Branson, who was recently voted the most coveted CEO to work with by Aussies, spoke at the launch of Virgin Atlantic’s inaugural flight from Heathrow to Seattle, and warned that just the thought of Brexit has got the industry all shook up. Per Travel Weekly UK, Branson told a press conference, “I speak out and I think others should too. “A hard Brexit will damage the travel industry severely, the travel industry has already been damaged severely from the thought of Brexit and we are talking about the travel industry losing hundreds of millions collectively, billions I suspect. So they’d…
Author: holidayweekly
CAIRO: The first two Egyptair flights, bound for Abu Dhabi and Kuwait,staffed purely by women have taken to the skies, with a total of 12 female pilots and co-pilots working on different types of aircraft. The flights left at the same time from theCairo airport on today, March 29.The airline made the move in celebration of International Women’s Day recently, as thegovernment announced 2017 would be “the year of Egyptian women”, according to itswebsite.“Women are the main nerve in the process of economic development that is takingplace in Egypt now,” it read.Per the Independent, Egypt’s minister of Civil Aviation Sherif…
Dubai: Visiting Dubai; you shouldn’t have to worry about finding an accommodation.According to a new study by ‘Insider Monkey’ a travel site, the emirate has one of thehighest number of hotel rooms in the world. Dubai has 100,000 hotel rooms availablefor visiting guests, the ninth highest globally and similar to New York and Chicago. The cities with the most hotel rooms are Las Vegas (152,000), Orlando (150,000), Paris(140,000) and Barcelona (120,000). “It’s pretty much guaranteed that if you want to visit one of these places, you’re sure tofind a great place to stay,” the site said. “Dubai is full of…
ROME: Mr. Cramer Ball, CEO Alitalia has told that the airline is going to reduce 50percent office Staff and 20 percent non flying operational staff, which means cuttingaround 2000 jobs. “Headcount reductions are a painful but necessary action,” said Ball, “but thesechanges are essential if we are to compete effectively in the extremely tough Europeanaviation market.” The move comes as part of a new restructuring strategy, which identifies a series ofactions to boost revenues and reduce costs in order to achieve profitability by 2019,said a report. The airline currently employs 12,500 people and headcount cuts will include permanentand temporary staff.…
SHARJAH: The Emirate witnessed a 63 per cent jump in visitor numbers from the Asiancountry in 2016 compared to 2015, the Sharjah Commerce and Tourism DevelopmentAuthority is focussed on further increasing visits from China. As part of efforts to further drive Chinese visitor numbers, SCTDA is hosting 15 of themajor outbound Chinese travel companies from the east coast of China on afamiliarization visit to Sharjah over the next week. The travel operators will be fully immersed in the emirate and exposed to all its facets,from shopping, to heritage and destination activities, during their stay. As part of theprogramme, they will…
KARACHI: Ex- Chairman, Travel Agents Association of Pakistan Mr. Yahya Polani, organised a lunch in honour of Commercial Director- South Asia Travelport, Mr. Rick Saggar & Commercial Manager Middle East & South Asia, Travelport Mr. Rayyan Khan on this occasion also seen in the picture are Mr.Tariq Polani, Mr. Khizar Polani, Mr. Shaheen Permani, Senior Vice President Travelport-Pakistan, Muhammad Sabir and Naveed Usmani.
MONTERAL: Airlines Technology has worked up a proof of concept, which could allow airlines to sell assigned seats via a virtual reality (VR) seatmap, all made possible thanks to IATA’s NDC. The business has IATA NDC Capable Level III certification and is part of the Travel StartUps Incubator portfolio. Paras Kumar, co-founder, explained that VR seatmap selection “is technically possible because of NDC, as we can pull out the seatmap of any airline (along with the aircraft model details) in an NDC standardized way.” Accessing the NDC seat availability and cabin layout APIs are the source for the data, and…
Reuters reports that Turkey is “urging the U.S. and Britain to lift the flight electronics ban,” although the body of the story makes it sound more like Turkey is negotiating an exemption for its own flights. ANKARA: Turkey is in talks with the United States and Britain to exclude Turkish Airlines and Istanbul’s main Ataturk airport from a ban on passengers carrying electronics larger than cell phones, Turkey’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Thursday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday passengers traveling from specific airports, including Istanbul, could not bring into the main cabin devices larger than…
SAIDU SHARIF: Swat valley is one of the major tourist attractions of Pakistan. It is known as the Switzerland of Pakistan and has one of the oldest civilizations and one of the beautiful scenery one could ever see. After the restoration of peace in the region there is great influx of the tourists in the area. I am sure that a day is not very far when tourists from all over the world will prefer to visit Swat. Swatisare very peace-loving & hospitable and they are always ready to welcome tourists from all over the world. PTDC is trying its…
The UNWTO’s current Secretary-General, Mr. Taleb Rifai hales from Jordan and is servingin this position since January 2010. He is stepping down at the end of this year. The organization’s 33-Nation Executive board will choose a nominee in May, 2017 to be voted on by its General Assembly later this year to serve as Secretary-General for the 2018 to 2021 term. With the membership of 157 countries, six associate members and 500 affiliate members representing the private sector, educational institutions, tourism associations and local tourism authorities, The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), like its parent the United Nations, is…