Corporate Travel News For Europe/MEA

South Australia's Government announced (19-Oct-2023) Qatar Airways will commence deployment of Boeing 777-300ER equipment on daily Doha-Adelaide service from 29-Oct-2023, replacing A350-900 equipment. The state government noted this will increase "capacity by 71 seats per flight, which reflects a 25% increase". The airline is the sole scheduled operator on the route, according to OAG. [more - original PR]

BRA - Braathens Regional Airlines announced (19-Oct-2023) it is applying for financial reorganisation for seven of the 13 companies in the group. The company stated it "must now act to ensure long term financial stability". The goal of the process is, in addition to several improvement measures, to restructure debts and renegotiate agreements in order to secure jobs, preserve the aviation infrastructure and availability in Sweden and to create long term sustainable conditions for BRA. During the current recession, the recovery in domestic travel has slowed down, while costs have increased, ranging from airport charges to fuel prices and interest rates. The company is heavily negatively affected by currency effects due to the weak Swedish krona. During the summer, the company has also been affected by delays in aircraft deliveries due to global capacity shortages of aircrafts and spare parts, which has resulted in large one off costs. The company underwent a financial reorganisation during COVID-19, freezing operations and parking all aircraft for 13 months. CEO Ulrika Matsgård said: "Today's situation is completely different from the one that prevailed during the pandemic when travel, more or less, was non-existent. This time, we will continue our business as usual and customers will not be affected". BRA added the owners are willing to inject new capital in connection with a successful reorganisation process and are considering broadening ownership. The target is for the reorganisation to be completed during 1Q2024. The companies that have applied for financial reorganisation are, Braathens Regional Airlines, Braathens Crew AB, Braathens International Airways AB, Braathens Regional Airways AB, BRA Sverige AB, Braathens Support AB and Braathens People AB. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - Swedish]

British Airways announced (18-Oct-2023) Executive Club members booking flights will collect Avios based on the cost of their ticket rather than the distance of their flight, effective 18-Oct-2023. Members will receive up to nine Avios per GBP1 spent on flights, as well as collecting on eligible ancillary purchases, including pre-paid selection, upgrades and excess baggage. The carrier projected the change will result in a 20% increase in the number of Avios issued. The new model will also apply to flights marketed by Iberia and American Airlines. [more - original PR]

Bahrain International Airport announced (17-Oct-2023) it will host Routes World 2024, expected to attract over 3000 aviation professionals from around the world. Gulf Air Group chairman HE Zayed R Alzayani stated: "The conference will support the objectives of the Bahrain Economic Vision 2030… and will showcase Bahrain's resilient infrastructure, contributing to the highest standards and efficiency in aviation services". [more - original PR]

Air Greenland signed (16-Oct-2023) new interline agreements with SAS and Icelandair for 2024. As a result, several new international routes can be booked directly on Air Greenland's website, effective immediately. The routes are all offered in cooperation with either SAS or Icelandair's route network, which are served via either Keflavik or Copenhagen. The new destinations include:

• Aarhus;
• Amsterdam;
• Anchorage
• Bergen
• Berlin;
• Boston;
• Brussels;
• Chicago;
• Denver;
• Düsseldorf;
• Frankfurt;
• Gothenburg;
• Halifax;
• Hamburg;
• Hanover;
• London;
• Luxembourg;
• Kandersteg;
• Manchester;
• Milan;
• Minneapolis;
• Munich;
• New York;
• Oslo;
• Paris;
• Seattle;
• Stockholm;
• Stuttgart;
• Toronto;
• Trondheim;
• Vancouver;
• Washington DC. [more - original PR]

Air Nostrum partnered (17-Oct-2023) CityJet to create a new holding group, Strategic Alliance of Regional Airlines (SARA), following approval by both national and European authorities. In addition to Air Nostrum and CityJet, the alliance comprises Hibernian Airlines, an aircraft maintenance company, a crew training centre and four other companies dedicated to providing services to the aeronautical industry. The companies are independent from an economic point of view and will be responsible for fulfilling their own obligations with third parties and the repayment of their loans without any type of transfer of funds between them. The partners stated SARA will be the largest regional airline group in Europe. Air Nostrum CEO Carlos Bertomeu commented: "SARA will act as a holding company, assisting and coordinating each of the companies in the alliance, which will continue to be independent entities, with their own brand and structures". Mr Bertomeu added: "Each of the companies linked to SARA will continue to have its headquarters in its own country and with its own employees". [more - original PR - Spanish]

Air France presented (17-Oct-2023) a project to employee representative bodies to adapt its domestic service to and from Paris by summer 2026. The "rise of videoconferencing, the drop in domestic business travel and the growing shift toward rail", have led "to a structural fall in demand on Air France's domestic point-to-point network". Between 2019 and 2023, traffic on domestic routes out of Paris Orly fell by 40%, and even by 60% for day return trips. Following this development, connections to and from Paris would be operated according to the following principles:

