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  • IHIF: Akkeron signs UK focus on Choice Hotels

    Choice Hotels International has announced a strategic relationship with Akkeron Hotels Group, a well-known regional hotel operator within the Uk.

    The deal will initially lead to nine Akkeron hotels operating under Choice Hotels franchise agreements within the UK, representing a nearly 25 per cent increase inside the Choice Hotels UK hotel portfolio and another 611 rooms.

    This agreement forms a critical a part of Choice Hotels’ growth method to offer financial support to enhance development in key international markets, consisting of Europe, via the company’s capital as a targeted incentive to hotel developers and operators to go into into franchise agreements located in strategic locations and markets.

    Under the agreement, five Akkeron hotels in Bristol, Bury St. Edmunds, Colchester,
    Peterborough and Kings Lynn could be rebranded under the standard brand and another four hotels located in Winchester, Darlington, Ringwood and Stevenage will operate under the Clarion Collection brand.

    The newly branded Choice hotels, Quality Hotel Bury St. Edmunds, Quality Hotel Peterborough and Clarion Collection Cromwell Stevenage, are anticipated to come back online inside the Choice Hotels Europe system by the top of February.

    The remaining Quality and Clarion Collection brand hotels are expected to come back online throughout 2013.

    “We are delighted to have entered into this relationship with Akkeron Hotels Group.

    “Akkeron is a sturdy hotel operator and an incredible company for Choice Hotels Europe to work with and grow its presence inside the UK. The agreement initially will consider rebranding nine hotels with the chance to speak about rebranding further Akkeron hotels at some point,” commented Duncan Berry, UK chief executive, Choice Hotels Europe.

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  • News: Air Arabia adds second Sri Lanka route

    Air Arabia, the 1st and biggest low-cost carrier (LCC) within the Middle East and North Africa announced that it has added its second destination in Sri Lanka with the launch of non-stop flights to Mattala.
     
    The new route marks Air Arabia’s 84th destination worldwide. The inaugural flight G9508 will take off to Mattala on March 18, 2013.

    The low-cost pioneer will operate two weekly services between Sharjah and Mattala, to be increased to four times weekly starting May 19 2013.

    On Thursdays and Sundays, flights depart from Sharjah International Airport at 21:30 and arrives Mattala Hambantota International Airport at 03:45. Return flights at the will depart next day from Mattala at 04:25 and arrive in Sharjah at 07:35 (local time).

    Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia, said, “Today’s announcement is a continuation of Air Arabia’s longstanding commitment to expand our presence within the Indian Subcontinent. A couple of months after our inception in 2003, we launched an immediate service to Colombo, which was our first destination inside the Subcontinent, and we’re delighted to now add a second path to the rustic. Our new service to Mattala is in direct response to passenger demand, and while contribute to the trade and tourism ties between UAE and Sri Lanka.”

    The launch of services to Mattala will complement Air Arabia’s existing nine weekly flights from Sharjah to Colombo. The airline currently offers daily flights to the capital city, and twice daily on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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  • Unprecedented 5.7% rise in visitors from UK to Germany

    Destination Germany remains on track for fulfillment, with excellent growth inside the volume of overnight stays by international visitors providing much of the momentum. In 2012 the German Federal Statistical Office recorded in far more than 68.8 million overnight stays by visitors from abroad in accommodation establishments with greater than ten beds, a rise of around 8 per cent at the previous year. “We have exceeded, by a transparent margin, the forecast volume of 400 million overnight stays from Germany and abroad. This emphatically underlines the massive acclaim for Destination Germany, that’s becoming increasingly attractive to people from other countries,” says Ernst Burgbacher, Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary State Secretary on the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology and Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs and Tourism.

    Europe and the BRIC countries go from strength to strength

    The German Federal Statistical Office recorded a complete of 68.8 million overnight stays by visitors from abroad in 2012, up 8 per cent at the previous year.  The united kingdom market (visitors from the united kingdom to Germany) alone rose by 5.7%. “The European source markets and the BRIC countries are going from strength to strength they usually have played a primary role on this new record result for inbound tourism in Germany. If the most important source markets continue to accomplish strongly, we shall be on course to pass the 80 million mark in international overnight stays by 2020,” says Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). In response to a UNWTO survey, growth in inbound tourism for Destination Germany remains well above the worldwide and European average.

