Business travel

Expected to open early next year, the Fairmont Windsor Park is set to become a new venue for chic weekends in the English countryside, as well as for top-of-the-range meetings with its wing entirely dedicated to events.

Qatar Airways is bringing its Airbus A380s back into service out of sheer necessity. The airline has been grounding its fleet of Airbus A350s since August. And it now has to face up to a return in demand...

The IHG group is strengthening its hybrid meetings offering by deploying the Weframe technology solution in several hotels in Europe. This solution facilitates collaboration between remote and face-to-face participants.

The contemporary, upmarket ME by Melia brand is opening a new design hotel in Barcelona, overlooking Passeig de Gracia. The programme includes 164 rooms and suites, trendy restaurants and 3,000 m2 of open-air spaces.

Crowne Plaza, IHG's predominantly business brand, has opened a 220-room hotel in Budapest, with 13 meeting rooms and a Plaza Workspace.

The fact that fully vaccinated foreign travellers have been able to return to the United States since 8 November has led to an increase in the number of flights from Paris operated by Air France.

La Compagnie, whose momentum was cut short by the health and regulatory situation, will finally be able to launch its Paris-Tel Aviv flight at the beginning of December.

Finnair will also be introducing bus services to replace certain domestic flights from 2022. These bus routes will only be offered to connecting passengers. 

In 2022, the Accor group will celebrate thirty years of the Sofitel brand in Greater China. At the same time, it will be inaugurating a new business travel stronghold: the Sofitel North Bund hotel in Shanghai.

The CEO of Brazilian airline Azul said in an interview that he wanted to acquire LATAM, South America's leading carrier. And thus create a new global airline giant.

In response to an outbreak of cases of Covid infection across the Channel, the Paris Police Prefecture set up a screening centre at the Gare du Nord for unvaccinated travellers from the UK on 1 November. 

As part of the transition from commuting to soft mobility, the SNCF Assistant app will be trialling a new payment method at the end of the year: the Edenred Ticket Mobilité.

The Kempinski luxury group will open its eightieth hotel in Tel Aviv next February. A luxurious urban resort with 250 rooms, including many suites, which also has a top-of-the-range meeting space.

From new concepts at Campanile to the launch of the Hosho and Tulip Residences brands, Françoise Houdebine, Vice President Sales and Marketing at Louvre Hotels Group, reviews the latest innovations from the hotel group.

Swiss is offering a new "Airportr option", enabling business travellers to leave their baggage at home and collect it at the arrival airport.

Air Canada and Air Transat have announced new routes linking Montreal and Quebec City to Europe, underlining the expected upturn in traffic in 2022.

Thalys is returning to good volumes despite a slight delay in the business segment due to travel restrictions from major accounts and teleworking. The rail company is counting on its new Ruby trains to win them over and push its advantage over air travel on its long-distance routes.

Accor, IHG, Hilton: all these groups saw a rebound in business in the third quarter. Mainly due to domestic leisure tourism this summer, this recovery was also helped by the return of business customers and events from September onwards.

Renfe, Spain's national railway company, has set its sights on competing with Eurostar on a route that was very lucrative before the health crisis: the Paris-London route.

On 1 November, Welkin and Meraki opens a new coworking space at La Défense. Alain Brossé, CEO of the premium brand, talks about its strategy, its evolution in the face of the crisis, and his vision of the market.