FACILITIES AFTER £15M RENOVATION RADISSON EDWARDIAN GROUP’S Mercer Street Hotel in London’s Covent Garden has launched a business and conference centre, with six meeting rooms of varying capacities up to 50, all with HD and touch screen technology, and offering free printing and wifi. The opening comes after a £15million refurbishment of the property, which was formerly known as the Mountbatten. The 137 guestrooms and suites have Apple TV/computer technology and free wifi.
Trainline retains TMC contract
KEY TRAVEL HAS RENEWED its agreement with Thetrainline.com to book all its UK rail tickets for clients. The contract, worth annually more than £3 million, will last for four years. Key Travel senior product manager Angela Isherwood described the new rail booking platform, called
TRACS3 and installed in 2011, as having “enhanced the customer experience, making it easier to identify and take advantage of cost saving opportunities”. She said: “TRACS3 has been easily integrated into our customised customer portal, enabling bookers to log-on securely and easily using the single sign-on method.” Ian Cairns, head of distribution at Thetrainline.com, said TRACS3 has time and cost saving features, and that “we fully expect Key Travel’s clients to reap the rewards over the coming months”. He added that Thetrainline.com is currently working on new ticketing methods, such as print-your- own and mobile, which TMCs like Key Travel will also benefit from in time.
American Airlines files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
AMERICAN AIRLINES (AA) and its parent company AMR have filed for bankruptcy protection. Under the US bankruptcy code, Chapter 11 allows the airline to reorganise its finances while continuing to operate a normal flight schedule.
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AMR said it has US$4.1 billion in cash reserves to ensure an “uninterrupted supply of goods and services during proceedings”. AA also announced CEO Gerard Arpey was standing down and being replaced by Thomas Horton – who said filing for Chapter 11 was a “difficult decision”. “It is the necessary and right path for us to take – and take now – to become a more efficient, financially stronger, and
competitive airline,” he said. “We have met our challenges head on, taking all possible action to secure our long-term position.”
Horton said the airline would address its cost structure, which had become “increasingly untenable”, including labour costs. American was at a “cost disadvantage” compared to its larger competitors, “all of which restructured their costs and debt through Chapter 11”, he said. Horton cited the accelerating impact of global economic uncertainty, revenue instability and volatile fuel prices as having intensified AA’s “competitive challenges”. “We are committed to working as quickly and efficiently as possible to appropriately restructure American so that it can emerge from Chapter 11 well-positioned to assure the company’s long term viability
and its ability to compete effectively in the marketplace,” he added.
Heathrow: record-breaking year and more
in 2012 HEATHROW IS EXPECTED to record its highest annual passenger numbers in 2011, despite a dip in traffic over the last few months.
BAA, the airport’s owner, said
Heathrow was to report 69.7 million passengers during last year, after setting six months of consecutive records for traffic between April and September – although numbers were lower than forecast since September. Despite this slowdown in the final months of last year, Heathrow operated close to its maximum allowed 480,000 aircraft movements per year. Passenger numbers at Heathrow are
expected to set a new record of 70.8m in 2012 according to estimates from BAA, which said the airport would benefit from a “further modest growth in load factors” next year. BAA said larger aircraft would also
boost numbers at Heathrow in 2012 such as an extra A380 daily rotation by Emirates to Dubai starting in January. Singapore Airlines is also likely to increase A380 rotations to Heathrow this year, while Malaysian Airlines is expected to introduce A380 services to Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian will be the fourth airline to operate A380 services from Heathrow. The company said that traffic at sister airport Stansted was around 17.9 million last year – down from 18.6m in 2010. BAA expects these numbers to fall further in 2012 to 17.3m. This is being attributed to Easyjet’s decision to move three of its Stansted aircraft to Southend from April. BAA also said that it expects a decision on whether it will be granted a judicial review to stop it being forced to sell Stansted to be made in the first three months of this year. The company is challenging the Competition Commission’s decision that it must offload Stansted, and issued proceedings at the Competition Appeal Tribunal asking for a judicial review of this decision. This case was heard by the tribunal
in December when BAA argued that there had been “material changes in circumstances” since the commission’s decision was originally made in 2009. BAA is also being required to sell either Glasgow or Edinburgh and has already announced Edinburgh will be sold.