Corporate Travel News

Australia's Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment Steven Ciobo reported (05-Dec-2017) China is Australia's "fastest growing and most valuable tourism market", with the potential to be worth more than AUD13 billion (USD9.8 billion) by 2020. [more - original PR]

South Australian Tourism Commission (SATC) reported (05-Dec-2017) tourism arrivals by Chinese nationals increased 56% year-on-year to 56,000 in the past year. SATC credited the increase to work by the South Australia State Government with Adelaide Airport and China Southern Airlines, which attracted a direct service from Guangzhou to Adelaide. Chinese tourism is also the top driver of spending growth, with expenditure up 74% to AUD352 million (USD266.3 million). [more - original PR]

AtlasGlobal is interested in establishing subsidiaries "not only in Ukraine" and create an alliance consisting of nine airlines by 2027, as confirmed by chairman Murat Ersoy (cfts.org.ua/CNN Türk, 05-Dec-2017). Mr Ersoy said: "We would like to invest in new airlines in Albania, Saudi Arabia, CIS countries, possibly this will be Russia or Kazakhstan, also we are planning to establish a carrier in EU, particularly in Romania".

Cape Verde's Minister of Finance Olavo Correia said the privatisation of TACV is expected to be completed by the end of 1Q2018 after an evaluation of the company is completed (Observador/Dinheirovivo/Asemana, 05-Dec-2017). Mr Correia said the valuation should be completed at the beginning of 2018 and the Government plans to finalise the process quickly "because the sooner it is concluded, the better for everyone". TACV is being managed under an agreement with Icelandair, which could be a potential strategic partner in the privatisation of the carrier's international business, Mr Correia said. The Minister also noted the state of "bankruptcy" in which the present Government found TACV, with EUR30 million in annual losses. He said liquidation of the company was considered, although that would have been at a cost of around EUR60 million.

Vietnam plans to add Australia, the UAE, Canada, India, the Netherlands and New Zealand to the list of nations which will be granted e-visas under the newly issued Decree 124/NQ-CP (VNA, 02-Nov-2017). Vietnam launched a two year pilot e-visa programme on 01-Feb-2017 covering citizens of 40 countries.

Tanzania signed (05-Dec-2017) bilateral air services MoUs with New Zealand and India at the 10th ICAO Air Services Negotiation Event in Colombo, held from 04-Dec-2017 to 08-Dec-2017. [more - original PR]

IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac noted (05-Dec-2017) airport infrastructure "is not being built fast enough to cope with growth" in passenger traffic. Mr de Juniac urged governments worldwide to "Work with the industry to plan and build the infrastructure that will be needed to power your economies", adding: "There is no time to lose". In the meantime, Mr de Juniac advised airports and governments to "allocate scarce capacity efficiently using global standards" and said the scarcity of airport infrastructure supply means slot coordination "is critical". He observed: "About two thirds of airports needing slot coordination are in Europe" but added bottlenecks are a global problem impacting airports in Sydney, Bangkok, Manila, Jakarta, Mumbai, Mexico City, New York and Sao Paolo, "to name just a few". [more - original PR]

Italy's Minister of Infrastructure and Transportation Graziano Delrio said a deal for Alitalia could be reached in "three or four weeks", adding "the real offers are arriving" (ANSA/Reuters, 05/06-Dec-2017). "We are not in a rush to wrap things up, because being solid, stable and strong enables us not to have to close in a hurry", he said, adding: "I've always said that a careful evaluation is needed, not a sell-off".

Germania opened (05-Dec-2017) a new sales channel via the Amadeus Altéa Inventory System. The system supports the carrier's "reorientation of its digital offering", and will enable greater "seat-only" sales via travel agencies and tour operators as well as add-on bookings of individual services. Furthermore, Germania opens up towards travel agent sales via Amadeus by joining the Traveltainment Bistro Portal and Amadeus Tour Market. The booking system is faster at handling specific requirements, such as travelling with sports equipment or excess baggage. As the new technology is launched, Germania will be promoting the development of a mobile app, due to be presented in spring 2018. The app will enable customers to book tickets as well as add-on products. The app will also be "significant" for passengers onboard Germania operations from 2020, with access to the onboard entertainment programme in the carrier's newly delivered A320neo aircraft. [more - original PR]

Air France announced (05-Dec-2017) plans to launch the following seasonal services to Greece, Israel and Lebanon in summer 2018, operating an A320/A321 mix:

• Marseille-Athens: Up to three times weekly from 14-Apr-2018 to 30-Sep-2018;
• Marseille-Beirut: Three times weekly from 23-Jul-2018 to 31-Aug-2018;
• Nice-Athens: Three times weekly from 24-Jul-2018 to 01-Sep-2018;
• Nice-Beirut: Twice weekly from 23-Jul-2018 to 31-Aug-2018;
• Nice-Tel Aviv: Up to twice weekly from 21-Mar-2018 to 21-Oct-2018;
• Toulouse-Athens: Up to four times weekly from 21-Apr-2018 to 30-Sep-2018.

Air France said the routes respond to "leisure travellers' high demand during the summer holiday period". Fewer trips made by business travellers in Jul/Aug-2018 enable the company to "redeploy its aircraft on departure from the French regions", Air France said. [more - original PR]