Corporate Travel News

Thomas Cook Group entered (14-Sep-2017) a strategic alliance with Expedia. Under the multi-year agreement, Expedia is preferred hotel provider for Thomas Cook's city and domestic holiday business and provides its booking platform to support all city break and hotel only sales across all of Thomas Cook's European distribution channels. Thomas Cook previously concluded a hotel sourcing deal with Webjet in Aug-2016, covering the majority of Thomas Cook's sun and beach hotel offering. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - II]

Auckland Airport board unanimously nominated (15-Sep-2017) Julia Hoare to stand for election as an independent non-executive director at its 2017 annual meeting. The board will recommend to shareholders the appointment of Ms Hoare at the airport's annual meeting on 26-Oct-2017. [more - original PR]

Qantas announced (14-Sep-2017) it will extend seasonal Sydney-Osaka service to a year-round operation. The new route is due to commence in Dec-2017. Qantas stated the decision follows a strong response to the airline's seasonal announcement in Jul-2017 and the ongoing support provided by Kansai International Airport and Destination NSW. Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans said the feedback from Qantas customers, especially frequent flyers, had exceeded expectations. Qantas will operated two class A330 equipment and will be a monopoly operator on the route. Qantas already operates Sydney-Tokyo Haneda, Brisbane-Tokyo Narita and Melbourne-Tokyo Narita services, while its Jetstar LCC unit operates Cairns-Osaka, Cairns-Tokyo Narita and Gold Coast-Tokyo Narita services. [more - original PR]

Air New Zealand announced (14-Sep-2017) COO Bruce Parton disposed of 65,302 shares in the carrier, 20.86% of his total holdings. Mr Parton still holds 247,777 shares in the carrier. [more - original PR]

NSW Minister for Tourism and Major Events Adam Marshall announced (05-Sep-2017) organisers of new or second year events in rural and regional NSW, from Jan-2018 to Jun-2018, can apply for funding under round one of the 2018 Incubator Event Fund. The Fund offers annual grants of up to AUD20,000 (USD16,000) for new and existing smaller-scale events, to assist in areas such as marketing, public relations, venue hire and attendee research. The incubator fund is part of the NSW Government's AUD43 million (USD34.4 million) investment in rural and regional tourism and aims to support new or second year community events. [more - original PR]

Australia's Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) released (14-Sep-2017) Domestic Air Fare Index for Sep-2017 which showed the 'Best Discount Fare' Index (Jul-2003 = 100) for domestic travel fell 3.4% year-on-year to 71.1 in Sep-2017. 'Restricted economy' increased 4.2% year-on-year and 'Business class' declined 0.5% year-on-year. [more - original PR]

Townsville Airport reported (13-Sep-2017) passenger traffic increased 10.4% year-on-year to 150,700 in Aug-2017. COO Kevin Gill stated: "We had strong performance in the domestic market" with the majority of traffic being inbound visitors "which is having a positive impact on the local economy" and "a positive flow on effect for local tourism providers". Mr Gill added international services were consistent with Bali service producing "encouraging passenger numbers". The airport recorded its third consecutive month of growth in Aug-2017. [more - original PR]

New Zealand's Supreme Court ruled (13-Sep-2017) to allow an appeal by two Cathay Pacific pilots based in Auckland. The pilots, David Brown and Glen Sycamore, appealed to Cathay Pacific wholly owned subsidiary New Zealand Basing Ltd (NZBL), regarding a requirement for the pilots to retire at the age of 55. The Court said NZBL sought to exercise the requirement, when Mr Brown and Mr Sycamore challenged the requirement's lawfulness under New Zealand's Employment Relations Act 2000. The Court stated If the right not to be discriminated on grounds of age is applicable, the pilots cannot be required to retire until they reach the age of 65. [more - original PR]

Tigerair Australia launched (14-Sep-2017) three times weekly Brisbane-Canberra service on 14-Sep-2017. The new service is scheduled for a midmorning departure from Brisbane and a lunchtime departure from Canberra. The airline will also increase Melbourne-Canberra frequency from seven to eight times weekly with an additional Friday service from 15-Sep-2017. With eight weekly return services from Melbourne and three from Brisbane, Tigerair Australia will be providing close to 4000 seats weekly or over 200,000 seats annually through Canberra Airport. [more - original PR]

New Caledonia based businessman Bill Ravel is reportedly expected to lodge an application to establish an airline called Islands, with lodgement expected in the week commencing 11-Sep-2017 (Radio 1, 13-Sep-2017). Mr Ravel, who founded Air Calin and Air Vanuatu, is reportedly planning to obtain two Embraer 175 aircraft on lease and operate to the territory's five archipelagos. He said the carrier would likely offer fares 15% to 20% lower than Air Tahiti. Other investors are said to be joining his latest venture, although details were not disclosed.