Business Travel News & Views
Welcome to our Business Travel e-newsletter! Your monthly digest of the latest news & developments in the Business Travel World.
September Newsletter : 29
23/09/2009
Emirates to open Birmingham Premium Lounge
Emirates is to open a new £1.3 million lounge for premium passengers at Birmingham Airport this winter. The 7,000 sq ft facility will be situated near the airline's departure gate in Terminal 1.It will be available to Emirates' first and business-class passengers, as well as Gold members of its Skywards frequent-flyer programme. The lounge offers shower facilities and has seating for up to 107 passengers.
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National Express East Coast - Business Carnet
National Express East Coast Trains are now offering a Business Carnet of 5 tickets for the price of 4. The Business Carnet is a single purchase of 5 fully flexible return tickets available for First Class or Standard travel on selected journeys to and from London. Each carnet is valid for 3 months from the date of purchase.
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Consumers slate no-frills online
A report by independent consultants Kaizo - which aggregated online comments made by airline customers on Google - found growing concern about "underhand charges" undermining cheap tickets. Ryanair and easyJet were found to be most guilty in the eyes of the public. Virgin Atlantic was the only airline to come out with a positive score in the study.
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UK Hotels are over the worst, says PWC
The UK hotel industry is over the worst of the recession, according to the latest report PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Its UK hotel forecast predicts that growth rates will deteriorate further before Christmas but the speed of decline should begin to slow in the New Year. The report predicts a fall of 12.1% overall in RevPAR (revenue per available room) this year, slowing to a 2.4% decline in 2010. "While domestic and overseas leisure tourism has been a tonic for UK hotels, the stark absence of corporate travel has left the sector severely weakened," said Robert Milburn, UK hospitality and leisure leader.
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Manchester gets back JFK route
American Airlines has announced it will add a new service between Manchester and New York JFK, just a week after Delta announced it was withdrawing from the route. American's new non-stop daily summer seasonal service is scheduled to start on May 16 until September 30 2010. Delta's Manchester-JFK is stopping on January 8. The airline blamed a drop in demand over the winter for its decision.
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Whitbread plans four airport Premier Inns
Property entrepreneur and hotelier Surinder Arora has secured a £125 million joint venture with Whitbread to build four airport hotels. The deal will create 1.570 rooms at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. They comprise a 400-room hotel at Heathrow's Terminal 5, a 240-room hotel at Terminal 4, a 630-room property at Gatwick's North Terminal and a 300-room hotel at Stansted. All four prospective sites are awaiting planning permission but it is believed openings could begin on a phased basis as early as September 2011.
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