Corporate Travel News

PPR, Melbourne Tullamarine Airport's PR agency, confirmed (08-Sep-2017) the premium Marhaba lounge at Melbourne Airport's international departure area will open on 12-Sep-2017. The lounge features capacity for 200 customers, a quiet zone, shower facilities, international cuisine buffet and a Hudson Coffee café. Marhaba lounge is open to all departing passengers for a fee. [more - original PR]

CAPA - Centre for Aviation, in a report entitled: 'Qantas' New York & London nonstops need long range aircraft, but secret ingredient is Qantas' brand', stated (10-Sep-2017) domestic strength and brand are key considerations for Qantas as it looks to ultra long-haul operations. While it will be a technical achievement for Airbus and Boeing to engineer variants of their A350 and 777X to allow service from Australia's east coast to London and New York, the real accomplishment will be for these services to achieve commercial sustainability. With the right aircraft, Qantas has a promising recipe of brand, loyalty and a home domestic market to create a customer loyalty base that should support the new services. [more - CAPA Analysis]

Court of Justice of the European Union ruled (07-Sep-2017) on compensation payable to passengers in the event of cancellation or long delay of a connecting service. The Court stated compensation "must be calculated according to the radial distance between the departure and arrival airports". The Court stated the fact that the distance actually covered by such a flight is, as a result of the connection, greater than the distance between the departure and arrival airports has no impact on the calculation of compensation. The Court considers that the nature of the flight (direct flight or connecting flight) has no impact on the extent of the inconvenience suffered by the passengers. [more - original PR]

Eastern Airways received (08-Sep-2017) the first of two new ATR 72-600 aircraft (MSNs 1448 and 1482) from Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) on 08-Sep-2017. Both aircraft are configured with 72 seats and will operate on Aberdeen-Scatsta oil contract charter services. Eastern Airways COO Tony Burgess added the aircraft "are ideally suited for the airports we fly to and environments we operate in", as the regional carrier expands its capabilities in the 70 seat market. Eastern Airways is a new customer for NAC. [more - original PR] [more - original PR - II]

Air France-KLM reported (09-Sep-2017) the following traffic highlights for Air France, KLM and HOP! for Aug-2017:

• Passengers: 7.6 million, +5.6% year-on-year;
  • Long haul: 2.6 million, +2.6%;
    • North America: 820,000, +6.1%;
    • Asia Pacific: 560,000, -0.7%;
    • Africa and Middle East: 542,000, +4.4%;
    • Caribbean and Indian Ocean: 351,000, +2.1%;
    • Latin America: 281,000, -2.7%;
  • Short and Medium haul: 5.1 million, +7.2%;
• Passenger load factor: 89.6%, +1.5ppts;
  • Long haul: 90.7%, +1.3ppts;
    • Asia Pacific: 92.3%, +0.6ppt;
    • Latin America: 91.2%, +2.7ppts;
    • North America: 90.8%, +2.5ppts;
    • Caribbean and Indian Ocean: 89.3%, +0.4ppt;
    • Africa and Middle East: 88.4%, stable;
  • Short and Medium haul: 85.5%, +2.5ppts. [more - original PR]

Regional Express (Rex) announced (08-Sep-2017) plans to launch three times weekly Port Augusta-Adelaide service on 11-Sep-2017. Rex was awarded the route licence to operate passenger air services following an expression of interest by the South Australian Government after the previous operator exited the route in May-2017. Rex will operate up to 10,000 seats p/a. The service will also extend through to Coober Pedy, providing the first ever air link from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy. [more - original PR]

Armenia's General Department of Civil Aviation (GDCA) Head Sergey Avetisyan presented (08-Sep-2017) an action plan on aviation development, upcoming programmes and expected results of cooperation with international aviation organisations. Ongoing EU-Armenia talks about a common aviation zone commenced in 2017. Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan instructed Mr Avetisyan to work with partners to strengthen and develop aviation industry relations, providing the necessary conditions for the implementation of international services. Matters relating to the expansion of Armenia's air connectivity, airport and air transport market development and training were also discussed at the meeting. [more - original PR - English/Armenian]

Tourism WA reported (08-Sep-2017) 965,900 international arrivals to Western Australia (WA) for the year ending Jun-2017, up 8.8% year-on-year. The number of international visitors holidaying in WA increasing by 14.4%, while education arrivals rose 16.1%. The number of nights international visitors stayed rose 1.1%, while visitor spend rose 8% to AUD2.5 billion (USD2 billion). Education segment spending rose 34.3%, while business spending fell 21.9% and spending in the 'other' segment fell 15.8%. WA saw solid growth in visitors from Malaysia (+30.9%), the US (+26.2%), Hong Kong (+21.2%) and Indonesia (+19.2%), driven by the holiday segment. Visitors from New Zealand continue to decline, down 12%. [more - original PR]

Ukraine's State Aviation Administration held (08-Sep-2017) a round of consultations with Kazakhstan's aeronautical authorities. While the parties agreed the 1993 air services agreement currently in place meets existing requirements, Ukraine's State Aviation Administration plans to prepare a new draft agreement to reflect Ukraine's national liberalisation policy, as well as ICAO standards and practices. Ukraine and Kazakhstan plan to conduct the next round of consultations in Dec-2017. [more - original PR - Ukrainian]

Samoa's Bureau of Statistics reported (10-Sep-2017) visitor arrivals to Samoa for Mar-2017. Details include:

• Visitor arrivals: 9407, -5.8% year-on-year;
  • New Zealand: 3881;
  • Australia: 1647;
  • USA: 907. [more - original PR]