News
XXXXXXXX CONFERENCES ITM CONFERENCE 2013
More than 300 delegates, including 100 travel buyers, headed to the Beaumont Estate in Windsor for the Institute of Travel & Meetings’ annual conference, hosted by BBC presenter and journalist Justin Webb. Rob Gill reports
THE GOVERNMENT will not cut air passenger duty (APD) in the “foreseeable future” because of the UK’s huge financial deficit, according to former transport minister Lord Adonis. But the Labour politician added that the travel industry has to keep campaigning against the aviation tax, otherwise chancellor George Osborne may be tempted to raise the rates of APD to even higher levels. “With a deficit
of £120 billion, anybody who thinks the chancellor will give you a tax holiday is not living in the real world,” Adonis told delegates. “But you are right to keep campaigning so that APD does not increase even faster. The issue is whether it rises faster than inflation. No government is going to cut it in the foreseeable future.” The treasury introduced its latest increase in APD in April, with a further rise set to take effect from April
2014. Adonis said the fact that Heathrow was operating at 99 per cent capacity did not help the industry’s argument that APD was reducing demand for business travel.
BA/EUROSTAR DEAL? British Airways would like to work with Eurostar to combine flight and rail services on the same ticket, BA’s commercial director, Drew Crawley, told the ITM conference, saying the carrier had been
looking at “opportunities to work with trains”. “We would like to interline
with Eurostar to offer a Paris- London sector on the train,” he said. “We would like to be able to price them, but so far trying to do this has been a big struggle – even though Eurostar wants to do it. Technology is the critical issue.” Eurostar currently accounts for 70 per cent of the market between London and Paris, although BA still operates 11 daily flights on the route.
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CAPA AIRLINES IN TRANSITION DUBLIN
ACTE GLOBAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE NEW YORK
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TRAVEL MANAGERS will have to change their emergency plans following the bombings at the Boston marathon in April, writes Rob Gill. ACTE executive director Greeley Koch told delegates in New York: “The fact that all ground transportation was shut down in Boston created a host of different challenges that people have not faced before. Previously, when something like this happened, people could always get to a hotel or place of safety. It raises questions about what to do when this type of situation happens, and what sort of changes should be made to your emergency response plans.” Koch said ACTE would be putting together some sessions on this subject in the coming months.
FLIGHTS DELAY WARNING The move to cut the funding for air traffic controllers by 10 per cent
(known in the US as sequestration) is already causing flight delays in the US, according to ACTE president Suzanne Neufang. She said up to 6,700 flights per day could face delays due to the reduction in working days for air traffic controllers introduced in April. “The biggest impact will be on the largest airports such as those in the New York corridor, Atlanta and Chicago.” Neufang said the wider cuts in US government spending through sequestration would be felt by the business travel industry.
“The government is one of the top five business travel spenders in the US and we have already seen government spending on air travel fall by as much as 30 per cent in March – so the impact is already being felt. As a result of this, we could see a combination of higher prices with a reduction in service, investment and innovation.”
NO-FRILLS CARRIERS will continue to add extra services for customers but their main priority will remain keeping costs down, delegates were told during the CAPA Airlines in Transition conference held at the Ritz-Carlton Powerscourt, just outside Dublin. Airline bosses said the difference between low-cost and full-service airlines was becoming increasingly blurred. Alex Cruz, CEO of Spanish carrier Vueling, said full-service airlines were “removing some of the frills”, while some low-cost carriers “also want to find ways to differentiate their product by upgrading services”. David Barger, CEO of US airline Jet Blue, said customers were willing to pay for extra services and he believed that his company had found the “sweet spot” between being a no-frills and full-service airline. “We are higher frills and lower costs – people are willing to pay a premium to fly with us,” he said. “They don’t pay for the first bag, or have to swipe a card for the TV, and we will not charge for wifi when it’s introduced.” Despite the continued growth of no-frills airlines,
IAG chief Willie Walsh insisted that carriers such as British Airways could compete with them on short- haul routes. “There are lots of low-cost carriers who lose money, and plenty of legacy airlines that make a lot of money,” said Walsh. “Ryanair and Easyjet are two airlines with very different business models – you cannot put them in the same category. There are many different business models that can, and will, succeed.”
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
MAY/JUNE 2013
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