In Brief On The Move

CWT reports 45% growth in sales

Carlson Wagonlit Travel (CWT) said its sales volume rose by 45% to $11.bn in the first six months of 2007.
The TMCTravel Management Company: An agency which manages business travel for a company., the second largest in the world, said that new business during the year exceeded $2.2bn.
Carlson said the biggest regional increase was in the US where volume grew by 104%, following the acquisition of Navigant.
But there was 86% growth in Australia, 33% in the UK, 31% in India, 29% in Russia and 25% in China.

Hubert Joly, CWT president and ceo, said: "The growth of CWT in the first part of this year is the result of three factors: solid industry fundamentals, including a strong world economy and its increasing globalisation, the positive effects of the acquisition and successful integration of Navigant, and the success of our strategy focused on delivering the value of effective travel management to corporate clients and government institutions around the world."

Silverjet appoints new finance director

Silverjet, an all-business class transatlantic carrier, has appointed a new finance director, Martin Lynch.
He succeeds John Bavister who joined the Luton-based airline in 2005. A statement by the company said Mr Bavister had resigned.
Mr Lynch, 52, joins Silverjet from Tangney Limited and has previously worked in senior financial positions with XL Leisure Group and BA.
Silverjet also announced a pre-tax loss of £11.9m for the year ended March 30, 2007.

Peter Owen, Silverjet's chairman, said: "In May 2006, we successfully concluded an initial public offering  on the AIM.
"In April 2007, subsequent to the end of this financial year, we successfully raised further funding through a share placing and we continue to receive excellent support from high quality investors."

Lufthansa and HRS team up

German national carrier Lufthansa has teamed up with major hotel booking service HRS to offer customers the facility to book hotels on the airline's website.
The deal gives Lufthansa customers access to more than 225,000 hotels worldwide.
Dirk Verhoeven, Lufthansa's general manager online sales, development and operation, said: "We believe that HRS perfectly complements Lufthansa to make our online presence even more attractive and more customer-friendly."

UK hotels thrive

UK hotels enjoyed a rise in room rates in August, according to new figures form PKF Hotel Consultancy Services.
London saw its room yields rise by 10.7% from £89.46 to £99.02 while rooms rose by 9.3% to £117.75.
Occupancy also rose by 1.3% to 84.1%.
Hotel in Edinburgh and Birmingham also had a good month with the former enjoying 91.5% occupancy and a 5.2% increase in room rate and the latter seeing a 19.5% rise in room yields from £25 to £29.85.
Robert Barnard, a partner at PKF, said: "London hotels bounced back in August albeit as a result of a hefty increase in room rate rather than a significant increase in the number of visitors."

Air Berlin takes over Condor

Low cost carrier Air Berlin has taken over Thomas Cook's stake in rival airline Condor.
The expansion makes Air Berlin one of the largest airlines in Europe.
It said the merger would help expand its long haul operations.
Air Berlin paid Thomas Cook €500m in shares and cash as part of the deal.
But both Air Berlin and Thomas Cook said they expected synergies of €70m from the take over.
Joachim Hunold, Air Berlin's CEO, said: "In light of the quickly progressing concentration process of European aviation, integrating Condor into the Air Berlin Group secures the future for both companies.
"Together, we will achieve international competitiveness. This step makes sense, especially following the takeover of LTU, since it will enable us to offer our clients a more tightly-meshed long-haul flight network."

Whitbread buys Golden Tulips in UK

Whitbread, owners of the UK's largest hotel chain, has bought the six hotels in the UK trading under the Golden Tulip brand.
It also "secured a pipeline" of a further nine hotels in the Tulip group.
The deal which brings in a further 2070 rooms for Whitbread was worth £44m.
 The new acquisitions will be converted to Premier Inns at a cost of £9m, the fist six by the end of the year.

KDS expands in Australia

French IT company KDS has opened an office in Sydney, Australia to boost its service to customers in the Asia Pacific region.
The operation will be run by Emma Magnusson who joins KDS after working for ten years' in the industry.
 

Booking.com signs deal with AF-KLMKoninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Royal Aviation Company) the flag carrier of the Netherlands and a good example of how acronyms can aid simple discourse.

Online hotel booking company Booking.com has signed on with Air France-KLM to provide with customers to the KLM website a choice of 35,000 hotels in 9,000 destinations.

Rapid airport train agreed for Munich

A new high speed rail link is to be built between Munich Airport and the city centre.
The go ahead, after some delay, was finally given to the Transrapid maglev link which will provide a ten minute service between city and airport every ten minutes.

On The Move

Air France-KLM appoints new UK team

Christine Ourmières has been appointed general manager UK and Ireland for Air France-KLM.
For the past two years she has worked in the same role for Air France.
Richard Oliver who was previously general manager for KLM in Dubai, becomes head of  commercial for the two airlines in London.
The UK sales team has been split into business and leisure with Tom Reeves heading up the business team.
The Irish sales team will be run by Boris Darceaux who will be based in Dublin.
Paul Gilliam is head of HR, Naomi Dulfer is public relations manager and Caroline Vanhecke, is customer relations manager.

New manager at Forte's Amigo

Jacques Vitu has been appointed as the new general manager of Rocco Forte's Hotel Amigo in Brussels.
Mr Vitu has worked at the Conrad Hotel in Brussels and, most recently, at the Rezidor Group's properties in Spa, Belgium.
He has also worked for both InterContinental Hotels and Hilton Hotels.

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