Corporate Travel News For Europe/MEA

Tourism New Zealand conducted (19-Sep-2017) a training roadshow for more than 400 travel agents across the UK and Europe. Eight of New Zealand's nine international marketing alliances took part in the roadshow, along with 10 product suppliers, including Air New Zealand. The roadshow visited Newcastle, Birmingham, London, Zurich, Munich and Frankfurt. [more - original PR]

flydubai announced (19-Sep-2017) plans to double operations to Russia for the 2017/18 winter season, in response to growing demand. From late Oct-2017, the airline will operate 40 times weekly to 10 destinations in Russia. The carrier will commence Makhachkala, Ufa and Voronezh services and add capacity to its existing destinations of Kazan, Krasnodar, Mineralnye Vody, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Samara and Yekaterinburg. Travel from Russia to Dubai increased 97% in 1H2017 and the airline noted growing demand since changes to UAE visa requirements enabled Russian passengers to secure a free 30 day visa on arrival. [more - original PR]

CAPA - Centre for Aviation, in a report entitled: 'Etihad's Abu Dhabi hub: more partners stop service, shifting Etihad's outlook to a boutique airline', stated (15-Sep-2017) Etihad Airways and Abu Dhabi International Airport are shifting from an expansive network involving multiple partners to a smaller footprint centred around Etihad. Equity partners airberlin, Air Serbia, NIKI and Virgin Australia have suspended Abu Dhabi services and Air Seychelles has reduced capacity. Air Seychelles, Alitalia and Jet Airways will be the only remaining partners in Abu Dhabi from Nov-2017. Jet Airways, Etihad's largest partner in Abu Dhabi, is reducing its presence as it favours a new partnership with Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines and shifts operations from Abu Dhabi to Amsterdam and Paris. Jet Airways is critical to the remaining partner capacity at Abu Dhabi and to Etihad's India strategy. Etihad's partnership strategy has been an expensive failure that will take time and surely more costs to resolve. [more - CAPA Analysis]

Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA and Ryanair confirmed the parties ceased discussions for feeder services onto Norwegian's long haul network (Reuters, 19-Sep-2017). Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary commented: "given our concerns over Norwegian's financial viability, I think we have brought to an end the discussions with Norwegian. We're focusing now on our discussions with Air Europa and Aer Lingus". As previously reported by CAPA, Norwegian partnered easyJet instead to allow passengers self connect between services at London Gatwick Airport.

Air Corsica executive board member Hervé Pierret confirmed interest in launching new service to either Germany, Austria, the UK or Scandinavia (L'Aérien, 18-Sep-2017). He said the next destination to be launched has been narrowed down to "four or five" choices. "However, the German speaking markets are more complex and time is needed", he said, adding UK and Scandinavian routes are more likely. He concluded: "We expect sales to begin in October for launch in 2018".

Air Peace chairman and CEO Allen Onyema said: "Nigeria is the harshest operating environment for any airline, especially the domestic airlines" (Punch, 17-Sep-2017). He stated: "There are so many challenges including multiple taxation, high cost of acquiring aviation fuel, high cost of procuring spare parts and bringing them into the country, and our Customs officers not understanding what it means to support airlines" and added: "Besides these, we have poor airport infrastructure, poor understanding from the passengers, and the poor governance structure of some of the airlines could also be a challenge. Another major problem is multiple designations being given to foreign airlines in Nigeria, while Nigerian airlines are not being encouraged at all". Mr Onyema also commented: "There is a dearth of qualified aviation personnel in Nigeria, especially in aviation engineering". He concluded: "The major problem with aviation in this country is government policies. Majority of the policies do not support the growth of the industry; that is the major problem".

Bogota El Dorado International Airport confirmed (18-Sep-2017) Turkish Airlines could consider the deployment of larger aircraft or increasing frequency in Colombia upon continuing growth in demand. As previously reported by CAPA, the carrier launched three times weekly Istanbul-Bogota-Panama service in May-2016. [more - original PR - Spanish]

Berlin Tegel Airport reportedly saw delays of more than 15 minutes on 29.9% of services from Jan-2017 to Jul-2017, according to a report citing internal documents from Flughafenverband ADV (German Airports Association - ADV) (Bild am Sonntag, 17-Sep-2017). Tegel was ranked the lowest in OTP compared to 18 other German airports.

Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization reported tourist arrivals to Iran decreased 1.1% year-on-year to 2.1 million in the first five months of the current Iranian year, which commenced on 21-Mar-2017 (Financial Tribune, 18-Sep-2017). The top source markets were Iraq, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tourist numbers decreased 5.1% in the first three months of the year. The decrease was attributed to Iran's political relations with Saudi Arabia and the US.

Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA), via its official newsletter and website, posted (17-Sep-2017) a report stating QCAA plans to sign additional air transport agreements in 2017 (Qatar Tribune/The Peninsula, 17-Sep-2017). Chairman Abdullah bin Nasser Turki Al Subaey said: "Despite recent challenges, we have high expectations for the rest of 2017". QCAA signed eight air transport agreements so far in 2017.