forecast for 2009 and 2010.
LE said there were fewer projects in construction "due to the recessionary declines that continue to impact the lodging industry."
LE said 63,244 new rooms are forecast by 2009 in Europe, down 10,328 on previous estimates.
In 2010 LE lowered its forecast by 7,340 rooms and predicted new openings of 392 projects or 81,921 rooms.
The new forecast was part of LE's review of the EMEA region.
In total, 322 projects or 72,077 rooms are forecasted to open in the EMEA region by 2011.
www.lodging-econometrics.com