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Category: News

  • News: Norwegian launches Fort Lauderdale flights out of Oslo

    Norwegian has launched Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a brand new destination from Oslo. 

    This is the airline’s third long-haul destination from Oslo Gardermoen (OSL), making Norwegian the most important operator of direct long-haul routes from Norway’s main airport.

    “Long-haul flying has too long been characterized by high fares and restricted flexibility.

    “The great reception Norwegian has received after launching low-fare tickets to Manhattan and Bangkok shows that there’s a need for competitive fares from Scandinavia to the u. s. and Asia,” said chief executive Bjørn Kjos.

    “We’re planning several new direct long-haul routes, enabling not just Scandinavians to experience all of the world, but in addition giving foreign visitors easy and affordable access to the Nordic region,” Kjos said.

    Norwegian launched Bangkok and Manhattan in November 2012; moreover the corporate flies to Dubai in the course of the winter season. 

    Norwegian will operate two weekly flights between Oslo Gardermoen (OSL) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Departure from OSL is at 15:10, arriving FLL at 19:30 local time.

    Departure from FLL is on Mondays and Fridays at 21:30, arriving at OSL at 12:35 tomorrow.

    The inaugural flight is on November 30th.

    In addition to the direct routes from OSL to Fort Lauderdale, Bangkok and The big apple, Norwegian operates direct routes to Fort Lauderdale from Stockholm and Copenhagen and to Big apple and Bangkok from Stockholm.

    The company has a complete of six weekly flights from Scandinavia to Ny, Bangkok and Fort Lauderdale.

  • News: IATA reorganises regional structures

    The International Air Transport Association has announced an organisational restructuring of its main divisions and regional operations to even better address the wishes of its 240 member airlines.

    Senior management changes were also announced to support the hot structure.

    All changes will take effect from July 1st 2013.

    A key tenet of the restructuring is the idea of ‘Global Development, Regional Delivery’.

    “IATA is changing to deliver even greater value to its members.

    “Strengthening our regional structures where we’re closest to our members may help us to realize and meet their needs better. 

    “We have also regrouped activities that experience grown organically through the years with the goal of being more intuitive to these we tackle.

    “This will optimize our ability to develop, modernize and deliver the worldwide standards that are the inspiration of aviation-enabled global connectivity,” said Tony Tyler, IATA director general.

    IATA’s regional operations would be consolidated from seven regional structures into five.

    These can be based across the five hubs (Amman, Beijing, Madrid, Miami and Singapore) where IATA has already been amalgamating activities linked to its industry financial systems.

    Each region remains to be led by a regional vp who’s accountable for driving all activities within their region, while maintaining the consistency of IATA’s global standards and positions.

    To ensure effective regional input to IATA’s leadership, RVPs will report back to the director general. 

    Under the plans North and South America should be consolidated into an Americas region and based in Miami.

    The combined region may be led by Peter Cerda who’s promoted from regional director for safety, operations and infrastructure for the Americas to RVP for the Americas.

    Africa and Middle East North Africa would be combined into one region to be called Africa and Middle East.

    Hussein Dabbas, from IATA’s Amman regional office, will lead the region as RVP.

    Asia-Pacific, North Asia and Europe will continue to serve members in those regions as inside the current structure with regional offices in Singapore, Beijing and Madrid.

    The RVPs leading these regions stay Maunu Von Lueders, Zhang Baojian and Rafael Schvartzman, respectively.

  • Club Carlson to decide to global carbon offsetting initiative

    Club CarlsonSM, the worldwide loyalty programme for Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, announced yesterday, Earth Day, that Club Carlson has become the 1st loyalty programme within the hospitality industry to decide to a world carbon offsetting initiative. Carlson Rezidor will offset meetings for all Club Carlson For Planners meetings and events around the group’s six global hotel brands totalling 1,077 hotels in operation worldwide.

    The carbon offsetting – a free service for the meeting planners – shall be managed through Carlson Rezidor’s new partner, Carbon Footprint Ltd. Each contribution should be used to speculate in renewable energy in India; and should be combined with the planting of 1 tree for each ton of carbon offset through Club Carlson For Planners events inside the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.

    “Carlson Rezidor takes sustainability seriously. In keeping with the United Nations World Tourism Organization-United National Environment Program (UNWTO-UNEP), hotels generate about 20 percent of tourism’s total carbon footprint. This innovative offsetting solution is a distinct service of Club Carlson, and should help to cut back our hotels’ and our customers’ carbon footprint”, said Suzanne Riesterer, Chief Commercial Officer. “In addition to Club Carlson For Planners members, individual Club Carlson members may have the chance to redeem their Gold Points to offset the carbon in their personal travel and to support the wind farms in India and the tree planting in Kenya.”

