WHERE BBT READERS SHARE VIEWS AND EXPERIENCES
YOUR RESPONSES TO
MORE SUPPORT FOR REGIONAL AIRPORTS NEEDED GOVERNMENT SUPPORT should restrict itself to infrastructure connections to airports. The airport industry has been hugely successful since it was set-up on a commercial basis generally free of subsidy in 1985/6. The government should devise a way of reducing APD [Air Passenger Duty] on airports that are generally free of congestion. There is little point in reducing APD for Heathrow flights for example: this would boost profits for Heathrow-based airlines, the majority of which are foreign-owned.
After the confirmation of
LHR’s third runway, assuming that is the case next year, the government should commit to incorporating UK runway and general infrastructure policy into its support for the regions in the form of so-called ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and ‘Midlands Engine’, both of which are on life-support right now, but not yet dead. But I fear PM Theresa May missed her chance. She could have said that along with the Heathrow announcement, demonstrating she’s starting with a clean sheet. The problem is that she has a new Transport Minister, who has a brief the size of War and Peace and aviation is well down the pecking order now everything is ‘settled’. He isn’t going to make any decisions of his own for a long time yet – they’ll be made by the entrenched civil service – and by the time he’s able to he’ll be down the road as well.
134 BBT January/February 2017 BBTWEETS
Travel tweeters: follow us on @BBT_online and @TravelbizPaul
@MarcZtravel #lufthansa Fed up with LH regular strikes resulting in travel disruption and traveler loss of productivity
@steelslider
#expediapartners “voice (technology) will be as big as the iPhone.” – Barry Diller @Expedia4Hotels
@FCm_UK
“I am not a buyer, I am a seller: I sell to internal stakeholders” Mikael Saari, Global Sourcing Lead – IKEA #ACTECAPA16
@CTNetherlands “Airlines of the future need to embrace digitalisation and data” says @KLM CEO Pieter Elbers at #ACTECAPA16 Summit
@travelbizpaul .@ITMtweets Ireland conf. today @TheWestinDublin; looking fwd to interviewing @Ryanair’s Kenny Jacobs, & guest star is @officialkeith!
@AurelieKrau Virtual Reality is the new now ;-) Within a couple of years it will become standard. And yesterday it was Augmented Reality (not VR)
OUR CONTENT ON
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM AND LINKEDIN
So in short, nothing’s going to happen any time soon. (via BBT website)
FLAT MEETINGS BUDGETS BLAMED ON BREXIT I DELIVERED a discussion group on just this topic for a specialist M&E agency, and the client messages I heard were that at the moment the level of demand is either unchanged or potentially means more meetings if the company needs invest to retain a competitive position: the “no-one really knows” mantra applies as much to M&E predictions as it does to everything else Brexit related. Paul Tilstone
(via BBT website)
BA CREDIT CARD FEES THE NEW INTERCHANGE regulations have come into force in March 2016, capping the fees that merchants have to pay to credit card networks (Mastercard and Visa, Amex excluded for now). The cap is 0.3 per cent of transaction value. So, for flight bookings under £6,667, BA is making a margin on this fee. (via BBT website)
FOR BA TO SAY that they will not be profiting from applying this charge is disingenuous. The fees levied by the credit card companies are currently a cost to BA, so as they increase the revenue they are collecting from customers they will be more profitable. (via BBT website)
FEMALE TRAVELLERS ONE TIP I would have for the author of this piece is to speak
with the front desk at the hotel you’re staying at about recommendations. I’ve asked a female front desk attendant for meal recommendations and she asked me if I was traveling alone, and specifically steered me away from one or two restaurants located near the hotel. She said these restaurants had a reputation for being filled with men trying to pick up “lonely” female business travelers and if I wanted to eat “in peace” to not go there. The hotel had received complaints from enough of their female guests to be aware of the situation. (via BBT website)
PITFALLS AND BEST-PRACTICES OF PRE-TRIP APPROVAL GREAT TIPS. Every client I’ve worked with on both the travel management company and online booking tool side wants to provide their travellers with a seamless booking experience whilst controlling costs. Yet every single one has a different approach to pre-trip approval. A significant number don’t use it at all (and rely on post-booking reporting to see if they’re overspending); others only turn it on when the booking is out of policy (probably the most common); and a few even enable it 100 per cent of the time. This is where you can engage your TMC, OBT, and expense partner as your strategic advisor and make sure things like company culture and company financial outlook are all being considered.
Chris Lefevre, Sabre (via Linkedin)
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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