Egyptair news 24 sep 2015

‫الخميس‬ ‫‪ 24‬سبتمبر ‪2015‬‬

http://www.iata.org World Passenger Symposium to Focus on Cooperation, Partnership Geneva – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that the theme for the 2015 World Passenger Symposium (WPS) will be “Innovating Better, Together”. With IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard moving into the implementation phase and the Fast Travel program now reaching some 24.4% of global travelers, WPS will catalyze further progress by focusing discussions on collaborative efforts to drive these and other distribution and customer experience transformations.

The event, taking place in Hamburg, Germany, 20-22 October is expected to attract more than 700 high-level delegates from across the industry’s value chain, including airlines, global distribution systems and travel technology providers, airports and travel management companies.

“Aviation is a team effort. From the moment someone begins to plan a trip to their arrival at their destination, we have numerous touch points to interact and influence their experience. WPS 2015 provides a unique opportunity for stakeholders in the air travel value chain to examine challenges to delivering a superior passenger experience while agreeing a vision for tomorrow’s service ideals,” said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO, who will deliver the keynote address at WPS.

http://www.futuretravelexperience.com

American Airlines introduces real-time online baggage tracking Travellers flying with American Airlines can now track their bags in real time via the carrier’s website. The service is available for domestic flights, as well as international routes on which American is the final carrier.

To make use of the tracking service, passengers must visit the “Track Your Bags” page on the American Airlines website, where they will be prompted to enter their surname and PNR or bag tag number. They will then be able to view the current status of their checked luggage.

American Airlines is not the first carrier to offer a baggage tracking service. The “Track Your Bags” service was already offered by US Airways, while Delta Air Lines added a baggage tracking feature to its smartphone app way back in 2011.

In recent months, baggage tracking devices have also emerged as a viable solution, including the Eviate tracker which will be trialled by select KLM passengers.

http://buyingbusinesstravel.com

Agent’s view: Lufthansa’s direct portal Following the introduction of Lufthansa's €16 GDS fee, the airline has urged the trade to use its online direct agent portal. An independent business travel agent shares his experience of using the Lufthansa agent portal.

Unlike the GDS, you cannot make and hold an option. You can only instantly book and pay for a seat.

Once you have confirmed a reservation, you cannot action any changes through the portal – you have to call the LH call-centre to make the changes.

And depending on the circumstances you can be on hold for a long time.

The booking portal doesn’t offer a credit facility, so have to pay via agency or client credit card – which attracts a £4.50 fee.

There is limited ability to offer interline tickets with other carriers.

Unable to split-class a booking: one of the biggest arguments LH has is that the GDSs don’t show content easily to upsell. Well, the portal didn’t allow me to book economy class out and business class back on an itinerary to the US for a client. So actually the portal offers less content than the GDS, yet Luftansa argues that the GDSs don’t provide enough. Maybe you can splitclass or upsell on this portal – if so, it’s made incredibly difficult and I haven’t figured how yet. Surely the point of the agent portal is to make things easier to upsell LH products and services.

So, even before we come into any MI [management information] reporting issues or Duty-of-Care issues for corporate clients, this tool is far too basic.

It’s simply not fit for purpose.

I'm currently not offering my clients Lufthansa flights wherever there are other viable options on a given route. The airline should remember how much higher average ticket values are on the GDSs compared to direct-sell channels.

ICAO Launches New Aircraft Tracking Website The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) announced the launch today of its new centralized online information area for aircraft tracking developments.

The new aircraft tracking information area, available on the ICAO Public Website, provides a detailed timeline and all supporting reports and documentation relating to the call for and realization of the world’s first global aircraft tracking requirements.

ICAO Member States recommended the adoption of a new 15minute aircraft tracking Standard during discussions amongst the over 850 participants to the UN specialized agency’s 2015 HighLevel Safety Conference (HLSC) in February of this year.

The new information area aggregating the documentation and developments on aircraft tracking responds to calls from the HLSC to lead the conduct of a Normal Aircraft Tracking Implementation Initiative (NATII) using existing technologies. A NATII Steering Committee, with global participation, was formed and the Asia/Pacific Region was selected as a representative area of operations for the initiative.

The recommended Standard is expected to be adopted at the end of 2015.

http://m.atwonline.com Reports: AF-KLM’s low-cost arm Transavia mulls Munich base Air France-KLM, which plans to expand its Transavia lowcost arm beyond its French and Dutch bases, is reportedly considering opening a base in Munich by summer 2016.

According to several media reports, it could base up to five Boeing 737s in Munich.

An Air France spokesperson in Paris would not comment on the reports to ATW. A Munich Airport spokesperson said Transavia is evaluating a Munich base, but nothing has been decided.

Transavia recently launched daily flights from Munich to Paris Orly.

Transavia is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Air FranceKLM Group.

ATW previously reported that Air France-KLM scrapped the idea for Transavia Europe after a bitter industrial dispute last fall, but plans to expand the budget carrier to new countries appear to be back on the table, this time with the approval of French pilot union SNPL. The group’s chairman and CEO Alexandre de Juniac told ATW in September 2014 it had plans to grow Transavia’s fleet to 100 aircraft by 2017.

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