Business travel

The Marriott group plans to quadruple its portfolio in Vietnam, with around thirty hotels in the pipeline, notably in Hanoi, Danang and Cam Ranh.

Deutsche Bahn has improved its business in 2021, particularly with more passengers on its long-distance lines. The company's CEO, Richard Lutz, believes that in 2022 the German rail company should post a profit, while the German government wants to speed up the modernisation of DB.

Emirates has introduced a fleet of mobile check-in kiosks to streamline the passenger experience at the Dubai hub.

Queues of passengers all the way outside the terminal, waiting up to three hours to pass through security, and crowded concourses with reports of fainting and vomiting. This seems to have become the daily lot of passengers departing from Manchester airport...

Air France has announced that its summer schedule is almost back to pre-Covid crisis levels, with almost 200 destinations. Business will even be higher than before the crisis on routes to North America, Africa, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean.

Choice Hotels, Hyatt, IHG, Wyndham: through new brands and extensive development plans, American hotel groups are continuing to drive growth in the extended-stay hotel sector in the United States.

Eurowings, the German low-cost subsidiary of the Lufthansa group, prefers to concentrate on the French regions rather than Paris. The only new feature this summer is the launch of a Nice-Stockholm flight and more frequencies between Lyon and Düsseldorf.

The European Commission has approved the planned merger between the two railway companies, in which SNCF is the reference shareholder. However, passengers will have to wait until 2024 to benefit from the new services offered by this single operator.

With more criteria linked to sustainable development, many of which are mandatory, more digital services, and the inclusion of shared facilities, the new hotel classification is moving with the times.

Etihad Airways has flown its very first Airbus A350-1000, a particularly fuel-efficient aircraft that offers even greater comfort. The aircraft was in Paris for this inaugural flight only.

KLM and Thalys are stepping up their cooperation on the Brussels-Amsterdam Schiphol rail link, with a view to optimising connections.

The Adagio aparthotel brand has inaugurated its first Coliving flat, designed specifically for business groups, with a communal area conducive to work and conviviality and rooms designed as intimate bubbles.

Royal Air Maroc and oneworld celebrated the airline's integration into the alliance in Lagos on Friday. The airline joined the alliance two years ago, but its strategic importance to the two partners merited a spotlight.

Karim Benchekroun, CFO of Royal Air Maroc, was in Lagos on Friday to celebrate the airline's integration into oneworld. This was an opportunity for Voyages d'Affaires to review the importance of this partnership for the carrier and its business travellers, and to take stock of RAM's situation and ambitions.

Hilton's Tapestry Collection is expanding near Venice with the addition of the Ambasciatori Venice Mestre, an 83-room hotel currently being renovated and equipped with three meeting rooms.

The airports association ACI Europe is speaking out against the closure of short-haul routes and their transfer to rail. A study attempts to demonstrate the limited environmental benefits of this type of transfer.

Following an agreement with property investor Covivio, budget brand B&B Hotels is to take over the management in France of a portfolio of 31 hotels formerly under the Accor banner.

Accor is extending its footprint in the Balkans with a Mövenpick in Zagreb's new business district and a five-star MGallery design hotel in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second largest city.

The Radisson Red lifestyle brand has set up shop in the Austrian capital with a 179-room hotel complete with meeting facilities and topped by a rooftop bar with a view.

Thai Airways International is back to more normal operations with the summer schedules. In particular, the national carrier is resuming its daily frequency to Paris CDG, while Bangkok is regaining its position as an international hub.