Paul

France – General Strike 10 September.

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This afternoon it has been reported that the national general strike by public sector workers in France is going ahead tomorrow.

It is now understood that air travel will be impacted, however, to what degree is as yet unknown. Eurocontrol reports that air traffic routes may be reduced by 20 percent depending on staffing, but that will depend on the situation that develops through tomorrow.

According to the Director of Operations, there may be delays in the Brest area as early as this evening (Monday 9th September). From tomorrow delays of 25 minutes to two hours should be expected in the areas controlled by towers around Bordeaux, Reims, Paris, Marseille and Brest.

There are likely to be air traffic restrictions at Paris-Orly, Lyn and Marseille. As always, our advice to to check in online for your flight and ensure that your email address and cell phone number is in your booking.

Eurostar’s services are unaffected. For more information on SNCF’s TGV services please check www.infolignes.com

Paul

British Airways Starts New Service To Austin, Texas.

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British Airways is to be the only airline to offer direct flights from London to Austin, Texas from next year.

Starting early March 2014, initially with five flights a week, before moving to a daily service on 3 May, the airline’s brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with its three-cabin layout, will serve the route to the Texan capital.

The summer 2014 schedule, which starts from 30 March, will see a number of increases in long-haul flying to a variety of destinations. Services to Ghana (Accra) will see an increase in frequency (from the start of the winter 2013 schedule), with an additional three flights per week being added.

Likewise, for next year’s summer schedule, services to Tel Aviv are being enhanced with the introduction of a wide-bodied Boeing 777, which replaces a narrow-bodied Airbus A321.

Paul

We go live on Facebook & Twitter, TODAY!

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Today, Monday 2nd September 2013, Global Travel Management goes live with our Facebook and Twitter social media sites.

Packed full of information, our goal is to keep our clients updated with travel related news and features, along with a little light hearted content to keep you all interested; so look out for some staff profiling, our worldwide recipe corner and information on the local sports teams we sponsor.

We’d like as many of you as possible to join in and to give you that added incentive to stay in touch, we’ll be giving away a number of half cases of wine to secret “like” and “follow” numbers. All you have to do is go to our Facebook and Twitter pages and “like” or “follow” us and if you are that lucky person, a half case of wine will be on its way to you.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Paul

Your chance to try a short-haul flight on an A380…

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British Airways is currently flying its new Airbus A380 aircraft between London Heathrow and Frankfurt on selected flights.

The aircraft’s official inaugural flight is on Tuesday 24th September between London Heathrow and LAX. In the meantime, grab your chance of flying on the A380 in Europe. Please call us for further information.

Paul

BA & Jet Blue Announce Tie-Up.

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British Airways has signed an interline deal with US budget carrier Jet Blue, covering a number of its routes in the United States.

The agreement includes the two carriers’ flights from JFK, Boston, Washington DC and Orlando and covers 18 daily transatlantic BA flights, plus more than 50 JetBlue US routes.

The deal is not technically a first between BA and a budget carrier as they already have an agreement with Westjet and Air Berlin.

For Jet Blue this is its 25th airline partner. The carrier is 19 per cent owned by Lufthansa. In recent years Jet Blue has grown away from the budget model, offering extra legroom options and a frequent flier programme.

Paul

Travel Managers Optimistic.

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The following article highlights why companies need a proactive Travel Management Company…just like Global Travel Management.

The UK’s travel managers are optimistic about the next 12 months, but are cracking down on unauthorised travel expenditure, the annual Airplus International survey has concluded.

UK companies are moving heavily in the direction of a managed travel policy, the survey showed, with the number of businesses without one falling sharply from 16 per cent to only 6 per cent in a year. Similarly, the proportion of companies having a policy for all aspects of their progamme has increased from 67 per cent to 81 per cent.

Airplus surveyed 2,101 travel managers in 24 global locations in late 2012. It found that only 7 per cent of UK managers said they would be booking fewer trips in 2014, compared with 14 per cent throughout Western Europe. However, a sizable minority of UK managers (38 per cent), expected travel costs to rise, more than the 28 per cent in Western Europe. Perhaps because of this, 45 per cent said they could make savings on air fares and 54 per cent on hotel spend.

One area where UK companies were lacking, was in securing corporate airline rates (this is where we/GTM come in – Ed). The number rose two percentage points to 46 per cent, but lagged behind the rest of Europe at 54 per cent. Airplus believes this is due to the preponderance of budget airlines in the UK, which encourages a ‘buy on the day’ policy. The number having preferred pricing deals with hotels fell sharply from 82 per cent to 69 per cent. AirPlus says this is perhaps an indication that budget hotel brands, which do not generally offer corporate deals, are having an impact.

Airplus UK managing director Yael Klein said: “What really stands out for me this year is that UK GDP growth remains stuck in a narrow band either side of zero per cent, yet it is not stopping British companies boarding flights in search of new business.”

She added that four times as many UK respondents thought trip numbers would grow compared to those who predicted they would reduce.

Paul

Come and see us at Office 13!

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We are pleased to be exhibiting at Office 13 at Olympia, London on the 8th & 9th of October this year. The exhibition also coincides with National PA Day on October 8th.

There will be many interesting speakers, among them, Katie Piper who will host a headline keynote at the show. So why not come and visit us at stand number 5031, we’d love to see you and you may even win a prize!

What’s more, this event is free to attend, so why not register here now?

Paul

Ryanair to increase hold bag charges.

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The no-frills airline Ryanair, plans to continue increasing the fees it charges customers for placing luggage into the hold of its aircraft.

Travellers on the budget airline currently pay anything from £25 to £160 for a hold bag on a one-way flight.  However, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, intends to up the price of checked bags still further, saying he plans to halve the 20 per cent of passengers who currently place their luggage into the hold.

Around 80 per cent of Ryanair passengers checked baggage into the hold before the airline first introduced a fee to do so.  O’Leary said: “I would be disappointed if we don’t get our figure down from around 20 per cent to 10 per cent.”   However, he added: “We will never get rid of [hold] bags.”

O’Leary also suggested that more airlines will start charging for cabin bags and follow the lead of Wizz Air which began charging for larger cabin bags in 2012.

Dave

Germany: Flight delays, cancellations reported at Hamburg Airport after unexpected strike by ground staff workers

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Germany: Flight delays, cancellations reported at Hamburg Airport after unexpected strike by ground staff workers

Paul

Travelling to Heathrow on 3rd & 4th August.

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The Prudential Ride London cycling event, which takes places this weekend, involves some road closures and restrictions throughtout parts of the capital and across Surrey.

This may make getting to and from Heathrow Airport challenging if you are travelling by car. You can find more information on the route and road closures by clicking here.