Corporate Travel Analysis Reports For Europe/MEA

The opening of new bases at Birmingham and London Stansted will grow Jet2.com network capacity by over 45% this summer, versus last year, as the low-cost carrier (LCC) moves its successful business model into southern regions. The budget operator has created a strong brand in northern England over the past decade supporting traditional package holiday requirements in these regions. From its birth from the Channel Express brand back in 2003 as a low-cost seat-only airline, it has since re-engineered the holiday process launching its own low-cost tour operator, Jet2holidays, to compete with the likes of Thomas Cook and Thomson.

After first launching flights in 2003 to maintain connectivity between Ticino, the southernmost canton of Switzerland and the domestic financial centres of Geneva and Zurich and delivering global connectivity opportunities via international hubs, Darwin Airline has seen quite an evolution.

The third edition of the annual Soft Power 30 index has delivered a surprise result with France overtaking the previous two years' winners the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) as the world's top soft power. Moving up from fifth place in the ranking, compiled by the PR firm Portland Communications in conjunction with the University of Southern California school of public diplomacy, the European country has highlighted how people's perceptions can quickly change.

It seems like only last week we declared Air New Zealand the king of airline safety videos, and while we stand by that, there is a new player in the game and believe it or not, its British Airways. Gordon Ramsay, Rob Brydon, Sir Ian McKellen and Thandie Newton make appearances in British Airways' impressive new safety video, which is actually quite funny.

The CAPA LCCs in North Asia Summit 2017, which occurred in Osaka in June 2017, delivered some of the most thought-provoking discussions from a wide range of expert speakers.

Earlier this month, we witnessed yet another example of an airline attempting to cash in on the success of a movie franchise by plastering well known images and characters all over a select aircraft. Jetstar Japan ensured the release of the new Spiderman movie, Spiderman: Homecoming, helped build brand awareness for the airline by not only splashing a giant Spiderman across an aircraft but also inviting guests to dress up as the friendly neighbourhood hero.

Central and Eastern European low cost carrier Wizz Air has confirmed it will take action to safeguard its important UK network of flights and establish a UK-based operation if uncertainty continues to persist over the protection of traffic rights once the United Kingdom (UK) leaves the European Union (EU).

UK regional carrier Loganair will take to the air in its own right once again in autumn 2017 after nearly quarter of a century flying under franchise arrangements with other airlines. It will become the national carrier of Scotland when it ends its current agreement with Flybe ahead of next year's winter schedule, but an aggressive stance from its former business partner is souring the road to independence.

The great strength of hub airports is that they connect passengers from one point to another, quickly, effectively and quite often more cheaply than on a direct service from the point of origin. Under sixth freedom traffic rights, airlines such as KLM (at Amsterdam Schiphol) and Singapore Airlines (at Singapore Changi) have built major hubs on such passenger flows.

A more efficient usage of slots at London Heathrow has helped Europe's largest airport continue to grow its passenger traffic despite operating at near capacity. A record 6.76 million passengers were handled in June 2017 (+2.3% from June 2016), including a record 259,917 passengers flying through on June 30, 2017, the airport's busiest day ever, has boosted the number of passengers travelling through the UK's hub in the past 12 months to 77 million, another record.