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News IN BRIEF
■ Emirates and Jetstar have announced a codeshare agreement which will open up destinations across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia. Emirates’ code will be placed on a number of routes operated by Jetstar, giving passengers access to 27 new routes and six new destinations, including Bali, Byron Bay, Dunedin and Siem Reap.
■ Hyatt is planning to open a hotel near Heathrow in spring 2015. The 170- room Hyatt Place London Heathrow/Hayes will be located 15 minutes from the airport, and will also be close to Stockley Park business estate and Brunel University.
■ Turkey-based Atlasjet will launch a daily service from London Luton to Istanbul in May. The route will be served by a 200-seat Airbus 321-200, with connections to Cyprus and Turkey.
RAIL AIR FARES
AIRLINES ‘HUNGRY’ FOR CORPORATE FARE DEALS
Heathrow Express eyes new route
HEATHROW EXPRESS IS TARGETING the new Western Rail Access line to extend its fast- shuttle, rail-to-air services to Reading. In February, Network Rail announced plans to construct a direct line from Swansea to Heathrow that will split from the Great Western Main Line at Langley, east of Slough, and travel directly to Terminal 5. Currently, passengers wanting to access
Heathrow from Reading have to travel to Paddington and then change, or use the Rail Air coach service from Reading Station. The services are expected to be run by the Great Western Main Line operator, First Group. However, The Times claims Heathrow management will ask the Department for Transport (DFT) whether Heathrow Express can take over the running of express shuttle trains on the new line. In its submission to the DFT, Heathrow Airport Holdings is expected to cite recent figures showing Heathrow Express has the best passenger satisfaction ratings in the industry.
SOCIAL MEDIA
KLM EMBRACES TWITTER AND FACEBOOK
KLM’S CUSTOMERS ARE NOW able to pay for flights using Facebook and Twitter. The carrier’s customers can book, rebook, make a seat reservation or arrange extra baggage through these channels. The airline has about 800,000 Twitter followers
and last month welcomed its five-millionth Facebook fan. KLM sends a link to the customers in a private message on Facebook or Twitter. The customer can then select their preferred method of payment and complete the transaction.
Anthony Drury
EASYJET HAS RECRUITED American
Express Global Business Travel’s former UK
TRAVEL BUYERS SHOULD still negotiate deals with airlines, even though the process has “become more difficult and complex” in recent years, said Toni Goth, from aircraft charter firm Pro Sky, during a pre-show conference for hosted buyers at the Business Travel Show (see more show coverage, p92). He said the RFP process for airlines was “still worth doing”. “A lot of people say: ‘Why do all this negotiation?
The traveller should just pick the cheapest ticket,’” said Goth. “He should do that, but that could well be a corporate fare or contracted rate. These are not contradictory positions – they should be combined. “Negotiating with airlines is still worth doing because
you can achieve something – especially on long-haul, and also on some intra-European and domestic routes.” But Travelport’s Reg Warlop warned that buyers may increasingly not be able to get access to their negotiated rates with airlines. “It may depend on the trip and other factors, such as whether the traveller has tier membership,” he said. “Airlines are checking prices and availability every second, and that’s going to be more important in the next few years.” • See airline negotiations feature, p62
AIRLINES
EASYJET APPOINTS FORMER AMEX BOSS TO BUSINESS ROLE
boss Anthony Drury to further increase its push into the business travel market across Europe. Drury takes up the newly- created position of director of business at the Luton-based carrier. He leaves Amex after holding a series of senior
positions since 2002, including general manager of northern Europe, of which the UK market was a part. The airline said that Drury “will play an instrumental role in driving Easyjet’s business proposition strategy across Europe”.
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