ISTANBUL: The noteworthy rises in the number of passengers they served in the last month of 2019 enabled Istanbul Airport and Turkish Airlines to rank first in Europe among their peers. Having displayed its potential in its first year, Istanbul’s new state-of-the-art airport was listed among the top two most developing airports worldwide enjoying the highest rate of increase in the number of passengers in December, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) December data showed. Turkish Airlines (THY) was also named the carrier that increased the number of its passengers most among its European peers. The city’s new mega airport,…
Author: holidayweekly
KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia owner Tony Fernandes has stepped aside as Chief Executive after UK authorities pulled the Malaysia-based airline into a bribery investigation targeting Airbus. In a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange on Monday, the company said Mr. Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun, his longtime business partner and executive chairman, would “relinquish their executive positions within the group, effective immediately, for a period of two months or such other period that the company may deem fit”. AirAsia shares slid more than 5 percent in opening trading on Tuesday. They fell more than 10 percent in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, their…
BANGKOK: Destination and tourism marketers will need to play a critical role in correcting the vast amount of misinformation surrounding the ongoing Novel Coronavirus outbreak that is hurting travel and tourism businesses across Asia, urged Mario Hardy, CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). While speaking to a leading travel trade magazine, Hardy said the spread of falsehoods about the virus was his “biggest concern”, more than the outbreak itself as the former has the ability to trigger panic and cause more people than necessary to halt travel. Hardy: Tourism marketers ought to work to stem the spread of…
MONTERAL: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced full-year global passenger traffic results for 2019 showing that demand (revenue passenger kilometers or RPKs) rose by 4.2% compared to the full year of 2018. The 2019 result is a slowdown compared to 2018’s annual growth of 7.3% and marked the first year since the global financial crisis in 2009 with passenger demand below the long-term trend of around 5.5% annual growth. Full-year 2019 capacity climbed 3.4%, and the load factor rose 0.7 percentage point to a record high of 82.6%. The previous high was 81.9% set in 2018. “Airlines did…
ISLAMABAD: Hashoo Foundation and Hashoo Hunar in collaboration with UNHCR arranged an “Employer meet up 2020”. The event was arranged at the Pearl Continental Hotel Rawalpindi. The main purpose of this event is to build a relationship with employers and enhance the opportunity for their trainees in the hospitality sector within Pakistan. The event further discussed resources, expertise, and career pathways, the challenges, the business opportunities, and expansion. The event exchanged ideas, brainstormed on how employers, training providers, and trainees can better connect to improve & strengthen both supply & demand-side components. How to engage industry expectations from employers in…
KARACHI: Last week SereneAir celebrated its 3rd anniversary and serving of Pakistani nation with professionalism, punctuality and high-class services on the ground and in the Air. [huge_it_slider id=”511″] The senior management led by Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Safdar Khan, CEO, Serene Air and the staff of the airline attended the dinner reception organized to celebrate three years of outstanding performance and successes. Similar celebration events were organized at all stations for motivated and hardworking staff and officers of the airline. Addressing the house full gathering Air Vice Marshal Muhammad Safdar Khan, CEO, SereneAir Said,” First of all I would like…
Written by Ch. Faisal Mahmood The snowfall marks the Beginning of the winter tourism season in the country. Tourism-related concerns are expecting to do some good business, especially those in northern area and Kashmir including Swat, as they had some bad years in the past business-wise; if not to list up other damages of terrorism in the heavenly snowcapped, our Northern Areas. Now once again, with the grace of Almighty Allah the region is fully peaceful and safe and is open for tourists. It would be much better for the region if domestic tourists give extra importance to visit our…
JAKARTA: Indonesia stands to lose $4 billion in earnings from tourism if its worst-case scenario materializes and travel from China is disrupted for the whole year by a virus epidemic, the tourism minister said on Thursday. The main tourist destination, the holiday island of Bali, had already seen around 10,000 cancellations by the end of last month, according to the Bali Tourism Board. “We had two million (Chinese) visitors last year with an average spend of $1,400 per arrival,” Wishnutama Kusubandio told a news conference. “With the negative trend seen in tourists from other countries, the loss would be even…
ISLAMABAD: The United States has eased travel advisory for Pakistan while acknowledging that the security environment in the country has significantly improved. “Pakistan has noted the update in the US Travel Advisory, which has acknowledged that Pakistan’s security environment has improved,” said the Foreign Office in a statement. “This is a step in the right direction,” it added. According to the statement, Pakistan has made resolute efforts to enhance security throughout the country. Significant improvement in the security environment has led the United Nations to re-designate Islamabad as a family station for its personnel, it added. Recently, the United Kingdom,…
LONDON: A senior VisitBritain director says she fears for the future of its multi-million-pound GREAT marketing campaign, which has been running since 2011. Director of strategy and communication Patricia Yates says she is concerned the campaign, which is jointly funded by the Government and the private sector, will be seen as a legacy project by the current Conservative government and ‘quietly dismantled’. Speaking at this week’s UKinbound conference, Yates said: “I am really nervous about the future of GREAT. We have funding from the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport), we are hugely dependent on it, but if you…