Business travel

Lufthansa is changing its service to Saudi Arabia this September, abandoning its services to Kuwait and Bahrain.

With 85 rooms and meeting rooms, the Hyatt Place Rouen has just opened its doors in the Ecole buissonnière, an office complex owned by the Matmut Group.

The Hilton Munich Park is to close its doors for four years as part of the transformation of the Tucherpark business complex into a contemporary living space.

The ban on Western European airlines flying over Russia, combined with the weakness of Chinese outbound tourism, is making it less and less attractive to operate flights to China.

World leader, Marriott has just passed the 9,000 hotel mark. This growth will be supported by a new range of residential flats: Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy.

The national carrier Air Sénégal appears to be in a bad way, according to reports in local newspapers. The company, which is heavily in debt, suspended its flights to New York and Cotonou/Douala/Libreville in mid-September.

Attacks between the Israeli defence forces and Hezbollah over the weekend of 24 and 25 August led to the closure of Beirut and Tel Aviv airports for a few hours. Traffic has since resumed, but some airlines are reluctant to return.

Qatar Airways Group has acquired a 25 % stake in Airlink, a major regional airline in South Africa. The first synergies are already being put in place.

Hilton is adding a second address in Europe for its top-of-the-range budget brand Spark by Hilton. For its part, Hampton is landing at Heathrow.

The Voco brand, part of the IHG Group, is part of a project to transform the former post office building in Angers into a hotel, due to open in 2027.

SBB expects the Gotthard Tunnel to be fully operational again for passenger and freight trains from 2 September.

Singapore Airlines' 2024-2025 winter schedule includes a reduction in capacity to Paris, with 11 flights a week instead of 14 this summer. One of the few European routes affected by a reduction in frequencies this winter. But this should only be temporary.

Marriott has opened its first Moxy address in Chongqing. The hotel group has also unveiled plans to launch another lifestyle brand in another Chinese destination, with a MICE offering in the heart of the business district.

Between September and November, Volotea is inaugurating no fewer than 10 new routes from eight French cities. The new Brest hub is benefiting in particular, as is Orly, which has a new route to Rodez.

Ultra-low-cost carrier Wizz Air is now offering a €599 annual pass for unlimited use of all its routes for one year. There are, however, a number of conditions attached to this "All You Can Fly" offer.

The Domaine du Liziec Vannes, a new MGallery hotel, will open its doors in October, transforming a historic mansion into a top-of-the-range hotel, a verdant estate, meeting rooms and event facilities.

Air France and its subsidiary Transavia have confirmed the suspension of services to Beirut. The national airline is cancelling all its flights to the Sahel and is discontinuing services to Brive, operated by its partner Amelia.

The SNCF and Trenitalia links between Paris and Milan will not be able to reopen in autumn 2024 because of complicated work to make the train traffic area near Modane safe. A new date has been announced for the first quarter of 2025 if all goes well.

While the majority of air routes on the continent are essentially regional, North Africa is the exception when it comes to outbound air capacity, according to OAG.

The tension in the Middle East has led to the cancellation of all Lufthansa Group flights until 13 August, mainly in the Levant region but also to Teheran. Air routes have also been changed to avoid Iran and Iraq.