Business Travel


For the latest business travel news, visit ttgbusiness.com


Clients will ignore APD, claims TMC


Mercian Travel Management has said that it expects its corporate clients to take Air Passenger Duty ‘on the chin’. Lucy Siebert reports


despite the 8% hike in Air Passenger Duty at the start of the month. This is according to a leading


M


travel management company, Mercian Travel Management. “Most companies will take it on the chin and get on with it,” Kevin Harrison, managing director told TTG. “It will have some effect but it won’t be a major impact. The air travel


i infobox


PRICE PER PASSENGER FROM APRIL 1, 2012 APD distance bands (miles)


Includes Band A (0-2,000)


Band B (2,001-4,000) Band C (4,001-6,000) Band D (over 6,000)


Economy Business


Europe £13 £26 US and UAE


£65 £130


Caribbean & Brazil £81 £162 Australia


£92 £184


(Excludes long-haul departures from Northern Ireland, which are frozen at short-haul rates from November 2011)


TD Travel completes its private equity investor-funded buyout


SENIOR STAFF of TD Travel Ltd have completed a management buyout of the independent travel management company. The deal is backed by LDC, a mid-market private equity investor, for an undisclosed sum. The 25-year-old company, with


£45 million in sales, employs 60 people in offices in Wilmslow, Hull, Liverpool and Leeds, providing travel services to 500 companies.


18 05.04.2012


Ian White led the buyout and is now chief executive, having joined as commercial director in 2005. Other management team members


are Chris Needham, former founder and chief executive of hotel booking provider Hotelscene and operations director Chris Mollan, who has been with the business for five years. As part of the deal, Dick Porter, a co-founder of STA Travel and previously chairman of business


ost commercial companies will continue to fly internationally,


market in the UK is competitive and if clients plan their travel with the help of a good TMC then they can minimise the effects of APD,” he added. APD on short-haul flights has risen


from £12 to £13 per flight. Long-haul flights to the likes of Hong Kong, Singapore or Australia in business class, has gone from £170 to £184.


Leisure to be hit Harrison believes the tax will have more of an impact on leisure travel


than on corporates who are required to travel for business. “For leisure travel it will have a real impact on family travel. It could make people reconsider their overseas travel plans,” he said. The not-for-profit sector could also be seriously impacted, Key Travel, a specialist in charity travel said. “APD cost our clients £3.2 million last year. One international humanitarian relief client had to find £80,000 to pay the tax. Now they are going to have to find more. There is a real risk that charities will be forced to scale back on their important work as it becomes more expensive to get people out to the projects they support,” said Ajaya Sodha,


chairman of Key Travel. There will also be no escaping the tax on private charters from next year, with the government announcing in the Budget that the tax would be extended to business jets from April 2013.


travel company Griffin Travel, has joined the business as non-executive chairman.


“Securing the backing of LDC is a


strong endorsement of the business we’ve built to date, particularly our customer service ethos. We’re now ideally placed to accelerate the growth of the business by scaling our core model in new regions and evolving our customer proposition to include new products and services. “Our ambition is to provide a


further enhanced, end to end business travel service to customers, at a time when they are seeking added-value,” White said.


IN BRIEF


■G&T’S SIGNATURE SCHEME Guoman & Thistle Hotels has a new reward scheme called Signature with three membership tiers. The scheme is free to join and benefits include free Sunday lunch, priority or late check-out and free room upgrades. Signature Gold members receive extra benefits such as a dedicated check-in area.


■AMADEUS TEAMS WITH UNIGLOBE Amadeus has signed a five-year agreement with Uniglobe Travel to provide content distribution services and IT solutions worldwide. This give the travel agency access to an inventory of 430 bookable airlines, over 110,000 hotel properties, 30 car rental companies and 22 of the world’s cruise lines.


■GATWICK RAILS FOR RAIL Gatwick is calling for better rail links in its mission to establish itself as a business airport. The airport argues that its new routes, many of which are to Asia, including Hong Kong Airlines’ all-business class service, mean better rail connections into London are needed.


■EXPEDIA LOOKS TO NORDICS Expedia’s business travel arm Egencia has agreed to buy Via Travel, the largest travel management company in the Nordics. Corporate travel is a growing part of Expedia’s overall business,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Expedia. “We are very excited about welcoming Via Travel to the Expedia family and look forward to driving innovation and providing outstanding service in the corporate travel segment around the globe.”


■VIRGIN’S LOYALTY LINK Three Virgin airlines have linked their frequent-flyer programmes. Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America and Virgin Australia have inked the deal that will allow members of each carrier’s loyalty programmes to redeem miles or points on all three airlines.


FOR THE LATEST NEWS, REVIEWS AND COMMENT FROM THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY, VISIT TTGDIGITAL.COM


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