Corporate Travel News For Europe/MEA

Ryanair notified (27-Sep-2017) Alitalia's bankruptcy commissioners that it "will not be pursuing our interest in Alitalia or submitting any further offers for the airline". Ryanair attributed the change in interest "in order to focus on repairing" rostering issues through winter 2017/18. [more - original PR]

Cape Town & Western Cape Tourism, Trade and Investment (Wesgro) confirmed (27-Sep-2017) Cape Town Air Access "lined up" three direct airline services to Cape Town International Airport and two expansions. Wesgro said details of the services will be announced in 'due course'. [more - original PR]

Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) confirmed (27-Sep-2017) plans to launch service to Trivandrum, its eighth route in India, from 01-Oct-2017. The carrier recently launch services to Multan, Port Sudan and Mauritius. [more - original PR]

Thomas Cook Group partnered (26-Sep-2017) with Switzerland based hotel developer and management company LMEY Investments to develop and expand Thomas Cook's own-brand hotel portfolio. Under the agreement, Thomas Cook acquired from LMEY a 42% stake in Aldiana, a premium club and activity focused tour operator and hotel management company based in Germany. Aldiana operates eight club resorts in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Tunisia and Austria, with plans to open four more resorts over the next two years. Thomas Cook and LMEY will also create a joint hotel investment platform. [more - original PR]

Dubai Airports CEO Paul Griffiths responded to Qantas' decision to transfer from Dubai back to Singapore, stating he does not believe it represents a growing challenge for the airport (Bloomberg, 26-Sep-2017). He said services through Dubai between Europe and Australia will grow as a result of Emirates' increased frequencies, which will occur when Qantas moves some of their traffic to Singapore in Mar-2018. He said Dubai is "very well spread", with the airport expecting approximately 1.3 billion additional passenger journeys to terminate or originate within Asia by the mid 2030s. Dubai Airports is "very bullish about growth", Mr Griffiths, noting growth has continued unabated. Mr Griffiths said "we have not lost anything to Singapore", adding the airport is growing is much faster than airports in its peer group and Dubai Airports "are very very confident that our growth will continue to outstrip all of the competitor airports around the region".

airberlin, via its official Facebook account, confirmed (25-Sep-2017) plans to cease all long haul operations on 15-Oct-2017, adding leased A330 aircraft are gradually being returned to lessors. airberlin also confirmed Duesseldorf-Los Angeles service was suspended on 25-Sep-2017. The carrier also plans to discontinue Hamburg-Munich and Cologne/Bonn-Munich from 29-Sep-2017.

CANSO DG Jeff Poole stated (26-Sep-2017) Africa "has always been a continent of challenges but also of opportunity and great potential". He affirmed Africa will be the world's most populous continent by 2050, with 2.4 billion people and half the population living in cities. "The big question is whether Africa can translate this huge population growth into economic development and prosperity", Mr Poole said, stating the "question for aviation and the ATM industry is: what do we need to do as one of the key
catalysts and drivers of this economic and social growth?". He said: "Connectivity is critical for regional integration and African growth and development... In today's world, it is absurd that travel between many African countries still has to be via Europe or perhaps the Middle East". [more - original PR]

Marseille Airport announced (26-Sep-2017) Volotea plans to establish its fifth French base with two Boeing 717 aircraft at the facility from 2018. Volotea subsequently announced eight new routes, bringing its total to 18 and increasing its seat offering by 60% from summer 2018:

• Marseille-Biarritz: Twice weekly from Apr-2018 to Nov-2018;
• Marseille-Caen: Twice weekly from Apr-2018;
• Marseille-Corfu: Twice weekly from Apr-2018 to Oct-2018;
• Marseille-Heraklion: Weekly from Apr-2018 to Oct-2018;
• Marseille-Mykonos: Weekly from May-2018 to Oct-2018;
• Marseille-Santorini: Twice weekly from Apr-2018 to Oct-2018;
• Marseille-Menorca: Twice weekly from Apr-2018 to Oct-2018;
• Marseille-Palma de Mallorca: Weekly from Apr-2018 to Oct-2018. [more - original PR - French]

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines launched (26-Sep-2017) BlueBot, an automated Facebook messenger bot. KLM stated the bot is supported by 250 human employees. Air France-KLM SVP digital Pieter Groeneveld said: "On social media, we offer 24/7 service with our team of 250 human agents, handling more than 16,000 cases a week. Volumes will continue to grow... KLM is taking the next step in its social media strategy, offering personal service through technology". [more - original PR]

World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) commended (26-Sep-2017) Saudi Arabia its commitment to prioritising travel and tourism in the country. WTTC president & CEO Gloria Guevara said the Saudi Arabian government has been a "great example" to the sector in "prioritising tourism growth in the country in order to generate further economic wealth and jobs as the country diversifies their income streams". WTTC forecast travel and tourism growth of 6.4% year-on-year in Saudi Arabia in 2017, well above the global average of 3.6% forecast. Saudi travel and tourism sector employment figures are expected to rise by 3.7% in 2017. Travel and tourism generated SAR244.6 billion (USD65.2 billion) for the Saudi Arabia's economy in2 016, which is 10.2% of GDP and supported 9.7% of total employment. [more - original PR]