News in brief from British Airways, ITP, the EU-US Aviation Forum, Advantage and Lodging Econometrics
BA committed to A380 - Walsh
British Airways' ceo Willie Walsh said he remains committed to the A380, despite the airline's poor financial results.
Mr Walsh told reporters BA would not change the order it placed in September 2007 for 12 A380s.
Deliveries are scheduled for 2012.
The A380 offered fuel savings and increased capacity when compared to the B747 "jumbo" jets, Mr Walsh said.
Mr Walsh confirmed that all aircraft deliveries up to 2013 were financed.
www.ba.com [1]
ITP signs Sydney-based Maxim's Travel
International Travel Partnership (ITP) has strengthened its global coverage with addition of Maxim's Travel, a Sydney-based travel agency.
"Maxim's Travel is a well-established travel management company with ambitious plans for the future," Ian Epps, ITP's partnership relations director, said.
"We are pleased to be part of those plans and to have Maxim's Travel as our partner in this very important commercial market."
www.itptravel.net [2] www.maxims-travel.com [3]
EU-US Aviation Forum ends with "no formal conclusions"
The European Commission (EC) said a transatlantic aviation forum in Brussels was a success despite resulting in no firm conclusions.
The two-day EU-US Aviation Forum on Liberalisation and Labour aimed to further understanding of social issues raised by the agreement.
"No formal conclusions to the discussions were agreed," the EC said in a statement.
"However, it is expected that the information exchanged in these helpful and informative discussions will aid in the development of a way forward on these important issues, to be considered in the context of future discussions between the US and the European Union on a second stage agreement."
Experts from Europe and America representing industry, Government and employee groups met to discuss issues such as the protection of jobs.
http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm [4]
Advantage appoints business travel board member
Members of Advantage, which represents small UK travel agencies, have elected Ken McNab as board member for business travel agencies.
He beat former board member and Business Travel Director boss Peter Reglar in a members' poll.
Mr McNab is managing director of The Travel Company Edinburgh.
Ron Marks of Baldwins Travel and Bryony Horden from Tickets Anywhere will represent leisure and retail members.
Global hotel pipeline drops 17%
The global queue of hotel builds and new projects dropped 17% in the first quarter this year, figures from Lodging Econometrics (LE) have found.
The number of rooms being built or planned fell to around 1.5 million in Q1, down from 1.8 million year-on-year.
The US and Asia Pacific, the world's two largest pipelines, showed the steepest declines of 16% and 21% respectively year-on-year.
LE said around 80% of the world's projects are sized 200 rooms or fewer with 26% are destined for the upmarket properties.