Flights Master Annual Get together

Flights Master is a well reputed travel agency in the United Kingdom specialized in providing reliable services to its valued travel customers from UK to worldwide destinations.

The annual get together was held at Oxford hotel in Paddington. This year CEOs and other officials of major airlines were invited along with PSAs & GSAs to our annual get together. The main purpose to invite the airline officials was to build strong integration with them and construct better business relations in the future. It was a great experience with the airline officials, in this gathering exchange of travel ideas, travel trade problems, future prospects and sharing of the information was held with our reservation staff.   It also gave a platform to our reservation consultants for expressing their own travel views, experiences and concerns with each others. It was indeed a great learning session with all the airline officials.

Just to highlight major activities in this gathering were splendid buffet dinner, exotic red wine with live folk music & much more. Our staff also enjoyed bowling, darts game and at the end a great photo session was held. In the end executive directors of Flights Master encouraged their staff by distributing awards & certificates in prominent categories.

Thai Airways launches Boeing 747 freighter service in India

Thai Airways introduced its first Boeing 747 freighter flights to India from Hyderabad on Thursday. It will deploy its second freighter from next month connecting Chennai to various European destinations.

Its first Boeing freighter, with a capacity of 100 tonnes, touched down in Hyderabad from Bangkok en route to Frankfurt. It will initially be a weekly service, with the airline having plans to increase frequency depending on demand.

The second freighter will connect Bangkok-Chennai-Amsterdam, facilitating air shipment of cargo to over 30 European destinations from Chennai. The airlines' strategy will be to consolidate various cargoes such as pharma products, electronic components, fresh fruits, flowers and textile from different regions across India at Hyderabad and Chennai airports for onward movement to Europe.

In addition, the airline may deploy chartered freighters and use additional belly space in its passenger flights to carry cargo from Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi as demand picks up.

"We have major plans for the air cargo market in India, which we think has immense potential," Mr Pichai Chunganuwad, Managing Director of Thai Airways' Cargo and Mail Division, told media persons here.

The airline, which reported an almost flat growth in cargo throughput in 2011 at 700,000 tonnes, expects growth in the freight sector to be 10 per cent this year. "We have registered encouraging numbers in the first three months this year. We expect the second half to generate more cargo traffic," Mr Pichai said.

The airline will be earmarking an exclusive portion in the Boeing freighter to stack up heavy-density cargoes, for which it will be charging a premium. "We see a lot of potential in using this space for carrying aircraft engines of various airlines for maintenance and repair to different places in Asia. We will also be carrying high-density engineering and machinery components," Mr Pichai said.

Emirates Airline launches new global brand platform

Emirates Airline has launched a new global brand platform and direction, themed "Hello Tomorrow" as the airline embarks on an integrated marketing communications campaign, with a new brand promise.

Under the company's strategy to evolve from a travel brand to a global lifestyle brand, the platform has been designed for the age of consumer engagement and empowerment.

"Our new corporate image and global marketing campaign both underline the confidence we have in our existing products and services, and the vision we have for the future growth of the airline," Emirates vice-chairman Sir Maurice Flanagan explained.

"Emirates Airline is not just offering a way to connect people from point A to point B but is the catalyst to connect people's hopes, dreams and aspirations."

Emirates airline has grown from its early days in 1985, when it launched with just two aircraft, to its current status as one of the world's fastest growing airlines with 171 wide-body aircraft including the world's largest fleet of Boeing 777s and A380s.

A brand synonymous with luxury and innovation, Emirates was the first to offer in-flight telephony across all classes, individual TV screens on every seat, First Class suites and an onboard Shower Spa on its A380 aircraft. From its home base in Dubai, Emirates is geographically located within an eight hour direct flight of 75 per cent of the world's population – more distant routes like the Americas are connected to the Dubai hub with long range aircraft that fly the distance direct.

The campaign features print, TV, and digital advertising, including some iconic billboards in New York's Times Square and Milan's central train station. Emirates website has also been refreshed to reflect the 'Hello Tomorrow' messaging.

Reflecting an effort to target a younger audience, the 'Hello Tomorrow' campaign is currently debuting with vignettes of the TV spots on Emirates newly launched Facebook channel. The TV commercials, outdoor and print ads will break today around the world.

Emirates operates flights to Dubai via Larnaca, Cyprus on a daily schedule from Malta.

Zambia keen to promote domestic tourism

The Zambia government is keen to promote domestic tourism, but how is that going to happen? Domestic tourism can be either citizen or resident. Many residents visit the parks and go on holidays. So we need to look at citizens.

The other day I read an article in a newspaper about Kafue National Park. It said:

"The Kafue National Park is the largest in Zambia, covering an area of about 22,480 square kilometers. It is the second largest park in Africa and is home to more than 55 different species of animals.

"Kafue National Park is the oldest and largest national park in Zambia. It was proclaimed on April 28, 1950 by Government Notice Number 108 of 1950 under the Game Ordinance, Chapter 106 of the Laws of Zambia. Its National Park status was underlined on February 25, 1972 under the National Parks and Wildlife Act and the original proclamation was revised on April 16, 1993, in Statutory Instrument No. 58 of 1993 establishing it as National Park No. 11, according to Zambia Wildlife Authority, 2010."

Absolutely no one who reads the article is going to be enthused about a visit to Kafue National Park. So our first job is to get journalists into the parks so that they can write from the heart and not regurgitations from stock articles.

