News Clips for Corporate Travel Management: March 2007

1 GDS make Progress

We are pleased to report that British Airways and the four main GDS suppliers are continuing are continuing their discussions in order to maintain service and BA inventory on their systems.

Source: Business Travel Europe

2 easyJet launches into Belgium

easyJet adds Brussels to the network. On June 29, the budget airline will launch a once daily service between Geneva and Brussels. From September, flight frequency will be stepped up to a twice daily service.

Rival Ryanair serves Brussels by using the airport at Charleroi (59 km outside the capital) whereas Easyjet will be using the main airport (13 km from the centre).

Source: Business Traveller Online

3 Spring Forum in London for ACTE-Global & MS-UK

Management Solutions (UK) are delighted to report that this year’s Corporate Travel & Expense Management Forums are to be supported by ACTE-Global.

Where: Hesperia London Victoria Hotel

2 Bridge Place, Victoria, London, SW1V 1QA

When: Tuesday 24th April 2007

The topics chosen by our former delegates include:

Cost Containment Strategies - How to Control Travel Budgets

Upcoming Changes in Airline / GDS / TMC Relationship

Carbon Costs - How do they work?

Security & Risk Management

An exciting group of senior executives from the world of commerce and the travel industry together with well respected travel purchasing controllers have already agreed to take part including:

Paul Allan  Chairman Guild of Travel Management Companies

Marcus d'Apice  Associate Director of Security Consultancy EMEA Control Risks

Richard Boardman  Managing Director Reed & Mackay

Stanislas Berteloot  Marketing Director KDS International

David Brown  Managing Director Sales & Services Europe, Galileo

Chris Crowley  Head of Sales UK & Ireland BCD Travel

Bill Doull  Supply Manager NPI Europe Unilever

Jonathan Green  Sustainable Travel Manager DEFRA

Marianne Hansen  Travel Manager Novartis V & D

Lawrence Hunt  CEO Silverjet

Kevin King  European Sales Director FCm Travel Solutions

Tony McGetrick  Director of Sales & Marketing – Europe Expedia Corporate Travel

John Morgan  Vice President Europe EOS

Gary Povey  Head of Sales and Marketing Omega World Travel

Jonathan Shopley  Chief Executive The CarbonNeutral Company

Richard Tams  Head of UK & Global Sales British Airways

Kate Wheadon  Freelance Security Consultant to Arup & Partners

CALL Management Solutions UK: +44 (0)20 8444 7788 or

ACTE – Global in France: +33 (0) 1 47 68 16 54

4 Watch this space

The “space” we are referring to is the website for the Association of Serviced Apartment Providers.

As Lorna Keen mentions in her Video interview on HotelTravelNewsOnline:

this new association is looking to become the point of reference and the way forward for the Serviced Apartment industry which is rapidly growing and providing a sensible alternative to hotel stays. Sour

5 VLM offers even faster internet check-in at London City

Internet check-in has been introduced by VLM Airlines as the carrier upgraded its website.

The online check-in process, which can be used up to two hours prior to departure, enables passengers to select seat and print a bar-coded boarding pass.

Self-service "Express Check-in" kiosks are also being introduced by the airline at Manchester airport this month.

The airline's website claims to include a faster, easy-to-use booking engine providing a wider range of fares.

Source: Travelmole

6 Find out where your wi-fi works

Map24 has teamed up with mobile technology company Spotigo to add the geographic location of wireless hotspots to the Map24 portal.

It means that users can use www.map24.com to pinpoint exactly where they can use their wireless computers within range of a local hotspot. Simply by using the hotspot search facility on the Map24 portal, the user can view any number of hotspots in locations such as hotels, shopping malls, bars, cafes, airports and leisure centres.

By combining the service with other features of Map24, such as location finding, users can locate mutually convenient places to work or use their computers at their leisure.

Source: Internet Travel News Online

7 Don't pay more - be smart, stay smart

is the proposition being put forward by Accor's 100 new Etap hotels in the UK.

A launch campaign for the opening of hotels in Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, Cardiff, Leeds and London has started.

Room rates will start at £32 a night in Cardiff, Leeds, Glasgow and Sheffield; £35 in Birmingham and £44 in London.

Source: Travelmole

8 Lower transatlantic fares on the cards

Air fares from London to New York are likely to be slashed after the European Union broke the British Airways stranglehold on flights from Heathrow.

EU and US negotiators took an important step towards liberalising air travel between the two continents by agreeing yesterday to break the cartel of airlines operating on the lucrative transatlantic route.

Currently only BA, Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and United are permitted. More than 40 per cent of flights from Europe to America leave from Heathrow, but now the route will be open to any airline.

Liberalisation of air travel could also encourage the no-frills airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet to set up operations in the US, pushing down prices even further. BA is by far the most dominant transatlantic carrier and the route accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the company’s profits.

Source: Times Online

9 More seats to Leeds

GNER is to receive two extra High Speed Trains (HST), providing a further 1.6m annual seats.

The company, has secured the two extra trains at a cost of £20m from Porterbrook Leasing, for use on the six daily services in each direction from London Kings Cross to Leeds.

The journey will additionally involve stops at some or all of; Wakefield, Doncaster, Newark North Gate, Grantham, Peterborough and Stevenage.

Source: Air & Business Travel News

10 New easyJet route from Scotland

easyJet has unveiled plans to launch another new route from Edinburgh, this time to the German city of Dortmund.

The four times weekly service from Edinburgh will commence on 30 May. The airline expects to carry over 55,000 passengers on this route in the first 12 months, which means easyJet will carry close to 2.5 million passengers from Edinburgh this year.

Scotland now represents 8% of easyJet's total network, with close to 5 million passengers expected to travel on the airline’s Scottish routes in the coming year.

Source: Airline Travel News Online

11 French Connection - More London City routes for Air France

Air France is set to expand its presence at London's fast-growing City Airport (LCY) by launching five new routes. At the same time it will link with Scot Airways to jointly operate flights on a further three routes.

Air France is using City Jet (a Dublin-based carrier which is now 100% owned by the French national carrier) to add services to Madrid, Milan Linate, Geneve, Zurich and Nice.

The Scot Airways services will continue, as at present, to Edinburgh and Dundee with the addition of a new route to Belfast's downtown Harbour Airport.

Air France's existing flights from LCY to Dublin and Paris Orly will continue. The carrier has yet to decide whether or not to continue its once a day link with Paris CDG for the summer season.

Source: Businesstraveller.com

12 Lower mobile phone costs for travellers

AwayPhone is a new London-based international mobile phone operator that provides low cost incoming and outgoing calls for business travellers when abroad. The customer is provided with an AwayPhone SIM card, which integrates the customer’s original mobile number with a local number to cut the cost of roaming charges using voice over internet protocol (VoIP).

When phoning the customer’s regular mobile number it will be re-directed through the local number so the customer does not pay to receive calls. Similarly, when making calls in a foreign country, the customer calls through the local number provided on the AwayPhone SIM, thus only paying for a local call in the country they are in.

When calling home from abroad, the regular mobile number is used as if at home (with no additional roaming charges). The AwayPhone SIM also helps local business contacts, as the customer can give out the local, rather than international, number when abroad so clients are not paying for international calls.

Source: Air & Business Travel News