Corporate Travel News For The Americas

Lufthansa announced (13-Sep-2023) plans to launch the following US routes from Frankfurt in summer 2024:

• Minneapolis: Five times weekly from 04-Jun-2024;
• Raleigh Durham: Five times weekly from 06-Jun-2024. [more - original PR]

Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) announced (05-Sep-2023) the following Latin America Advisory Board members for 2023 to 2025:

• Direct members:
  • Unilever regional travel manager Nancy Goycochea;
  • Bayer partner experience manager PACA & Mexico - travel management and T&E Nancy Cabezas;
  • BTG Pactual director - global travel department Gabriela Salles Oliveira;
  • Exiros - Techint Group corporate travel global manager Conrado Sainz;
• Allied members:
  • Hilton MD of sales Caribbean & Latin America Monica Crawfurd;
  • LATAM Airlines GM Mexico Diana Olivares;
  • SAP Concur VP and head of Concur, Latin America & Caribbean Denis Tassitano;
  • Copastur head of expansion Felipe Mesquita. [more - original PR]

Emirates Airline and United Airlines expanded (05-Sep-2023) their codeshare partnership to include Cancun, Cozumel, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, San Jose Del Cabo, Leon/Guanajuato and Queretaro via Chicago or Houston. Mexico is the first country outside of the US to be added to the carriers' codeshare agreement. The carriers' codeshare network now includes 134 destinations accessible from United's US gateways with 100 additional points across the Americas accessible on an interline basis. [more - original PR]

Air Canada announced (05-Sep-2023) the following planned frequency adjustments for summer 2024, compared to summer 2023:

• Montreal-Athens: Increase to three times weekly from Apr-2024 and further increase to daily from May-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Montreal-Barcelona: Increase to four times weekly from Apr-2024 and further increase to five times weekly from May-2024 and to six times weekly from Jun-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Montreal-Casablanca: Increase to six times weekly from Jun-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Montreal-Lisbon: Increase to four times weekly from Apr-2024 and further increase to five times weekly from May-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Montreal-Milan: Increase to daily from Jun-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Montreal-Nice: Increase to five times weekly from Jun-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Montreal-Rome Fiumicino: Increase to nine times weekly from May-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Montreal-Venice: Increase to three times weekly from Jun-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Toronto-Athens: Increase to four times weekly from Apr-2024 and further increase to daily from May-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Toronto-Barcelona: Increase to five times weekly from Apr-2024 and further increase to daily from May-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Toronto-Copenhagen: Increase to daily from May-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Toronto-Lisbon: Increase to daily from Apr-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Toronto-London Heathrow: Increase to four times daily from Apr-2024 to Oct-2024;
• Toronto-Manchester: Increase to six times weekly from Jun-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Toronto-Rome Fiumicino: Increase to 12 times weekly from May-2024 to Sep-2024;
• Toronto-Venice: Increase to four times weekly from Jun-2024 to Oct-2024.

The carrier plans to operate 100% of its peak summer 2019 trans Atlantic capacity in 2024 amid a "robust" recovery in its largest international market. [more - original PR]

EUROCONTROL reported (04-Sep-2023) the following highlights for European aviation, for the period between 23-Aug-2023 and 29-Aug-2023:

• The network recorded 32,450 average daily flights, +5% year-on-year, -0.5% week-on-week and at 92% of 2019 levels;
• Intra Europe: 25,197 daily flights, -1% week-on-week and 93% of 2019 levels;
• Intercontinental: 6421 daily flights, unchanged week-on-week and 87% of 2019 levels;
• On the intercontinental network, the main regional flow was Europe-Middle East (1740 daily flights, 98% of 2019 levels);
• The only flows above 2019 levels are with the North Atlantic (+3%) and North Africa (+6%);
• Flows with other Europe (including Russia) remain reduced at -76% compared to 2019;
• UK-US was the top long haul country pair, with 320 average daily flights, unchanged week-on-week and +2% compared with 2019;
• Mainline (+17% compared to 2022), regional (unchanged) and low cost (+3%) sectors are recording growth since the pandemic;
• Business aviation (-8%) and all cargo (-7%) are recording fewer flights year-on-year, with both segments levelling off. The charter sector also recorded 2% fewer flights. [more - original PR]

LATAM Airlines resumed (01-Sep-2023) three times weekly Santiago (Chile)-Melbourne service, operating with Boeing 787-9. The service was suspended in Apr-2020 due to COVID-19. The carrier expects to transport 80,000 passengers on the route in its first year of operation. The service is the carrier's longest route, exceeding 11,000km. [more - original PR - Spanish] [more - original PR]

Flight Centre Travel Group announced (30-Aug-2023) the following highlights from its corporate travel business in FY2023:

• New total transaction value (TTV) milestones were established in all geographic segments, with Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business topping its previous record by 59%, Asia by 24%, the Americas by 15.6% and Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) by 10.5%;
• The Americas business was the largest corporate operation, generating 31% of group corporate TTV, just ahead of ANZ (30%), EMEA (28%) and Asia (11%);
• Corporate transaction volumes exceeded pre-COVID-19 levels, "well ahead" of the estimated industry wide recovery of 70% to 75% of FY2019 transaction levels;
• FCM secured new, contracted accounts with annual spends in the order of AUD1.6 billion (USD1 billion) with wins typically coming from competitors;
• More than half of Corporate Traveller's wins (uncontracted) were previously unmanaged accounts;
• Bottom line results were impacted by significant upfront costs incurred in winning and onboarding a large volume of accounts secured, with around 1000 new sales and support staff added to the corporate workforce during FY2023. The business also invested in leading tech platforms, with Melon deployed in the UK and new features added to the global FCM platform. [more - original PR]

United Airlines is scheduled to resume the following daily services from 09-Jan-2024, according to OAG:

• Chicago-Beijing Capital;
• Chicago-Shanghai Pudong;
• Los Angeles-Shanghai Pudong;
• New York Newark-Beijing Capital;
• New York Newark-Shanghai Pudong;
• Washington Dulles-Beijing Capital.

The carrier last operated the services in Feb-2020. China Eastern Airlines is also scheduled to operate the Los Angeles-Shanghai Pudong route.

Alaska Airlines launched (29-Aug-2023) the 'Mobile Verify' programme, allowing passengers travelling internationally to verify their passports prior to arriving at the airport. The platform, powered by Airside, enables passengers with US or Canadian passports to bypass passport verification at the airport by uploading photos of their passport and their face to the Airside Digital Identify mobile app. Alaska SVP innovation and merchandising Charu Jain stated: "We're reimagining the entire guest experience at our airports with the goal of getting you through the lobby in 5 minutes or less". [more - original PR]

Delta Air Lines partnered (29-Aug-2023) with Bank of America, Ecolab and Xcel Energy to establish the Minnesota SAF hub, representing the first large scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) hub in the US committed to scaling SAF production and commercialisation. The hub, enabled by the GREATER MSP Partnership, aims to produce affordable SAF by developing an integrated value chain at Minneapolis St Paul International Airport, as well as fostering the adoption of innovative solutions and technology to accelerate SAF commercialisation. The hub aligns with the industry goal to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. [more - original PR]