Corporate Travel Analysis Reports For Europe/MEA

In most parts of the world, the tourism forecast for this Summer is hot, hot, hot, reports ForwardKeys, which predicts future patterns by analysing 16 million booking transactions a day. The company reports that global long-haul air travel bookings for June, July and August are 6.4% ahead of where they were at the same time last year.

Low-cost carrier Norwegian is to expand its transatlantic network with the addition of long-haul flights from Rome's Leonardo da Vinci International Airport. The airline will base a single Boeing 787-9 at Fiumicino from November 2017 to introduce flights to Newark and Los Angeles, adding a second aircraft from February 2018 to grow frequencies and add a link to Oakland, serving the San Francisco Bay market.

From a terrorist cyber hack to a simple inadvertent removal of a plug from a socket, whatever caused the IT failure that left British Airways' fleet of aircraft grounded for most of the weekend is a lesson learned, not just for the airline, but for the industry as a whole, especially considering the important role technology provides in the day to day needs of the aviation system.

Over the last couple of months Indian carrier SpiceJet has been formulating a plan to grow into the medium- and long-haul markets with the introduction of its first widebodied aircraft. With other airlines in its homeland already planning similar moves, the carrier is reportedly now close to formalising a leasing deal for two Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners to enter the market as early as this winter to gain a competitive advantage.

Now in the tenth year of Airbus A380 operations, it is clear that the aircraft has not been the commercial success that Airbus hoped, although you certainly will not be hearing any executive of the company stating this publicly. Maybe the aircraft arrived in the marketplace at the wrong time. Perhaps the SuperJumbo's time has yet to come with infrastructure congestion sure to be a topic discussed with greater regularity in the coming years. What is sure is the aircraft will always remain a niche option, but that exclusivity may just open the door to new markets for the type.

A new joint venture has been established between Chinese and Russian aircraft manufacturers with the goal of creating a new 280-seat widebody aircraft. But the question is… will anyone outside of those two countries actually order it?

I am sure there are numerous questions that will be raised by any company board looking to enter into a partnership with Ryanair, but the budget carrier has seemingly overcome a childhood with a blatant disregard for authority and is now showing the maturity of adulthood. The language has changed, the model has changed and its 'Always Getting Better' programme has propelled it into new markets and introduced significant new revenue streams.

In a twist on the way tourism boards promote their places, Sweden has this week listed the entire country on Airbnb, the online marketplace and hospitality service. In almost nine years, the room letting website has become a force to be reckoned with when it comes to holiday accommodation and this latest tie-up with VisitSweden has captured the world's attention.

According to data from OAG, Romanian LCC Blue Air's total seat numbers will grow by 64% year-on-year in the summer 2017 schedule - faster than for any other European airline group in the top 30 by seats. Blue Air, which launched operations in 2004, is now larger than Romania's flag carrier TAROM by annual passenger numbers and fleet size. Its growth has been prompted by the aggressive expansion of Wizz Air, which is number one in Romania, and of fourth ranked Ryanair.

Europe's big three legacy airline groups collectively reported a wider net loss in 1Q2017 compared with the same period a year earlier. However, this deterioration was largely due to unrealised falls in the value of derivatives and currency translation items. At the operating result level, they collectively grew the combined profit and two of the three, IAG and Lufthansa, improved their operating margin. Air France-KLM's margin declined as a result of currency movements.