Business travel

Heathrow Express workers are preparing to take further strike action on 24 and 25 March, which will disrupt links between London airport and the city centre.

Air France's digital showcase recently won the Travel d'Or 2012 award for the best website in the airline category.

Voyages-Sncf recently won the European Commission's "European Journey Planner" competition with its Mytripset tool: a multimodal travel planner that combines different types of transport for an efficient journey.

Air France has just announced the seventh summer destination to be served by the A380: business travellers to Singapore will be able to enjoy the comfort of the new aircraft from 1 January.^er April.

The Park Hyatt Sydney recently reopened its doors after several months of refurbishment, and is now committed to eco-responsibility, while offering travellers even greater comfort.

Productivity, speed, economy and ecology: Thalys is playing its cards close to its chest in order to convince travel managers of the added value of the red train. A study published on 15 March by the rail company, "Pour repenser le temps de transport" ("Rethinking travel time"), attempted to measure the differences between the Thalys and the plane in the context of a business trip, with its specific imperatives.

Lufthansa recently presented its new business seat, which can be fully converted into a comfortable and particularly long bed at the touch of a button.

The Carlson Rezidor group recently opened the Park Inn by Radisson, Fresno: the brand's first hotel in the Californian market.

With just a few days to go before its official launch, Global Hotel Exchange has welcomed a major new addition: the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.

The Balladins hotel group announced on Wednesday that it was adding two new establishments to its network: hotels based in Marseille Saint Charles and Reims Nord la Neuvillette.

Emirates will soon be offering an enhanced service between Rome and Dubai, with three flights a day to facilitate business travel to the Gulf countries.

A new Mandarin Oriental will open its doors in Atlanta next May, in the Buckhead district.

Just as in London, where hotel rates are rising in the run-up to the Olympic Games, a major sporting event is set to push up travellers' bills in Ukraine and Poland. According to a report published on March 13 by price comparison website Trivago, Euro 2012 has already led to a significant increase in rates.

The Ascott Limited group has announced improved results for 2011, with sales up sharply (+8.8%) on 2010. The past year also enabled the specialist in hotel residences to put in place a refurbishment programme, which is due to continue in 2012.

Yesterday, Iberia management reached an agreement with the pilots' unions to cancel the 24 days initially scheduled over the coming weeks.

The project for a business terminal, which would add to Liège airport's range of services for business travellers, is dividing the airport's management.

A few days after having its access to the IATA clearing house suspended, Kingfisher is affected by a strike launched by its pilots.

Dubai's hotel industry is definitely not in the doldrums. Quite the contrary: the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) announced at the ITB trade fair in Berlin that it was the world's leading destination at the start of 2012.

According to the Financial Times, seven European heavyweights in the aviation sector are calling on Europe to reconsider its plans for a carbon tax, stressing the economic consequences of the issue.