p5 News May 22 20/5/09 21:50 Page 5
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In brief
Viking hailed as■ Co-op reports Champions League imposters
The Co-operative Travel has reported five rival
firms to Manchester United for claiming to be
official travel providers for the Champions
League final on May 27 in Rome. The Co-op has
an exclusive deal with Manchester United. Paul
Casement, head of sports and events, said the
operators’ lifeline
ease of travelling to Rome for the final had led
more firms to offer packages. But he said
Chris Gray.
And a charter airline source
demand had proved lower than expected. A CHARTER carrier with links to the was surprised at Josephides’ sup-
failed XL Group has been hailed port for Viking, claiming it had
■ CAA says business flights fall is a 13-year first as the saviour of small operators. put too much capacity into Greece
Air bookings for business travellers in 2008 Noel Josephides, Sunvil Holi- and other markets, which he said
declined for the first time in 13 years, according days’ managing director, said the was in no operators’ interest.
to a CAA study. The aviation regulator said new carrier had been a lifeline. He claimed Viking had been
booking trends, such as downgrading cabins Viking Airlines and its sales unable to use aircraft for a
and switching to no-frills carriers, will remain agent Meridian caused contro- planned Turkey programme and
throughout the downturn. The authority reported versy in the trade because of their Sunvil’s Josephides welcomes was trying to redeploy them.
a 6% year-on-year fall in total passenger XL links, and some operators had charter market competition Josephides said Viking had
numbers travelling from London airports. hoped a rival to Viking would been aggressive on pricing and
emerge to plug the gap left by XL. had provided a good service.
■ John Tolmie leaves AA Appointments Small tour operators were concerned they All charter airlines were now “dumping capac-
AA Appointments managing director John Tolmie would struggle to find capacity this year and ity”, he added. “All you have to do is ask and you
has left the recruitment specialist by mutual claimed the big two were refusing them seat are offered capacity.”
consent. AA said Tolmie’s departure was not a allocations (TTG October 24, 2008). Meridian initially owned Kiss Flights, headed
result of poor trading conditions but could not “We needed another charter airline because by Paul Moss, the former boss of XL seat-only
confirm if he would be replaced. The firm’s sole there has to be competition and there was a feel- supplier Freedom Flights, although it was
shareholder, Theresa Dempsey, has returned to ing after XL collapsed the charter airlines could subsequently sold to Flight Options.
run the company on a day-to-day basis. charge what they liked. Thank goodness Viking Former XL chief executive Phil Wyatt’s brother
came along as we need that capacity,” he said. Jim is a director of Meridian.
■ Mexico reopens for business But other sources say seats are now being And the Icelandic franchise of Phil Wyatt’s
Cruise lines and tour operators are resuming dumped on the market. venture, Black Pearl Investments, has a 50%
services to Mexico this weekend as panic over the A senior tour operator executive expressed stake in Viking Airlines.
swine flu outbreak subsides. The Foreign Office surprise that he had recently been offered large Tui and Thomas Cook insisted they had offered
has said travel to the country is now safe. Royal numbers of seats for this summer by Viking. capacity to third-party operators.
Caribbean and Carnival were due to resume port
calls and, as TTG went to press, Thomson Airways
was set to re-start flying a consolidated
programme tomorrow, First Choice flights start
again on Monday and Thomas Cook was due
to restart Cancun flights today.
■ Transatlantic deal could fuel BA/Virgin row
Air France-KLM and Delta have started a joint
venture which will see them sharing costs and
revenue of transatlantic operations. The venture
represents about 25% of total transatlantic
capacity and is likely to be used by British
Airways to argue its plans to co-operate with
American Airlines should be allowed to go
ahead. Virgin Atlantic has launched a marketing
campaign opposing the BA-AA tie-up, quoting
former AA boss Bob Crandall saying it was hard
to see how such alliances benefited consumers. RAISING TOP DOLLAR: David van Day, 1980s pop sensation and star of I’m a Celebrity:
Get Me out of Here!, swapped snakes for tea and cakes to raise funds and awareness
ttglive.com
For the latest news, reviews and comment
for people with dementia and their carers. The event marked the launch of easyJet’s
from the travel industry, visit ttglive.com partnership with Alzheimer’s Society. The airline hopes to raise £300,000 in one year.
22.05.2009 05
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