News AIRLINES
BRANSON MARKS VIRGIN ATLANTIC’S EDINBURGH DEBUT
VIRGIN ATLANTIC FOUNDER Richard Branson was on hand to launch new domestic brand Little Red’s inaugural service from Heathrow to Edinburgh on April 8. The domestic brand has also started operating routes from Heathrow to Manchester and Aberdeen. Branson said: “Virgin Atlantic Little
Red is the next step on our exciting journey, allowing us to offer a more
connected network, which will deliver sustained and effective competition at home and around the world. “We’re really looking forward to welcoming onboard millions of passengers between Heathrow, Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and to restoring consumer choice on these routes.” Virgin is using Heathrow slots acquired following British Airways’ takeover of BMI last year.
VIRGIN TIE-UP WITH AIR FRANCE-KLM ‘MAKES SENSE’
RICHARD BRANSON said a possible tie-up with Air France-KLM to boost its services in Europe and the Middle East “makes sense”. “We’ll see whether something comes from it,” he said. “But the most important thing right now is for us to get the Delta deal through. That’s going through its due process and once that’s happened I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we had some discussions.” Virgin Atlantic and Delta have filed an
application for antitrust immunity with the US Department of Transportation, to
ITM
ITM PLANS TO INCREASE VOICE OF BUYERS
ITM WANTS TO TAKE the “voice of the travel buyer” to a wider audience on key business travel issues such as air passenger duty (APD). The institute’s chairman, Nicola Lomas, said the creation of
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buyer-only focus groups last year meant ITM could represent the views and concerns of buyers. “The buyers engage with ITM, so we are speaking with the voice of the buyer,” said Lomas at ITM’s annual conference in Windsor. “We are focusing on key issues such as transportation, which is the
lifeblood of this country. Keeping costs proportionate to the returns that businesses expect is absolutely paramount.” She also attacked the government policy of continually raising taxes
on travel, such as APD: “In these times of austerity, we understand the need to contribute to the public purse but these unrelenting travel taxes risk killing the business goose that lays the chancellor’s golden egg.” n ITM annual conference, p16
get approval for a proposed joint venture on flights between the US and the UK. Craig Kreeger, Virgin Atlantic’s new
chief executive – who took the helm in February after 27 years at American Airlines – said: “Delta is now the largest airline in the US – and in the Americas. We’re suddenly going to have connections for our customers where they will be able to earn frequent flyer miles in our programme, their corporate relationship with us applying to the network that Delta flies. They’ll have lounge access and enhanced connectivity as we work
CORPORATE CARDS Airplus’s new events card
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER Airplus has launched a new product aimed at the meetings and events industry. The company has unveiled a service which provides single-use virtual cards to enable buyers to track total spending on individual meetings or events. The Airplus Event Solution enables clients to avoid paying suppliers for upfront costs, as everything is charged back to one centrally billed lodge account, with all data then consolidated on to a single invoice. n See BBT's corporate card supplement with this issue
Absolutely terrible!
Margaret Thatcher’ s famous verdict on British Airways’ new livery
in 1997. The former prime minster, who died in April, presided over the privatisation of the national carrier in 1987.
Digital editor Rob Gill compiles the latest news from
www.buyingbusinesstravel.com
Richard Branson
together with Delta to make that as seamless as possible.” Kreeger confirmed that the airline would consider a further joint venture with Air France-KLM – like Delta, a member of the Skyteam alliance. “What I would say is that our first priority is executing the Delta relationship as excellently [as we can], and at the right time we will evaluate whether Air France-KLM – or, in fact, a broader relationship with Skyteam – makes sense. We haven’t made those decisions yet, nor have we begun the evaluation of them.” n See Analysis, p26
MAY/JUNE 2013
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