Corporate Travel News For Europe/MEA

SkyWork Airlines CEO Martin Inäbnit stated challenges remain "unchanged... The Bern market is just too small" (Berner Zeitung, 01-Nov-2017). "But we have solutions for this", he said, explaining: "We are looking for airports where there are no big top dogs, and routes where capacity utilisation is sufficient throughout the year... Otherwise we are immediately in the shark tank of budget airlines". Mr Inäbnit also confirmed aspirations to expand more at Basel, however aircraft would return to Bern in the evening "So our crews will stay stationed in Bern". "We can take over stretches of the collapsed airberlin that will become free", he added, stating demand for Eurowings to replace airberlin on certain routes "is simply too small".

Edelweiss Air CEO Bernd Bauer confirmed plans to grow its fleet to 15 aircraft by the end of 2018 (aeroTELEGRAPH/Zürichsee-Zeitung/Der Lanbote, 02-Nov-2017). According to the CAPA Fleet Database, Edelweiss operates a 10 aircraft fleet comprising six A320-200s, two A330-300Es and two A340-300Xs. Mr Bauer stated three of the five aircraft to be added are A320s, comprising two formerly used by airberlin. Edelweiss will lease the two A320s from Deutsche Lufthansa AG, and lease the third from Macquarie Group. The other two aircraft Edelweiss plans to add are A340s. Mr Bauer said: "We are looking for 27 pilots and 54 cabin crew members to operate the additional aircraft".

Carlson Wagonlit Travel published (02-Nov-2017) a report on travellers' attitudes to safety and security, finding that more than one-third (37%) of European travellers are concerned about safety and security, their counterparts from other regions worry more. Travellers from the Americas say that they worry about safety and security nearly half of the time (47%), while Asia Pacific travellers worry the most (56%). 67% of business travellers believe travel is safer today than in the past, as they have more tools to mitigate safety concerns. 70% travellers use at least one of their employer's security protocols, such as traveller tracking or emergency contact profiles. 68% of business travellers buy travel insurance. Primary safety concerns are:

• Forgetting items required for work: 40%;
• Losing important property: 38%;
• Boeing robbed or attacked: 37%;
• Weather: 37%;
• Terrorism: 35%. [more - original PR]

Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) reported (Oct-2017) the following highlights for international airline activity for Aug-2017:

• 59 international airlines operated scheduled services to/from Australia during Aug-2017 (including five dedicated freight airlines but excluding airlines operating only via codeshare arrangements);
• International scheduled traffic was 3.3 million passenger, up 6.3% year-on-year. The most recent annual month on month decrease in traffic was recorded in Mar-2011 (-1.6%);
• Passenger traffic for the year ended Aug-2017 was 39.0 million, up 6.1%;
• Total seats available on international scheduled operations to/from Australia were 4.3 million, up 4.9%;
• Overall seat utilisation percentage (including AirAsia X, China Airlines, Emirates, Philippine Airlines, Qantas and Singapore Airlines passengers travelling through Australian ports) increased 1.2 ppts;
• Qantas had the largest share of the market in Aug-2017 with 16.6%, followed by Jetstar (9.8%), Singapore Airlines (8.2%), Emirates (7.9%) and Virgin Australia (6.5%). Compared to Aug-2016, Qantas Airways' share increased by 0.8ppts, Jetstar's share increased by 0.4ppts, Singapore Airlines' share decreased by 0.1ppts, Emirates' share decreased by 0.6ppts and Virgin Australia's share increased by 0.2ppts;
• Qantas Group - Qantas Airways, Jetstar and Jetstar Asia (0.6%) - accounted for 27.0% of total passenger carriage, up 1.1ppts;
• Australian designated airlines share of passenger traffic was 32.9%, up 0.4ppts;
• LCCs - AirAsia X, Cebu Pacific Air, Indonesia AirAsia, Jetstar, Jetstar Asia and Scoot Tigerair - accounted for 16.5% of total international passenger traffic, down 1.9ppts;
• International scheduled freight traffic in Aug-2017 increased by 13.0% to 93,702 tonnes. Inbound freight traffic increased by 16.3% and outbound freight traffic increased by 9.4%. [more - original PR]

Firnas Airways CEO Kazi Shafiqur Rahman, via his official Facebook account, stated (30-Oct-2017) the crowd funded start up carrier plans to launch operations with BAe Jetstream 31 equipment. As previously reported by CAPA, Firnas Airways plans to operate Boeing 777-200ER and Airbus A330-200/300 equipment by year three of operation.

Nigeria's Minister of State for Aviation Hadi Sirika, via his official Twitter account, stated (01-Nov-2017) Emirates will resume Abuja service on 15-Dec-2017. Lagos is currently the airline's only destination in Nigeria, according to OAG.

TAAG reportedly aims to achieve break even or profitability on domestic operations by 2019/20 by replacing Boeing 737-700 aircraft on short haul services with smaller turboprops (Lusa, 31-Oct-2017). The airline aims to better match capacity to demand while maintaining connectivity between Luanda and Angola's provinces.

Air France-KLM chairman and CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac noted the group comprises "two countries with different experiences, cultures and histories" (Skift, 01-Nov-2017). "It means that in everyday work, you have to understand the culture of each other", he said, adding: "Air France is a company where there are many engineers, and where the security of the flight is very important... They tend to have very strong organisation with lengthy preparation periods so that everything is very precise. Whereas at KLM, they are more in the spirit of test and learn".

European Commission confirmed it received required documentation from Deutsche Lufthansa AG regarding its acquisition of parts from airberlin, in order to be considered under EU ownership legislation (Reuters, 02-Nov-2017). The Commission said: "We can confirm the transaction has been notified" and the "provisional deadline" is 07-Dec-2017.

Russia's Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) reported (01-Nov-2017) 840,000 Chinese visited the Russian Federation under the visa free exchange programme between Jan-2017 to Sep-2017, up 24% year-on-year. Most Chinese tourists visited Moscow (296,000 visits, up 15%), Primorsky Territory (184,000, up 9%) and the Amur Region (93,000, up 36%). Rosturizm head Oleg Safonov stated: "The significant growth of the tourist flow from China, which is observed in recent years in Russia, is connected with many factors: active promotion of our country in the Chinese tourist market, raising the level of service for tourists from China, diversification of tourist products and, of course, visa-free group tourist exchange. The key tasks from the point of view of further development of inbound tourism from China is to expand the geography of travel and the range of offers for Chinese travelers, including due to ecological, rural, gastronomic and industrial tours". [more - original PR - Russian]