In Brief On The Move

In Brief

MAXjet shares suspended

Shares in MAXjet, the all-business class transatlantic airline, were suspended on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market.

The reason given by the carrier was the need for "clarification of its financial position."

But MAXjet said its flights would continue to operate normally and there were no plans to later the schedules.

MAXjet began services between London Stansted and New York in 20-05 and now runs 34 flights a week to and from the US.

French hotels booming

Hotels in France are enjoying a boom time with revenue par available room (revPAR) expected to rise by 9.6% in November following a 14.3% increase in October, according to consultants MKG Hospitality.

Despite some social unrest in Paris, MKG  said French hotels saw a 2.3% increase in occupancy during November and a 5.9% rise in room rates.

The consultants said after an increase of 9.2% for the year so far, revPAR was now nearing its record increase of 9.4% in 2000.

The survey said the mid- and upmarket properties were benefiting most from the good times.

Occupancy in four-star hotels in November stood at 70.5%, a rise of 3.9% compared with November 2006 while revPAR had increased by 12.5% since last year to €131.6.

HRG Nigeria buys rival

HRG Nigeria has bought a 75% stake in rival travel management company Navigator World Travel Centre.

The purchase gives HRG Nigeria extra bases in Lagos and Enugu in the east of the country.

Alice Mbanefo, formerly managing director and now chairman of Navigator,  said: "Navigator is a very successful company in its own right but we believe that the time is right for us to take the next step in our development and join a company with a reputation as good as HRG Nigeria and one that has shown such vision/growth."

Olufemi Adefope, managing director of HRG Nigeria, said: "This acquisition further strengthens our expertise and client service capabilities and enhances our presence in Eastern Nigeria, an area of continued growth and development."

* HotelREZ, a hotel sales and marketing company, said it had selected HRG to provide it with its automated expense management solution.

Business travel boosts Whitbread sales

Sustained demand from the corporate market helped Whitbread's premier Inns helped increase sales by 15% in the 39 weeks to November 29.

The company said that like for like sales at its budget hotel chain rose by 10.8% compared wit the same period on 2006.

Alan Parker, Whitbread's ceo, said corporate demand had pushed occupancy up by 0.5% to 82.7%.

He added: "Expansion is ahead of plan with some 3,500 rooms to be opened this year against our target of 3,000, assisted by the Tulip Inn hotels acquisition in the UK and Ireland announced in September 2007.

"From in depth research of the UK hotel market we are confident that there is a substantial opportunity for the long-term development of Premier Inn."

Another new partner for ITP

ITP-International Travel Partnership has signed another new partner. It is the sixth to join the fast expanding global consortium of business travel management companies this year.

The newcomer, Monaco Travel and Tourism in Kuwait, brings the total of ITP partners to 29.

Monaco also becomes ITP's third partner in the Middle East, joining agencies from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (Dubai).

Monaco was founded in 1992 and handles all aspects of business travel from ticketing to meetings and event management.

Mr Ian Epps, ITP's director of partnership relations, said: "Monaco Travel is a travel management company with clear ambitions for the future in a fast developing market.

"Many multinational companies have a presence in Kuwait and it is important that ITP has a strong partner there."

Accor opens 12 Pullman brand properties

French hotel group Accor has opened 12 of its new upmarket hotel brand Pullman.

The new properties are in Paris (4), Marseille (2), Toulouse, Cologne, Dortmund, Brussels, Bangkok and Donqquan in China.

The group plans to expand the non-standardised brand targeted at business travellers to 50 in 23 countries by the end of 2008 and to 300 hotels by 2015.

Galileo rail tool supplants Worldspan's

Travelport is supplanting Worldspan's UK rail booking tool with one from its other GDS Galileo.

The company, which completed the purchase of Worldspan earlier this year, will make the Galileo tool available to all Worldspan agents by the end of the year.

Patrick Lukan, general manager UK andIreland for Travelport GDS, said: "The Galileo and Worldspan teams have been working hard to combine their expertise to offer agents and their customers the most effective products in the marketplace.

"The roll out of the Travelport UK Rail booking tool to Worldspan agents is another example of how our integration efforts are focused on making these 'best of breed' products readily available."

SAS expands self print tickets to UK

Scandinavian carrier SAS has expanded its self-print boarding passes to the UK market.

The self-printed passes will be accepted at Heathrow, London City, Aberdeen, Birmingham and Manchester.

The passes can be printed at home or in the office when the passenger checks-in online.

On The Move

Bierwith and Malanik join Austrian management team

Dr Andreas Bierwith and Dr Peter Malanik have joined Austrian Airline senior management team.

Dr Bierwith will tale up the role of chief commercial officer next April while Dr Malanik becomes chief operations officer on January 1, 2008.

Dr Bierwith, 36, is a former managing director of Germanwings, a German low cost carrier, and most recently worked for Lufthansa Passage Airlines as vp marketing.  

Dr Malanik, 46, first joined Austrian since 1985 and became director of commercial and technical staff in 1993.

He left in 1996 to work for the International Air Transport Association in Geneva and then the Association of European Airlines in Brussels

Dr Malanik re-joined Austrian in 2000 and most recently was executive vp and general secretary responsible for international relations and alliances, legal affairs and human resources and organisation.  

ACTEAssociation of Corporate Travel Executives: A non-profit association that represents the global business travel industry. It provides executive-level educational programmes and carries out independent industry research. Its members come from all areas of business travel - from corporate buyers to suppliers. Provides members with a forum for sharing ideas and also offers independent advice. strengthens management team

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has appointed two new members to its international team.

Ronald Kosmahl joins as director global education and research while Kathleen Brannigan becomes senior director global communications.

Mr Kosmahl has previously worked in corporate management for several airlines including Lufthansa, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines in Washington, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich.

Ms Brannigan was previously vp public relations for Greystone Partners, a New York public relations and advertising agency.

She has also worked as a communications director for the US cotton industry and as an editor for Fairchild Publications, both in New York.

Chapman Freeborn recruit Haynes

Chapman Freeborn Air Chartering has appointed Keith Haynes as its new corporate sales director.

Mr Haynes who will be based in the company's head office in Crawley, West Sussex, previously worked in corporate travel for Radius Travel and before that for P&O Travel.

He has also worked for British Caledonian and BA.

* for the latest jobs see BTE's recruitment  site www.businesstraveljobs.com