The second, and biggest, problem is that most of our parks have lost their low-cost facilities. Most parks used to have camps like the ones in Zimbabwe. But they have gone – they have all become ZAWA Camps. Notable examples are Lochinvar Lodge and Ngoma Lodge. I have met very few Zambians who will happily pile a tent into their car and go off into the bush. In fact, when I chat to friends, they laugh at me and my trips. It is totally beyond their comprehension that I can pitch my tent in the middle of the bush and have a good time.

So, we need low-cost chalets to be constructed in the parks. The Wildlife Society has a few camps, which are generally used by school children… from private schools…, but we need more.

Thirdly, the costing structure has to be revised. For years the rates have been "designed" to maximize income. Residents are classed as "foreigners" and are expected to pay more. Other countries put residents and citizens together, which is much fairer. Residents live and work under the same economic conditions as citizens. There is no reason to class them differently. In fact, for us in Livingstone, residents tend to feel offended when we are expected to pay US$15 per person to go into the Mosi-oa-Tunya Park for a couple of hours. It is residents who are likely to bring "friends and family" to Zambia to visit, so their appreciation of the parks has to be promoted by lower fees.

To promote tourism industry Zambian government encourage the tourist from all over the world by facilitating in getting the visa and consequently cheap flights to Zambia from different destination around the world. For getting more information regrading Zambia Tourism, booking holidays packages and cheap flights to Zambia tourist destination you can call our reservation experts on 02079936219 or visit our website www.flightsmaster.co.uk.

Etihad Airways expands codesharing with Brussels Airlines

Etihad Airways is growing its European reach with the expansion of a codeshare with Brussels Airlines.

The agreement with the Belgian carrier now includes services to the French regional cities of Lyon, Marseille and Toulouse.

These are in addition to Brussels Airlines' services to Barcelona, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Madrid, Oslo and Stockholm, on which Etihad Airways already codeshares.

The Gulf carrier's president and chief executive James Hogan said: "This adds three very popular destinations to the Etihad Airways network, and opens up more of Europe for our customers.

"This expansion is as a natural next step in what has been a very successful partnership since 2006, and we look forward to continuing to work with Brussels Airlines to also enable passengers from various points on their network to travel to Abu Dhabi and further afield."

Etihad operates eight weekly Abu Dhabi-Brussels flights in a two-class aircraft configuration.

The airline owns nearly 30% of Europe's sixth largest carrier airberlin and 40% of Air Seychelles.

Iberia Airline will begins Flights to Accra from Madrid in July

Accra-Ghana: Madrid-based Airline, Iberia, is set to begin scheduled flights to Accra from Madrid from July this year.

The airline will however start its operations in partnership with British Airways which merged with Iberia in 2010.

Ghana's commercial manager for British Airways James Wooldridge told Joy Business they will offer seamless travelling experience to their passengers.

He added that Iberia hopes to capitalize on the structures of British Airways to reduce their cost of operations

About 40 airlines could be operating from the Kotoka International Airport by the close of this year as four international airlines are due to start operations. They include: China Eastern Airlines, Qatar Airways, Air Canada and Royal Jordanian Airlines

United continues international network shifts and drops flights to Accra in Ghana

United is moving international capacity around its largest hubs in what appears to be an effort to maximize its network now that a crucial passenger service system cutover is complete. The IT system cutover allows United and Continental, whose merger is now complete, to fully utilize the combined networks and properly cross-fleet to operate optimal-sized aircraft in United's markets. One of the more prominent changes is the elimination of flights to Accra from United's Washington Dulles hub, which was the carrier's first point in Africa when the route was launched in 2010. Other changes include the seasonal elimination of flights from Washington to Moscow and from Newark to Rome.

The changes will support an overall revised capacity forecast for United this year. The carrier has refined its 2012 capacity guidance from an overall decrease of 0.5% to 1.5%, compared with a previous estimate of between growth of 0.5% and a drop of 0.5%. United's international capacity is now projected to grow this year by 0.3% to 1.3%, but some of that will be driven by new long-haul flights from Washington Dulles to Doha beginning in May, followed by Dulles to Manchester and Dublin.

United has just introduced flights from its Newark hub, which was a legacy Continental stronghold, to Buenos Aires. The new service is in essence a route transfer from United's Washington Dulles hub. Flights to Buenos Aires from Continental's legacy Houston hub, which is the carrier's gateway from Latin America, are remaining intact.

US DoT data show for 2011 United's load factor on the Washington-Buenos Aires pairing was roughly 70.5%, while the Houston flights recorded loads of 79%. The New York market is much larger than the Washington, DC metro market, so United saw an opportunity to increase passenger flows by moving the flights to Newark. It has a broader international footprint from Newark, which allows a wider breadth of passengers from Europe to connect to the Buenos Aires flights.

Feed to and from Latin America is becoming increasingly important to United and all US carriers operating to and from the region, since its performance has remained consistent while traffic to other regions has suffered due to economic uncertainty. IATA's figures show traffic growth to Latin America of 7.6% in January and 13.3% in February, though the association did warn February traffic levels where somewhat inflated due to the Brazilian carnival holiday occurring a month earlier in 2012.

United has said that Latin America was its best performing entity during the fourth quarter and full year 2011. United earlier reported that passenger unit revenue grew in Latin America by 11.7% year-over-year for 4Q2011 and 17.6% for the full year.