Business travel

At the Viva Technology event, Air France highlighted its investments in digital development. This strategy will take concrete form in June, with the integration of chatbots and the development of the Facebook Messenger channel.

According to a study published by SoRoom, business travellers are increasingly booking a room by the hour, in the middle of the day, so that they can work in peace and quiet or even hold business meetings.

Teams from SNCF and Deutsche Bahn recently celebrated 10 years of the Alleo commercial alliance.

On 10 June, Air Canada Rouge operated its inaugural flight between Montreal and Marseille, the airline's new seasonal destination.

Singapore Airlines will soon be adding three new flights a week to and from Paris, making a total of ten flights a week between CDG and Singapore.

This weekend Easyjet is inaugurating five new routes at Lille-Lesquin, offering new options to business travellers in the north of France.

Andreas Bergmann, CEO of Lyria, takes stock of the past few months. He also sets out the rail company's objectives for the short and medium term, with a gradual move upmarket and a focus on digital technology. Interview by Stéphane Jaladis.

Thalys has created the intermediate Comfort range to encourage business passengers to switch from 2nd to 1st class, with few services but an attractive fare.

Air France is developing the "After Show" option, which is integrated into Flex and allows business travellers to take a flight after the departure date initially booked.

The AccorHotels group has just signed a contract to build the Sofitel Dubai Wafi, the brand's largest property in the Middle East.

For the past few days, Wow Air has been linking Brussels Zaventem airport with Reykjavík. The aim is to encourage Belgian travellers to use the transatlantic routes offered from the Icelandic hub.

For its arrival in Paris, the Okko Hotels brand has found a choice location, on the outskirts of the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre, to present its all-inclusive design and business hotel concept.

The very first flight of Level, the new long-haul low-cost airline dreamed up by IAG, took place on Thursday 1 June. The airline's Airbus A330-200 left Barcelona in the early afternoon, bound for Los Angeles.

Jet Airways is strengthening its position at London Heathrow by adding a new direct flight to Mumbai. This will be the Indian carrier's third daily service between the two airports.

The low-cost carrier AirAsia is once again trying to launch itself in Vietnam, one of the region's most dynamic markets, while also investing in China.

The Grand Voyageur lounge, which will welcome its first passengers on 8 June, has been entrusted to the management of the Regus group, which has a Regus Express centre with meeting rooms, offices to rent and a coworking space.

Whatever the threats or retaliatory measures against Latin America by Donald Trump's US government, air transport in this part of the world is booming.

The rail company intends to clarify its offer with InOUI, which will represent premium TGV travel from 2 July, while OUIgo will remain dedicated to the low-cost high-speed service. The Voyages-sncf.com website will also be renamed OUI.sncf by the end of 2017.

By dropping the TGV name, SNCF is clarifying its new commercial strategy with a premium service, InOui, and its low-cost counterpart OuiGo.

Lufthansa subsidiary Eurowings is changing its approach to counter the growth in low-cost traffic from Munich. Since the introduction of the summer timetable, the German airline has decided to establish itself at the carrier's two hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.