BUSINESS NEWS


German airports plan to hire 2,000 Turkish workers


German travellers are suffering disruption on a similar scale to Britain, with airports and airlines short of staff and hoping to draft in 2,000 workers from Turkey to work at German airports. The German air transport


association, the BDL, urged the government to allow a rapid deployment of recruits from Turkey, saying: “We hope it will happen very quickly.” However, background checks are expected to take at least six weeks, meaning staff won’t be deployed until mid-August. German airlines have been


cutting schedules to reduce the number of last-minute cancellations.


Lufthansa has axed 5% of flights


Hospitality leaders split over impact of recession on investment


Lufthansa announced it would


cut 2,200 flights in July and August and 600 in the first half of September after axing 900 in mid-June. The cancellations amount to about 5% of Lufthansa’s summer schedule. The carrier said cancellations


would be restricted to intra- European and domestic flights. The German Travel Association


(DRV) told German trade publication FVW: “It’s unlikely well-booked routes to package destinations will be cancelled on a large scale.”


Hospitality analysts are divided on whether rising inflation and the risk of recession are already hitting investment in the sector. Borivoj Vokrinek, head of


strategy advisory and research at commercial real estate service provider Cushman & Wakefield, told a webinar hosted by hospitality data analyst STR and commercial real estate consultancy CoStar: “There is a wall of capital.” He argued: “The increase in


interest rates will make some things more difficult, but deals will still happen. We’re not facing a situation like 2008-09 when financing stopped.”


Marriott International chief


operating officer for Europe Gonzalo Aguilar agreed, saying: “We continue to see private equity raising capital [although] there are constraints around more traditional financing.” However, Sophie Perret, senior


director at hotel consultancy HVS, argued: “The environment is shifting daily. Inflation and interest rates are increasing. The president of the European Central Bank has said low inflation ‘is a thing of the past’. We’re struggling to get visibility, [but] we’re in a bad place. It’s difficult to say how this will impact.”


Rising costs threaten hotel margins Ian Taylor


Rising costs threaten to squeeze hoteliers’ margins despite the strength of the recovery in travel this summer. Asli Kutlucan, chief development


officer at hotel management company Cycas Hospitality, said: “Energy costs are at an insane level. Every piece of equipment in hotels is consuming energy. Does every room need to have a minibar and does it need to be on the whole time?” Kutlucan told a webinar hosted


by hospitality data analyst STR and commercial real estate consultancy CoStar: “Occupancy is holding. Rate growth is very strong. But the pain [from] cost pressures is everywhere.” STR director Thomas Emmanuel


reported: “Occupancy is back [and room] rates in the US and Europe are 15% up on 2019. The higher the class of hotel, the stronger the rate


travelweekly.co.uk


recovery. The lower the class, the stronger the occupancy recovery.” Bookings in London, Paris and


Dublin “indexed above 2019” in early June, he said. But Emmanuel warned: “There are storm clouds ahead around the cost of living.” Gonzalo Aguilar, Marriott


International chief operating officer for Europe, agreed saying: “We start to see pressures around inflation and energy costs. We see strong bookings for summer. Rates continue to grow. But maybe we’ll have different concerns as we get to winter. We’re looking where we can to re-price inventory, but there will be a limit.” Yannick Wagner, Accor head of


development for Germany, Austria and the Nordic countries, argued: “The comeback has been impressive. We have record bookings. The luxury segment is performing well with extremely high rates. The budget segment has also performed well.


Business on the books in London is back above the rate of 2019


The big question is what happens beyond the next three months? November is a black box. Everybody is wondering ‘will Covid come back?’” Sophie Perret, senior director


at hotel consultancy HVS, told the webinar: “We’re between two dynamics. There is nice Revpar [revenue per available room]. But costs are building as we speak – the cost of fuel, of goods, of payroll. It’s very tricky.” She noted the shortage of staff


meant “hotels at the luxury end are tending to cap capacity so they can deliver the service customers expect”. Perret argued: “We need to consider higher salary rates.” However, Borivoj Vokrinek, head


of strategy advisory and research at commercial real estate service provider Cushman & Wakefield, insisted hospitality is suffering “an immigration problem, not a labour problem”. He argued: “We need governments to relax immigration rules.”


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PICTURES: Shutterstock/Engel Ching; Oliver Roesler


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