Business travel

Gulf Air is improving its offer for frequent flyers by extending the Falcon Gold upgrade to its entire network.

On Friday, Peugeot and car rental company Europcar took a further step towards making business travel more environmentally friendly. The two historic partners launched the Peugeot iOn, a 100% electric car, on the Europcar France market at the headquarters of the marque au lion.

Four unions have given notice of strike action at SNCF for a day of action scheduled for 8 November. The CGT, CFDT, CFTC and Unsa unions intend to denounce the approaching liberalisation of the railways.

Air France has finally reacted to the strike notice maintained by two cabin crew unions. In a press release published on Thursday 27 October, the airline deplores the fact that its customers "are being held hostage under these conditions", while planning to operate 80% of traffic on Saturday 29 October.

The Hilton hotel group is aiming to win the hearts and minds of its business clientele by launching a major charm campaign until the end of November. The "Become a millionaire... with Hilton HHonors!" offer enables organisers of business events to add to their customer accounts, with 1 million points at stake.

The hotel industry once again benefited from an increase in business travel bookings in September, according to figures published this week by Pegasus Solutions.

Air France is reportedly preparing to massively reduce its offer for business travellers on the Paris-Bangkok route. The Thai capital would lose its status as a business destination in the airline's logic, which would soon be reducing the frequency of its flights and the number of business seats in the interests of profitability.

Iberia is overhauling its frequent flyer programme to enable business travellers to benefit from their miles, renamed "Avios", for longer and more efficiently. The Spanish airline is thus moving towards greater consistency with British Airways, its partner within IAG.

Thomas Drexler has been appointed Director of Rail at the Amadeus Group. He joins the "New Businesses" department.

Marseille's elected representatives have approved the tramway extension project, with the launch of a line linking the Canebière to Place Castellane as a first step.

Voyages SNCF is getting involved in social commerce with the launch of "Petits Voyages entre amis", available from Monday on Facebook. The new application is designed to make it easier to organise group travel.