Business travel

Crowned in June for its punctuality rate, Iberia relinquished first place in the Flightstats rankings to Saudi Arabian for July.

Air Berlin is putting its Business Class up for auction. The airline is now offering passengers the chance to bid for an upgrade to Business Class on long-haul flights. The new service, dubbed Airberlin exquisite, is still unprecedented in Germany but has already been tried out by other airlines.

The Al Mourjan business lounge was inaugurated this week by Qatar Airways at the new Hamad International Airport. Once again, the airline has spared no expense, both in terms of space and top-of-the-range facilities to welcome business travellers from all over the world in the best possible conditions. A must for the new airport inaugurated in the second quarter of 2014.

A partnership between RATP, its advertising agency Média Transports and Orange has resulted in a particularly welcome experiment for business travellers: the introduction of free Wi-Fi on board the Roissybus.

The first half of 2014 was a good one for Thalys. The rail company recorded an increase in traffic and sales.

Business travellers can now enjoy free, unlimited access to the wifi network when passing through Munich airport.

Hilton is making a major breakthrough in the integration of mobile technologies within the business hotel sector, with new features long-awaited by business travellers, in particular room selection and the use of smartphones for check-in and door opening.

On 29 July, Egencia and Hyatt formalised the signing of a multi-year agreement to integrate the American hotelier's properties into the Egencia Preferred Rate (EPR) programme of the business travel agency, starting in August.

Parisian motorists will soon have access to a new parking meter system, via the PMobile application, which will offer greater flexibility and responsiveness. The first full-scale tests are scheduled for the autumn.

Eurostar this week confirmed its decision to link Marseille to London from 1 January.^er May 2015. It remains to be seen exactly what this new route will entail, particularly in terms of the frequency offered to business travellers.

Airbnb continues to occupy centre stage in the media. A few days after presenting its new visual identity, the collaborative booking platform is openly attacking the business travel clientele, via a partnership with Concur and a new page dedicated to business travel. More than thirty companies - including Evernote and Lyft - have already signed contracts with the new giant of accommodation 2.0. 

On Friday, Air France-KLM announced the group's results for the first half of 2014, marked in particular by an increase in turnover (+1% to 12.01 billion euros). These results show a marked improvement, with operating losses falling as the group's productivity improves. All that remains to be seen now is the new strategic direction of the Air France-KLM group, which will unveil its "Perform 2020" plan in September, following on from "Transform 2015".

Five years on, the Club Accorhotels loyalty programme has more than 15 million members. Isabelle Birem, Accor's Customer Relations and Loyalty Director, takes a look at this free, flexible and increasingly digital programme.

Frankfurt airport welcomed 5.6 million passengers in June, taking the German hub's half-year total to a record 27.8 million.

ARCEP (Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques et des postes) has given the go-ahead for airlines to offer 3G and 4G access on board their aircraft.

Air France was awarded two prestigious trophies at the World Airline Awards organised by Skytrax on 15 July in London. The La Première lounge at Roissy-CDG is now considered to be the best first-class lounge in the world.

Eurostar has posted positive results for the first half of 2014, with an increase in sales (+0.51 %) and passenger numbers (+2%). These good results have not gone unnoticed by corporate customers, with business travel recording above-average growth.

According to FlightStats, Iberia topped the list of the world's most punctual airlines in June.