  • News: IATA reports 2012 best in history for continuous safety improvements

    The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the 2012 global accident rate for Western-built jets was the bottom in aviation history.

    The 2012 global Western-built jet accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jets) was 0.20, the equivalent of 1 accident every 5 million flights.

    This represented a 46% improvement over 2011, when the accident rate was 0.37, or one accident for each 2.7 million flights.
    IATA’s 240+ member airlines recorded no Western-built jet hull losses in 2012.

    “The industry’s 2012 record safety performance was one of the best in history. Every day approximately 100,000 flights arrive safely at their destination. Airlines, airports, air navigation service providers, manufacturers and safety regulators interact to confirm every flight is as safe as possible. Their dedication and cooperation has made air travel remarkably safe. Nevertheless, there’s still work to do. Every accident is one too many and every fatality is a human tragedy. The primary commercial airline flight befell on 1 January 1914. Since then the first actual flight the airline industry has made continuous improvement in safety its top priority,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

    Safety by the numbers:
    *  On the brink of 3 billion people flew safely on 37.5 million flights (29.8 million by jet, 7.7 million by turboprop)
    *  75 accidents (all aircraft types, Eastern and Western built), down from 92 in 2011
    *  15 fatal accidents (all aircraft types) versus 22 in 2011
    *  6 hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets in comparison to 11 in 2011
    *  3 fatal hull loss accidents involving Western-built jets, down from 5 in 2011
    *  414 fatalities in comparison to 486 in 2011
    *  Fatality rate slightly increased to 0.08 per million passengers from 0.07 in 2011 in line with Western-built jet operations
    *  IATA member airlines outperformed the industry average for accidents of all aircraft types (0.71 accidents per million flights in comparison with 2.01), accounting for 13 of the 75 accidents

    IOSA
    Airlines at the IATA Operational Safety Audit Registry (IOSA) experienced no Western-built jet hull loss accidents. The complete accident rate (all aircraft types) for IOSA registered carriers was 4.three times better than the speed for non-IOSA carriers (0.96 vs. 4.11). Today 381 airlines are at the IOSA registry (www.iata.org/registry). For IATA’s 240+ airlines IOSA is a demand for membership within the association. That some 140 non-member airlines are at the registry is a transparent indication that IOSA has become the worldwide benchmark for airline operational safety management.

    “IOSA again demonstrated its positive impact on aviation safety. Carriers at the IOSA registry recorded an accident rate that was greater than four times better than their non-registered counterparts. Not just did IOSA registered carriers have a lower accident rate however the accidents were less severe with regards to fatalities and damage to aircraft,” said Tyler.

    During 2012, IATA continued its work with airline members to develop the improved IOSA. Enhanced IOSA adds another dimension with a focal point on airlines’ internal quality assurance program to implement self-auditing methodology in response to IOSA principles.

    Regional highlights—Western-built jet hull loss rates
    *  The subsequent regions outperformed the worldwide Western-built jet hull loss rate of 0.20: Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) (0.0), Europe (0.15), Middle East and North Africa (0.0), North America (0.0), and North Asia (0.0)
    *  The subsequent regions saw their safety performance improve in 2012 in comparison to 2011: the CIS (from 1.06 to 0.00), Latin America and the Caribbean (from 1.28 to 0.42), Middle East and North Africa (from 2.02 to 0.0) and North America (from 0.10 to 0.0).
    *  Right here regions saw safety performance decline in 2012 compare to 2011: Africa (from 3.27 to three.71), Asia-Pacific (from 0.25 to 0.48) and Europe (from 0.0 to 0.15).
    *  Latin America and the Caribbean posted a second consecutive year of improvement (0.42 vs. 1.28) however the region’s rate was still higher than the arena average.
    *  Africa registered a better rate, from 3.27 in 2011 to three.71 in 2012, and this is still the worst performer by a huge margin.

    Safety in Africa
    Africa’s Western-built jet hull loss rate showed a much better rate versus 2011 (3.71 vs. 3.27). The region’s accident rate for all aircraft types greater than doubled (12.44 accidents per million flights from 6.17 in 2011), with 13 accidents in 2012 (up from 8 accidents in 2011).
    African airlines at the IOSA registry had no accidents.

