Business travel

Shenzhen Airlines officially joined the Star Alliance network on 29 November as one of the 27^th member of the alliance.

Ascott is making a big splash in Qatar, with the opening of its first hotel residence in Doha. 

The world of online agencies has a new player in the shape of Capitaine Train. Specialising, as its name suggests, in the sale of train tickets, this young start-up, which has already sold over 100,000 tickets, has no intention of spreading its wings by offering anything other than rail services.

LOT Polish Airlines is launching a new flight between Stuttgart and Warsaw, which could well be of interest to business travellers from Alsace and north-east France in general.

One year after the creation of Mariott Paris Market Sales, Marriott executives met the press in Paris to highlight the role of the French market in the American hotel group's development strategy in Europe. These ambitions are underpinned in particular by the dynamism of the AC and Autograph brands, which in the coming months will contribute to increasing the group's presence in Europe and its proximity to local business travel players.

OpenSkies, the British Airways business airline, is preparing to join the oneworld alliance on 1 January.^er December as an affiliated company.

The Holiday Inn Paris Opéra Grands Boulevards hotel has officially opened after three years of renovation. It replaces the Hôtel Brébant in the centre of Paris.

Hilton Garden Inn is entering the Swiss business travel market with the opening of a new hotel in Davos opposite the congress centre.

The Rezidor group will be opening its first Radisson Blu hotel in Sochi in 2014: a business hotel that will be riding the wave of the Olympic Games.

The Holiday Inn Express Marseille Provence Airport hotel has recently opened its doors to business travellers in Marseille.

Carlson Wagonlit Travel is launching a new website dedicated to business travellers, designed to encourage feedback while guaranteeing compliance with travel policy.

Concur has published its ranking of the most stressful airports in the United States. Chicago O'Hare Airport came top, ahead of Los Angeles International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

The results for the first nine months of the year published by Aéroports de Paris on 15 November were mixed. Traffic stagnated, with limited growth of 1.3%, while financial performance was more positive, with turnover up by 4.9%.

In 2014, the Ascott Group will open the first Citadines hotel residence in Chengdu, China.

The Choice Hotels network comprises twelve establishments in various European countries, including six hotels in France alone.

Passenger traffic at Toulouse-Blagnac airport took off sharply in October (+9.5%), compared with the same period in 2011.

On 12 November, the Hilton Group will inaugurate the new Conrad Hotel in Seoul, within the Seoul International Finance Centre in Yeouido.

The Concorde La Fayette hotel has just adopted a virtual check-in system. The Parisian establishment has become the first four-star hotel in France to use the echeck-in system.