Business travel

Scandinavian Airlines is launching a new top-of-the-range service for French business travellers: transfer by chauffeur-driven saloon car to and from Paris-CDG and Nice-Côte d'Azur airports, backed up where necessary by a personalised assistance service to simplify airport formalities.

In 2017, the Marriott group plans to open a new Edition hotel in the heart of New York, in Times Square, two years after the inauguration of the brand's first representative in Manhattan.

On Thursday 23 January, EasyJet begins selling tickets for the new Montpellier-Rome route, which will start operating on 15 June.

The first Renaissance hotel opened recently in Aix-en-Provence, with 133 rooms just a stone's throw from the Cours Mirabeau.

The routes operated by HOP! from Montpellier Méditerranée airport are benefiting from strong demand from business travellers: passenger numbers increased by 60% between April and December 2013.

A new reference in the world of business travel has entered the App Store and Google Play catalogues: Lyria has just launched its new mobile application, to make it easier for business travellers to access the products and services of the Franco-Swiss company.

Taxi drivers are mobilising on Monday 13 January against the unfair competition from chauffeur-driven vehicles (VTCs). Several demonstrations are planned in major French cities - including Lyon, Marseille and Bordeaux - and in Paris, where strikers met early this morning at Roissy-CDG and Orly.

The Courtyard and Residence Inn hotels took up residence in New York at the beginning of January in a 68-storey building, making it the tallest hotel in the Big Apple.

The Hilton Group opened the doors of the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel & Conference Center on 6 January. Quite simply the largest hotel in the city, with no fewer than 829 rooms and XXL facilities for hosting MICE events.

The Radisson Blu Jeddah Al Salamah and Park Inn by Radisson Riyadh will open their doors in 2015 and 2016 respectively, once again demonstrating the ambitions of the Carlson Rezidor group in Saudi Arabia.

On the eve of its twentieth anniversary, Eurostar has just completed a particularly successful year in 2013, carrying more than 10 million passengers for the first time in its history.

The Intercontinental Davos hotel opened its doors at the end of December in the Swiss Alps, and is expected to attract a large number of MICE events.

The Accor group is strengthening its position in Berlin by rebranding the Hotel Concorde as a Sofitel. The hotel will be renamed Sofitel Berlin Kurfürstendamm from 1 January.^er February next year. It will have 311 rooms, including 44 suites, as well as sixteen conference areas and a reception hall.

Good news for business travellers: following in the footsteps of Bouygues and SFR, Orange recently announced that it had signed an agreement with RATP to roll out 3G and 4G in the Paris metro and RER.

The Starwood group will be making its debut in Slovenia this year with the opening of the 114-room Four Points by Sheraton Ljubljana Mons hotel, located halfway between the city centre and the Slovenian capital's airport.

Lyria will finally put its Euroduplexes into service on the Paris-Geneva route on 29 December. The new third-generation trains will operate two round trips a day, helping to further improve the quality of business travel between France and Switzerland.

Singapore Airlines has unveiled its new business lounge concept with the inauguration of a refurbished SilverKris lounge.

The first Israeli Ritz Carlton opened its doors on 17 December in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

Ukraine International Airlines is increasing its schedule on the Paris-Kiev route, with the addition of three new direct flights from 27 April 2014.

From the "all-car" to the notion of mobility, from the "bagnole" to car-sharing in electric vehicles, our relationship with the automobile is changing. Welcome to the world of the intelligent car.