• Air France would operate all its domestic and international flights from its Paris CDG hub. The Corsica public service order (PSO) would be the only exception, and continue to be operated out of Paris Orly, with Air France having submitted a joint bid with Air Corsica for the renewal of this PSO from 2024;
• Transavia would become the Air France group's reference operator from Paris Orly. Transavia would stay the course of its development, namely thanks to its growing fleet of new Airbus A320neo family aircraft;

Additional project details include:

• Air France to continue serving Toulouse, Marseille and Nice, as well as the French Overseas departments from Paris Orly, until 2026;
• Air France to bolster the number of flights from Paris CDG to Toulouse, Marseille, Nice, Pointe-à-Pitre, Fort-de-France and Saint-Denis de La Réunion as the process moves forward. The group also intends to position Transavia on services to Toulouse, Marseille and Nice from Paris Orly from summer 2026;
• Group's capacity between Paris and Toulouse, Marseille and Nice would be maintained at 90% of its current level, and at 100% for routes between Paris and the French overseas territories;
• Initiative is expected to help Air France "maintain a strong brand presence in all the markets it serves", "be more responsive to rapidly changing travel demand", "optimise the use of each airline's resources, make the offer clearer for customers and improve Air France's competitiveness";
• As part of the flights currently operating out of Paris Orly would be redeployed to Paris CDG, the initiative would have limited impact on jobs in Toulouse, Marseille and Nice and would be managed solely on the basis of voluntary transfers and departures. The flight crew bases at these stations would be maintained;
• Regarding employees based in Paris Orly, staffing needs at Paris CDG will be such by 2026 to guarantee everyone an equivalent position at the Roissy site;
• The company will begin a process of information and consultation with employee representative bodies very shortly, along with negotiations with representative trade unions, in order to define the best way to support all affected employees. [more - original PR]

CAPA - Centre for Aviation confirmed (17-Oct-2023) AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat, AirAsia Group chief revenue & network officer Paul Carroll, AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail, All Nippon Airways EVP GM Asia & Oceania & Singapore Shinya Kanda, Atlas Air SVP sales & marketing Asia Pacific Alvin Tay, Batik Air group strategy director Chandran Rama Muthy, Beond CEO & chairman Tero Taskila, Capital A Digital president investments & ventures Aireen Omar, Japan Airlines senior research fellow, industry-academia research and cooperations Yoguchi Akihide, Malaysia Airlines Group MD Izham Ismail, Malaysia Airlines head group sustainability Rahimah Ali, Scoot CEO Leslie Thng, Teleport CEO Pete Chareonwongsak, Turkish Airlines SVP cargo marketing Fatih Cığal, VietJet Air member of board of directors Chu Viet Cuong, Air Control Tower managing director Neil Glynn, Airbus Malaysia head of technology Kan-Ern Liew, Airbus head of marketing APAC Bence Szabo, Air Transport World editor in chief Karen Walker, APAC Network chief strategy officer Oriel Morrison, Aviation Week senior air transport editor Adrian Schofield, Aviation Week Network MD Asia Paul Burton, CAE head of sales (Asia) Vivian Dsouza, Envest executive director David Wills, FLYR general manager APAC Clayton Grant, Hitit technical sales director Cemil Agagil, Hong Kong International Airport COO Vivian Cheung, IBS Software SVP for APAC & Middle East Gautam Shekar, Malaysia Airports chairman Yang Berbahagia Tan Sri Datuk Zainun Ali, Malaysia Airports COO Gordon Stewart, Malaysia's Minister of Transport the Honourable Loke Siew Fook, Oliver Wyman partner, head of transportation & services Asia Pacific region Douglas Carlucci, SITA vice president airports, borders, communications & data exchange Sanjeev K, Skyscanner vice president strategic relations & development Hugh Aitken and Textron Aviation director Lachlan Cullen as speakers at the CAPA Asia Aviation Summit & Sustainability Awards in Kuala Lumpur on 02/03-Nov-2023.

Zurich Airport announced (16-Oct-2023) plans to launch the 'ZRH Comfort' service on 01-Nov-2023. The service provides travellers with access to a dedicated lounge area before departure, where they are offered snacks and beverages, and the option to use the priority lane at the security checkpoint. The service has been on sale since 16-Oct-2023 and can be booked by all travellers, regardless of booking class or airline, via the Zurich Airport website. [more - original PR]

Etihad Airways announced (16-Oct-2023) plans to gradually relocate operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport to Terminal A as follows:

• 01-Nov-2023 to 08-Nov-2023: All Etihad services will operate to/from Terminals 1 and 3;
• 09-Nov-2023 to 14-Nov-2023: The carrier will begin transitioning operations to Terminal A;
• From 11:00 14-Nov-2023: All Etihad services will operate to/from Terminal A.

The new Terminal A is set to open on 01-Nov-2023. [more - original PR]