Corporate Travel News

Ethiopian Airlines filed a slot request with Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency to operate São Paulo-Buenos Aires service, linking its established Addis Ababa-São Paulo route (Aviacion al dia, 30-Sep-2017). Ethiopian Airlines plans to operate the route five times weekly with Boeing 787-8 equipment, effective 02-Dec-2017.

fastjet signed (29-Sep-2017) a LOI to lease three ATR 72-600 aircraft, with an option to purchase with Abric Leasing. The agreement entitles fastjet to use the three aircraft for 10 years. fastjet plans to deploy the aircraft over the next six months in South Africa, Tanzania and/or Mozambique. [more - original PR]

Roy Morgan Research released (28-Sep-2017) data for Aug-2017, showing Qantas Airlines is Australia's highest rating domestic airline with a customer satisfaction rating of 83.2%. Qantas has maintained its lead over Virgin Australia (77.6%) for four months now. Regional Express (Rex) improved 5.5% year-on-year with a rating of 72.6% in Aug-2017. Jetstar rounded out the top five with a rating of 63.1%. [more - original PR]

Thai Airways announced (01-Oct-2017) a change in equipment on Bangkok Suvarnabhumi-Melbourne service. Highlights include:

• A350-900 replaces Boeing 777-200 equipment;
• Capacity increases by 224 seats weekly into Thailand;
• Thailand is currently the ninth most visited outbound destination from Melbourne;
• Victoria's Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources statistics for the year ending Jun-2017 estimated Victorians took 167,900 trips to Thailand, +5.4% year-on-year. [more - original PR]

Samoa's Bureau of Statistics reported (02-Sep-2017) visitor arrivals to Samoa for Apr-2017. Details include:

• Visitor arrivals: 11,586, +2.6% year-on-year;
  • New Zealand: 5513;
  • Australia: 2453;
  • USA: 713. [more - original PR]

Alliance Airlines announced changes to its Brisbane-Gladstone schedule (The Observer, 03-Oct-2017). The airline's early morning Sunday flights have been retimed to 13:00 and 15:15, while two Thursday and Friday morning flights will now leave at 17:00 on Wednesday and Thursday, with the aircraft overnighting in Gladstone. Alliance Airline stated the shift was a response to increased demand and enhanced connection opportunities from the Virgin Australia network.

Eurowings announced (02-Oct-2017) an extended interline agreement with South African Airways (SAA). The scope of the agreement will see Eurowings operate feeder services into SAA's long haul network. Eurowings expects German passengers will be particularly interested in feeder services to London Heathrow and Munich, from where they can change to the South African Airways long haul services to Johannesburg. As previously reported by CAPA, Eurowings also plans to commence Cologne/Bonn-Cape Town service with A330-300 equipment from 05-Nov-2017. Eurowings said bookings for Cologne/Bonn-Cape Town service "are already off to an excellent start". [more - original PR - German]

Darwin Airport launched (Oct-2017) a project to make its terminal 'China Ready', in hopes of welcoming Chinese airline services in the future. The project has involved trialling airport systems being translated to Mandarin, such as the flight information display system and select key terminal voiceovers. CEO Ian Kew stated: "We are keen to ensure if and when Chinese visitors are able to start flying directly to Darwin, we are giving them a positive visitor experience and welcoming them to our city right from the outset". [more - original PR]

Nelson Airport recorded (Sep-2017) an EBITDA of NZD5.8 million (USD4.1 million) for FY2016/17 ended 30-Jun-2017, a 71% year-on-year increase. While passenger numbers increased 16%, operating and administration expenses only increased by NZD0.2 million (USD0.1 million) which directly supported the NZD2.8 million (USD2 million) growth in revenue to NZD9.1 million (USD6.5 million). CEO Robert Evans and chairman Paul Steere stated: "This is an extraordinary achievement for a New Zealand regional airport". [more - original PR]

Tourism New Zealand released (02-Oct-2017) the results of a recent pilot campaign to attract Australian travellers to Northland highlighting that regional dispersal is possible through targeted marketing. Tourism New Zealand CEO Stephen England-Hall stated: "The pilot was the first Tourism New Zealand campaign focused on a single region to test whether we can influence a shift in travel patterns toward our less visited regions. The results of this test proved that yes we can and will be incorporated into our future work, as well as shared with industry to support theirs". On the back of the results Tourism New Zealand is planning to run a second campaign focused on Northland and another campaign in the South Island. [more - original PR]