    The initiative launched on the end of 2012 at Radisson Blu hotels in Europe, the center East and Africa caused 433 tons being offset and 433 trees planted in Kenya. It’s element of Carlson Rezidor’s award winning Responsible Business Program that specialize in a discounted negative impact at the environment, health and safety for staff and guests, and respect for social and ethical issues in the company and community.

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  • News: New appointment for Fairmont Hotels

    Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has named Carmen Lam as vp, hotel sales and marketing, Asia Pacific. Lam, who would be based in Shanghai, joins Fairmont on this newly created role to offer sales and marketing direction to Fairmont’s impressive hotels in Asia Pacific and support to the luxurious operator’s burgeoning pipeline of regional development.

    “We’re quickly growing our footprint in Asia and are very fortunate to be adding a pacesetter of Carmen’s caliber to our regional management team,” said, Jeff Doane, Fairmont’s vp, hotel sales and marketing. “With her wealth of hotel related experience and firm understanding of the regional marketplace, she’s ideally positioned to lead our sales, marketing and branding activity throughout Asia.”

    With six hotels open and operating in Asia, including three in China, Lam will focus on maximizing results and driving performance for this dynamic mixture of resort and town center properties. She’ll even be answerable for executing Fairmont’s regional sales strategy, regional brand management, and awareness and marketing activity for brand new hotels including announced Fairmont projects in Jakarta, Bali and several other cities in China.

    Lam arrives at Fairmont having previously served as senior vp, leisure & brand sales and marketing for Hong Kong/Macau-based Melco Crown Entertainment. Over the process a career that has spanned greater than 20 years, Lam has also held a sequence of management positions with leading brands in Asia including roles with Shangri-La Hotels and InterContinental Hotels Group.

    Lam holds an Executive MBA from Canada’s Richard Ivey School of economic – University of Western, a Bachelor of industrial Administration from the University of Hawaii and an Executive Leadership designation from Cornell University. Lam can be pursuing a Doctorate on the School of Hotel and Tourism Management on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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  • News: Qantas unveils new Singapore lounge

    Qantas has unveiled its new Singapore Lounge, offering Qantas customers the top standards of luxury when travelling in the course of the city.

    Qantas International CEO, Simon Hickey, said the brand new lounge showcased the experiences and cuisine of Singapore.

    “The Singapore Lounge have been designed to enhance the destination: it’s vibrant and chic, spacious and opulent, and it’s the ideal environment for our customers to chill before their flight,” said Mr Hickey.

    “We’ve worked with our renowned Consulting Chef Neil Perry to design menus in line with his Rockpool food philosophy and popular restaurant Spice Temple, with dishes inspired by regional cuisine and flavours.”

    Customers can enjoy quite a number options from the plate of the day on the communal dining area, to food from the live cooking station, help themselves to the extensive buffet or have a snack on the bar. Spice Temple inspired cocktails can be found alongside a global-class wine selection and a barista service.

    The extensive food offering available within the lounge is designed to enhance the brand new Qantas International Sleep Service. Customers wishing to maximize sleep onboard can eat within the lounge and luxuriate in the brand new mattresses and duvets in Business Class accompanied by a T2 wellbeing tea to improve sleep comfort.

    For the primary time Qantas is operating with Sofitel outside Australia to supply customers an experience per its award-winning First Lounges in Sydney and Melbourne.

    The service incorporates a tailored hosted experience for Platinum One Qantas Frequent Flyers, with exclusive services including shirt pressing, shoe shining and priority access to showers. 

    Mr Hickey said the hole of the brand new lounge reflected the Qantas Group’s technique of ‘growing with Asia’. “This multi-million dollar investment is a part of our broader commitment to enhance the experience we provide on services to and from Asia, including our A330 upgrades to start next year,” added Mr Hickey. “It also complements our new Asia schedule, which promotes Singapore as a hub for the region. We now offer more dedicated capacity, better frequencies and improved connections from Singapore to other destinations across Asia.”

    The Singapore Lounge seats 460 guests, has 20 showers, 80-inch television screens throughout and technology pods located around the various zones.

    A Singapore Lounge fact file is accessible providing further details on all elements of the living room.