In Brief

Cimoli off Alitalia board

The Italian Government has taken Giancarlo Cimoli, ceo of Alitalia, off the troubled airline's board of directors as it prepares to sell part of its holding.
The chief executive, who has only been in post since 2004, was not among a new five-strong board named by the Italian finance ministry.
The old board collapsed last month after two of its directors, including Jean-Cyril Spinetta, chairman and ceo of Air France, resigned.
The Italian Government is in the process of selling up to 30.1% of its 49.9% stake in Alitalia.
It has cut the original list of 11 bidders to five: AP Holding, Management & Capitali, MatlinPatterson Global Advisers, Texas Pacific Group and UniCredit.
The Government has asked them to submit their rescue plans for the airline by the end of March.

Malev sold to Russo-Hungarian consortium

Malev Hungarian Airlines has been reportedly sold to AirBridge, a Hungarian company backed by Russian airline KrasAir.
The state carrier which is due to join the oneworld Alliance in April, was put up for privatisation by the Hungarian Government.
No details of the deal have been released.

‘Business travellers must play part in combating global warming'

Business travellers must play their part in combating global warming, Stelios Haji-Ioannou,  founder of low cost carrier easyJet, said.
He also hit out at senior executives who used private jets to attend a recent meeting of the World Economic Forum.
Stelios said a global emissions trading scheme which applied to all airlines was needed.
He also said such a scheme should show the difference in emissions between airlines using old and new, more environmentally friendly planes.
In an article in the London Financial Times, he argued that being careful with shareholders' money was also much better for the environment.

SAS Group reports full year net profit

The SAS Group reported a profit of SEK 4.74bm (€518.5m) for 2006, partly due to the sale of its 65% holding in the Rezidor Hotel Group.
Without the hotel sale, the net profits would have been SEK 164m (€18m)
Mats Jansson, the Group ceo, said the improvement in the results over the loss in 2005 was a good sign but conceded that the profits were too low for either shareholders or for future investment.

German software for UK TMCTravel Management Company: An agency which manages business travel for a company.

Partners Software, the Bremen-based IT company, is to provide its LOW.FARE technology to an independent UK travel management company The Appointment Group.
LOW.FARE enables travel consultants to compare traditional scheduled flights with the low-cost carriers on the same route.
If the low-cost option is booked the software will also create a passenger record for mid- and back-office accounting purposes.

Thistle Hotels expands marketing

Thistle Hotels has appointed Connect-Worldwide International to act as its general sales agency to aid its global coverage.
Connect-Worldwide will represent both the Thistle and Guoman brands in 11 markets including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, China, and Japan.

Lanyon buys ETABid

Lanyon, an IT company which offers eRFP tools for corporate bookers, has bought the UK company ETABid.
ETABid is a software company which provides web-based technology for companies which are driving e-procurement.
The purchase enable Lanyon which previously focused on hotel RFPs to branch out into other areas of travel including TMC services, ground transport and car hire.

Air France KLMKoninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Royal Aviation Company) the flag carrier of the Netherlands and a good example of how acronyms can aid simple discourse. report "excellent" third quarter

Air France KLM reported an “excellent” third quarter with turnover up 5.9% to €5.75bn and operating income up 32.2% to €252m, compared to €190m for the same period in 2005.
Then airline said that in the three months to the end of December 31, passenger numbers rose by 4.3% with a 4.7% increase in capacity with a load factor of 79.8%.
During the quarter, the fuel bill rose by 8.3% to €1.08bn compared to €1bn for 2005.

* New jobs on BTE's recruitment site www.businesstraveljobs.com