Business travel

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.

Europcar and car2go, the Smart car rental service available directly in the city, are launching a joint venture, which will make its debut in Lyon in early 2012.

The inauguration of a fourth runway at Frankfurt airport on Friday is likely to be marred by the curfew recently imposed by an administrative court, which takes effect on 21 October.

A TravelZoo survey highlights the general public's lack of interest in, and even rejection of, in-flight connectivity, including Internet access.

The Andaz brand is making its debut in China with the opening of its first hotel in Shanghai to cater for a fast-growing business clientele.

On Wednesday, SNCF published a positive balance sheet, with an increase in sales over the first nine months of the year and growth across the board.

Aéroports de Paris released its results for September 2011 on Wednesday, showing an overall increase in passenger traffic (+6.1%) compared with 2010.

On Monday, SNCF announced two appointments to its senior management team. David Azema and Alain Picard will be responsible for meeting the new challenges facing the railway company as it opens up to competition.

The hotel price barometer published on 17 October by Trivago highlights the general fall in rates in October compared with the same month last year.