BT Show
IAG chief executive Willie Walsh SHOW OF STRENGTH
More than 6,000 visitors headed to Earls Court to take part in this year’s Business Travel Show. Official media partner Buying Business Travel reports on the key stories from the exhibition centre
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MORE THAN 200 EXHIBITORS attended this year’s Business Travel Show, while the number of visitors to the show was on a par with 2012. The number of exhibitors rose to 205 companies for the two-day event at Earls Court in early February – this compares to 197 exhibitors attending the show last year and 134 in 2011. Organisers added that many companies had also taken larger stands this year. Initial pre-audited visitor figures were 6,148 across the two days – this compares to a final audited total of 6,061 for last year’s show. Event director David Chapple said: “The Business Travel Show team wants the industry to understand that we are in this for the long-haul and we will continue to invest in this event. “Next year, that means an extended hosted buyer conference, even more European senior buyers in attendance and a bigger advisory board who will have more input into the future direction of this event.” Event organiser Centaur Exhibitions said that 75 per cent of
this year’s exhibitors had already rebooked for 2014. “The rebooking rate speaks volumes, and reflects the continued investment by Centaur in recent years to ensure the event retains its relevance for the industry,” said Chapple.
AIR CAPACITY NEW HUB AIRPORT WOULD BE ‘ECONOMIC SUICIDE’ – WALSH The show was opened by IAG chief executive Willie Walsh, who said in his speech that the government’s strategy for increasing airport capacity in the south-east was destined to fail. He poured cold water on the likely impact of the Davies Commission, which is looking at options for increasing capacity. “My own view is that we are not going anywhere with this,” said Walsh. “British Airways has planned its business on the basis that there will be no third runway at Heathrow. In 50 years time I expect that BA will still be operating from a two-runway airport at Heathrow.” Walsh said even though there was an “overwhelming need for more capacity” – a solution was not likely
to be found without cross-party support. He also said there was also “no demand” from airlines for new runways at Stansted or Gatwick. “I am not going to spend one penny on new runways at Stansted or Gatwick,” he insisted. He added that while BA had
managed to address its short-term lack of capacity at Heathrow through its purchase last year of BMI, there were other airlines that were unable to add routes to fast- growing economies in the Far East and Latin America from Heathrow. Walsh said that building a new hub airport would be “economic suicide” as it would never be able to secure commercial funding.
RFPS
‘REDUCE HOTEL RFPS TO DRIVE BIGGER DISCOUNTS’ Buyers were advised to cut down the amount of requests for proposal (RFPs) sent to hotels and instead concentrate on driving down costs at key properties. A multinational IT firm’s travel buyer told an education session that his company had halved the number of RFPs that it sends out,
MARCH/APRIL 2013
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