Business travel

AirMundo has published its ranking of the most expensive cities for a taxi journey between the airport and the city centre. Milan and London are the most expensive destinations in Europe, with Paris CDG in tenth place.

Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, has become the African city with the highest average room rate, ahead of Accra and Lagos.

Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong airline, is in a delicate position, becoming one of the first victims of the social and political crisis in the former British territory, at a time when it has been ordered by Beijing to take a stand against the demonstrators.

Faced with heavy losses, Thai Airways International is seeking to maximise its revenues. Following the example of other carriers, the airline is now offering certain privileged seats and the possibility of upgrades, all for a surcharge. However, it is not abandoning its long-haul flights, as it will be increasing to ten weekly flights to Paris this winter.

It is the first airport to take this step. On 20 August, San Francisco International Airport will be banning plastic water bottles and at the same time stepping up its policy of reducing single-use plastics. The aim is to become a zero-waste, CO2-neutral airport by 2021.

Hotels, train stations, airports: coworking facilities are springing up all over the place in these major business hubs.

Large companies are turning to coworking spaces to stimulate their sense of innovation, while at the same time appreciating this flexible real estate solution that allows them to scale up or down according to the economic climate.

The opposition movement against the Hong Kong government, which has been going on for nine weeks now, will be concentrating on the airport this weekend, with an occupation of the terminals. This will automatically cause delays and serious problems for access to the airport and passenger check-in.

Audrey Barbier-Litvak, WeWork's Managing Director for Southern Europe, describes the strengths of the global coworking giant, including its design space and community spirit, its offering for large companies and its expansion in France and around the world.

As part of its strategic acquisitions programme, Europcar is to gain a foothold in the United States through the purchase of Fox Rent A Car.

While Swiss will be flying to Washington and Osaka next spring, Lufthansa will be opening around ten new routes from Frankfurt and Munich at the same time.

Easyjet is to further strengthen its presence at Berlin airports. In particular, the low-cost airline is targeting business customers, who account for more than a third of its total passengers to the German capital. All this while awaiting the opening of the new airport, scheduled for October 2020. And finally...

After two years closed for renovation, the legendary Raffles hotel in Singapore reopened its doors at the beginning of August, offering 115 suites designed by Alexandra Champalimaud.

While the ADP group is putting the finishing touches to Beijing Daxing airport, the Chinese capital's new international hub, airlines are beginning to publish their schedules for the future hub, which is due to welcome its first flights in October.

Etihad is adding a fourth daily flight between Abu Dhabi and London, operated at night from the British capital by Boeing B787.

From 1 June 2020, Air France will offer a daily flight to Seville from Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

The violence and political instability in Hong Kong are beginning to take their toll on the economy and tourism, particularly in the retail and hotel sectors, but not yet in the airline industry. "Business as usual", or almost, for businessmen...

SNCF has just approved the purchase of twelve new TGV Océane trainsets, due to go into service in 2021. Investment: 335 million euros.

The referendum organised by the SNPL Air France concerning the future of Transavia has produced a largely positive result. The French low-cost airline will be able to develop with a fleet whose number of aircraft will no longer be limited.

Tags equipped with RFID chips: this is what Air France and Paris Aéroport are working on to improve baggage handling at the Paris CDG hub from 2020.