Etihad Airways' Heathrow operations transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 4 from September 30. In Barcelona, oneworld alliance members British Airways, Iberia, American Airlines, Finnair and Royal Jordanian are all moving to Terminal 1, from September 9.
Blue Insurances, Ireland's top travel insurer, has launched an exclusive annual corporate business travel insurance website, www. businesstravelinsurance.ie
AGENCY MANAGER FOR BCD
BCD TRAVEL IS TO roll out Amadeus' Agency Manager mid-office system across the whole of its Europe, Middle East and Africa region.
The travel management company already uses Agency Manager in seven EMEA markets; it will now be extended to Germany, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland as well.
Route news ...
- From October, Germanwings will offer five flights a week between Manchester and its Cologne/Bonn base as part of its continuing focus on the UK business market.
- The low-fare airline calculates 40 per cent of its UK-Germany passengers are traveling on business.
- Bmi is adding a new mid-morning departure from Manchester to Heathrow with the introduction of the winter timetable. From October, the seven daily departures will include one at 10.50am, arriving at midday. Other changes include more convenient connection times for onward flights.
- This month sees JetBlue Airways add Baltimore/Washington to its roster of destinations served from Boston Logan, offering a four-a-day service. JetBlue recently inaugurated a twice-daily link between Boston and Los Angeles International.
- Qatar Airways adds Australia to its route map this December with the launch of Boeing 777 services to Melbourne. The carrier will start with three flights a week, stepping up to a daily frequency from Doha early in the New Year.
- Icelandair plans to double the frequencies on its triangular Reykjavik-Manchester-Glasgow-Rekjavik route. From the end of October, the carrier will operate four flights a week.
- From November, Air Malta will be operating nine flights a week on the Gatwick route, rising to 14 a week next March.
- New York LaGuardia has become Southwest Airlines' latest gateway. The low-cost carrier is operating five flights a day to Chicago Midway and three a day to Baltimore/Washington.
SME BUSINESS PICKING UP
CORPORATE CARD PROVIDER Visa says small businesses' travel transactions are picking up - but clients continue to keep a tight rein on spending. By July, the number of Visa Business Card transactions made on air travel had returned to pre-October levels, the company says, but the value of those transactions has stayed much lower.
The pattern is similar for hotel and accommodation expenditure, Visa says, but the value of transactions has declined much further - 19 per cent lower during the first half of the year.
AMEX RETAINS M&S ACCOUNT
AMERICAN EXPRESS BUSINESS Travel has retained the prestige Marks & Spencer's UK business travel account following a competitive tender. Amex has held the account for more than 20 years. M&S has also extended its account to include UK rail as well as the existing air and Eurostar business.
Sejul Shah, M&S's travel procurement manager, said: "We have worked with American Express for a number of years and have been impressed with the high levels of service received."
Paul Hargreaves, Amex' vice-president and general manager, business travel UK & Ireland, said: "Our key focus will be on driving down costs and creating even more value in the programme."
SIA DIPS INTO THE RED
SINGAPORE AIRLINES GROUP has reported a first-quarter loss of S$307 million (£126 million), its first quarterly shortfall since the SARS crisis of 2003.
SIA itself incurred a loss of S$271 million (£111 million), while SilkAir lost S$3 million (£1.2 million).
Losses are blamed on a combination of the global economic downturn, swine 'flu, and fuel hedging - like many others, the Singaporean airline group contracted to buy fuel at prices which are now higher than spot-market rates. However, while the fuel-hedging issue will have less impact over time, SIA has warned that if other adverse business conditions continue, it could make a full-year loss.
MEGA HOLIDAY INN FOR HEATHROW
THE FIRST PHASE of what will eventually be the largest Holiday Inn Express in Europe - with 300 rooms - opens at Heathrow's Terminal 5 next May. By 2011, the hotel will have 300 rooms, 'informal café' and four meetings rooms.
Statesman Travel and Surrey-based Chelsea Travel Management - two of the UK's top 20 travel management companies - have named online booking company Hotelzon UK as their preferred hotel booking system provider. The initial contracts are for two years.
Travel management company Hillgate Travel has been awarded a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) certificate of compliance in recognition of standards of protection against data theft.
Serviced apartment specialist SACO has opened 48 studio, one- and two-bedroom units in Manchester. The apartments take up the top three floors of The Hub, a ten-storey residential development close the city's Piccadilly rail station.
Mandarin Oriental is due to reopen its hotel in Jakarta in October, following a 20-month renovation.
Marriott International has opened the 150-room Courtyard by Marriott Paris Saint Denis, 6km from the centre of the city and close to the Stade de France complex.
A 76-room Holiday Inn Express, with a business centre and five meeting rooms, has opened in the OXO Centre in Colombian capital Bogota's Parque de la 93 district.
London's Royal Lancaster Hotel becomes simply the Lancaster London from September 9, with a name change that affects the website: www.lancasterlondon.com
MIC FOR WORLD EXPO 2015
EUROPE'S LARGEST convention centre is on schedule to open in Milan in January 2011. With a capacity of 18,000 people, the new Milano Convention Centre (MIC) will have a 4,500-seat plenary hall, a 1,500 seat auditorium and 73 modular halls accommodating from 20 to 2,000 delegates. Additionally, there will be 54,000m2 of exhibition space. The Milano Convention Centre is the first major infrastructure project designed to host some of the World Expo events in 2015.
MEETINGS: WHAT'S NEW?
WYBOSTON LAKES' ROBINSON Executive Conference Centre has completed the upgrade of 14 training rooms. Each features large windows, the latest audio visual and presentation aids and free wifi. The centre, set in 350 acres of countryside between Bedford and Cambridge, can accommodate groups of up to 270 people.
THE BLOOMSBURY HOTEL has completed a multi-million pound make-over of its conference and meetings facilities during the summer. The hotel is now home to 1,400m2 of both modern and traditional meeting and function space suitable for a variety of conferences and events.