    “Africa is a continent divided on performance. Airlines at the IOSA registry are functioning at or above industry average rates. However the continent’s performance is much from satisfactory. It’s going to be as safe to travel by air in Africa because it is in every other portion of the realm,” said Tyler.

    In May 2012, IATA, with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and a number of alternative organizations, committed to an Africa Strategic Improvement Action Plan aimed toward addressing safety deficiencies and strengthening regulatory oversight inside the region by 2015. The Plan was endorsed as component of the ‘Abuja Declaration’ by the Ministerial meeting on Aviation Security and safety of the African Union in July and endorsed on the Assembly of the African Union in January 2013.

    “Stakeholders are united of their commitment to bring all of Africa to world class safety levels in the course of the adoption of worldwide standards. Passage of the Abuja Declaration is a key step along this path,” Tyler said. Critical to the success of this plan is mandatory adoption of IOSA by African states.

    Accident analysis
    Runway excursions, by which an aircraft departs a runway during a landing or takeoff, were the most typical variety of accident in 2012 (28% of total accidents). Most (82%) of runway excursions occur following a stable approach where the aircraft floated beyond the traditional touchdown point, or braking devices didn’t activate in a timely manner, or because directional control was not maintained after landing.

    This kind of accident continues to offer challenges for the industry. Despite a rise within the runway excursion accident rate in 2012, the five-year trend in actual accidents remains downward (2008:28, 2009:23, 2010:20, 2011:17, 2012:21). In 2013, IATA will continue to work with industry partners to support regional runway safety seminars and to update the IATA Runway Excursion Risk Reduction (RERR) toolkit. Furthermore, IOSA now requires that airlines utilize Flight Data Analysis (FDA) programs that may help identify precursors to runway excursions.

    Loss of control in-flight
    Loss of Control In-flight (LOC-I) isn’t essentially the mostsome of the most common accident categories (In 2008 there have been 14 LOC-I accidents followed by: 2009:9, 2010:10, 2011:8, 2012:6). However, LOC-I accidents bring about the foremost fatalities (43% of all fatal accidents and 60% of all fatalities from 2008-2012). IATA is operating with industry partners to implement an international LOC-I prevention program a good way to assist operators to grasp the standards fascinated about these events. Moreover, this program will provide guidance for an enhanced pilot training and establish a process for feedback into the IATA Training and Qualification Initiative (ITQI).

    Sharing information
    Data sharing is essential to identifying trends that may indicate a possible safety issue. In 2009, IATA launched the worldwide Safety Information Center (GSIC). This incorporates operational and safety information fed by seven different databases. These are accident data, operational safety reports, IOSA and IATA Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) audit findings, Flight Data eXchange (FDX), an aircraft ground damage database and a brand new cabin safety operational report database. Greater than 460 different organizations around the world are already submitting information to GSIC. Continuing with the work started with GSIC, IATA is introducing the recent operational data management initiative, incorporating GSIC and expanding data management into other arenas similar to operations and infrastructure.

    “Data collection and analysis underpins all safety efforts. The more we understand about how accidents and incidents occur, the higher equipped we’re to spot the danger factors. This permits us to take mitigation steps long before risks become a security issue which could contribute to an accident”, said Tyler.

    “In a bit multiple lifetime, aviation has gone from being a high risk activity to a routine portion of everyday life. As commercial aviation prepares to go into its second century, we must live as much as the ideals of our industry’s pioneers and recommit ourselves to creating aviation ever safer,” said Tyler.

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  • Thomas Cook to slash thousands of jobs

    U.K. travel organisation Thomas Cook plans to chop approximately 2,500 jobs and shut down 195 retail travel agencies.

    The job cuts would amount to a 16% reduction in Thomas Cook’s 15,500-person workforce.

    “It isn’t easy to make decisions that impact directly on our people, but we also owe it to our customers to shape the business effectively and confirm that after they book their holiday with us, our administrative costs are as little as possible,” said Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser.

    “Even after these changes, we can still have among the many largest retail networks in U.K. travel.”