IN BRIEF RAIL
■ Taxi firm Addison Lee has launched a loyalty scheme, enabling customers to earn rewards and priority service. Club Lee gives travellers the chance to build-up points for their journey and reach Silver, Gold and Black status.
■ Canadian low-cost airline Westjet is to start transatlantic services from Gatwick airport. The carrier, which will launch the route in June 2016, will use a B767-300 aircraft. Westjet said further details of the service, including the schedule, will be announced later this summer.
■ Amadeus has renewed its agreement with German rail operator Deutsche Bahn (DB). The travel technology firm said the new three-year deal means corporate and leisure travel agencies will continue to offer DB’s full range of routes and fares via Amadeus rail services.
■ Global Travel Management (GTM) has announced the acquisition of Hertfordshire- based Stanmore Business Travel.
VIRGIN UNVEILS BUSINESS TRAVEL PLAN
VIRGIN TRAINS EAST COAST is targeting business travellers with a range of new initiatives that will be rolled out over the next few years. Virgin Trains East
Coast’s Standard Anytime flexible fares have been cut by 10 per cent on its London to Leeds and Edinburgh services. There will also be a
more flexible reservation system allowing bookings to be made
closer to departure times. Virgin said this will be attractive to business travellers that want to make last- minute reservations. Passengers will see faster journey times, 65 new ‘Super Express’ trains from 2018, and an improved catering service. Finally, passengers
will be able to earn Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles on rail tickets purchased.
AIRLINES
United to end operations at JFK
UNITED AIRLINES IS TO CEASE operations at New York JFK airport on October 25, after moving its Premium Service flights to Newark Liberty International. The announcement means all scheduled Newark-LA and Newark-San Francisco flights will offer extra services including flat-bed seats, premium in-flight service, more Economy Plus seats and in-flight wifi. The move is being made so that passengers arriving in New York from LAX or San Francisco can transfer on to connecting flights – no such United connections exist at JFK.
United has also confirmed it will
trade its slots at JFK with Delta’s slots at Newark. This is still subject to regulatory approval.
AIRPORTS
ROME AIRPORT FACES PARTIAL SHUTDOWN AFTER T3 FIRE
ROME’S BUSIEST AIRPORT HAS FURTHER REDUCED OPERATIONS to 60 per cent of capacity, following fire damage in May.
Rome Fiumicino airport started “progressively
reducing” its overall capacity with a shutdown of Terminal 3. The airport has not indicated how long the closure will last. The Italian civil aviation authority Enac said the
“precautionary measure” was taken because of security concerns from overcrowding. In a further blow, Easyjet announced it is
reducing its services to Rome, while expanding its bases at Milan and Naples. The carrier blamed higher airport passenger charges, poor passenger experience and customer satisfaction levels at Fiumicino for the decision.
10 BBT JULY/AUGUST 2015 CODESHARES
Emirates signs air- rail deal with SNCF
EMIRATES AND FRENCH NATIONAL RAILWAY COMPANY SNCF have announced a codeshare agreement to create TGV Air, which combines air and rail travel. The partnership connects 19 additional French cities to the Gulf carrier’s global network by allowing passengers to buy a single through-ticket for air and rail travel as part of the same journey. First and business class Emirates passengers will automatically be booked in first class on SNCF’s high-speed TGV trains.
Emirates is not the first airline to team up with a rail operator to offer a through-ticket. Both Singapore Airlines and British Airways launched agreements last year with Heathrow Express and First Great Western (FGW) to offer through-ticketing that allows passengers to travel from rail stations to their final airport destination within a single booking.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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