Asia

In the 17th century, Ngawang Namgyal unified the "Land of the Thunder Dragon" and created a network of dzongs across Bhutan. Like the Rimpung Dzong in Paro, these fortresses had several functions. One was, of course, to protect the valleys from invasions from neighbouring Tibet, but they also served to house...

Bangkok Airways is currently facing very stiff competition in its domestic and regional markets. How is the airline coping? Peter Wiesner - I think we are resisting the competition well because we remain a niche airline, defined by a high-quality product, a network of secondary destinations...

Already present on the Vienna-Beijing route, with five flights a week, Austrian Airlines is preparing to take a new step in its Asian development. On 4 April, the Austrian carrier will be making its grand return to Shanghai with a Boeing 777. Austrian Airlines will operate five flights a week, and will soon be increasing the number of flights to...

Still unknown to the average traveller just a few years ago, Baku is gradually emerging from anonymity at the cost of heavy investment. Oil and gas, the two local treasures, have largely contributed to attracting the major players in the Azerbaijan energy market. Above all, they have given the authorities the means to...

This change affects five European Union countries. In addition to France, these are Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK. Belarus is also exempt from the visa requirement. The measure was adopted at a time when Vietnam's tourism figures are showing a sharp fall in arrivals. Since the beginning of the year,...

In 2012, China Eastern Airlines, Qantas and gambling tycoon Stanley Ho, who owns one of the biggest hotel and casino portfolios in Macau, formed a joint venture to create Jetstar Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Australian low-cost group Jetstar - itself a subsidiary of Qantas. Cathay Pacific has put all its...

For the past ten days or so, Cathay Pacific has been welcoming business travellers to an exclusive new space on level 3 of the Departures Hall in Bangkok. 170 Business and First passengers can be seated in 679 m² of space, with a view of the runways, designed by the London firm Studioilse. The colours and...

How is the French market faring for Thai Airways in 2015? Jean-Michel Nasse - Since the start of the year, the French market has been very soft, especially on the leisure side. Thailand is struggling to get back to the level it was at before the political events at the end of 2013. Overall French BSP revenue for this destination...

Getting there Few airlines land at Ulan Bator's Chinggis Khan airport, where the only international flag carriers are Areoflot, Air China, Korean Air and Turkish Airlines. From Paris, business travellers therefore have to transit via Moscow, Beijing, Seoul or Istanbul to reach Mongolia. Alternatively...

Air China is continuing its seduction operation in European skies. A few weeks after the introduction of a daily frequency between Beijing and Milan, it is now Paris's turn to benefit from the Chinese carrier's growing power in the European market. On 1 June, Air China is launching its second daily flight...

Malaysia Airlines, which has been making losses for several years now, urgently needs to reinvent itself and shake off an image that is now strongly linked to the two terrible accidents that plunged it into mourning last year - the disappearance of the plane on the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route in March and the destruction by a missile of...

The new Premium Economy class will make its debut on the Singapore Airlines network on 9 August on the Singapore-Sydney route. French business travellers will be able to discover it on departure from Paris at the end of September, and even on a daily basis from October. They will discover seats from...

According to Ludovic Froidure, Director of France at Korean Air, the Airbus A380 has played a major role in boosting Korean Air's appeal in France. "Very quickly, it was decided that the A380 in service since March 2014 on this route would be in permanent rotation on Seoul-Paris. It's true that this aircraft acts like a real magnet...

How important is Asia for Air France in terms of passenger traffic and capacity? Patrick Roux - Asia Pacific for Air France-KLM represents 20 destinations, i.e. more than 220 weekly flights from our hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol, and nearly 300 flights with our...

The Pearl River Delta region, with a population of some 120 million, encompasses the province of Guangdong (Canton) in southern China as well as the territories of Hong Kong, Macau and the cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, two cities with special status. In 2012, with a population representing just 4.2 % of...

A common visa within the ASEAN Economic Community? "Not easy to put in place, because such a measure requires the involvement of many ministries, including finance, interior and immigration, and tourism. We've been talking about it for three or four years now, but I have to say that there has been little...

The launch of the first ASEAN air pass seems a natural extension, since the group, which was founded a dozen years ago in Malaysia, has since set up subsidiaries in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, and continues to keep a close eye on other countries such as Myanmar (Burma). In mid-February, the carrier officially...

The ambitious Beijing New Airport Terminal project now has a face: a few months after being appointed to lead the design of China's new airport hub alongside ADPI, Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled the first photos, available on its website. Based in Daxing, this new gateway will...

The brand new Premium Economy class will be introduced by Singapore Airlines on the Singapore-Sydney route, and will be fitted on the airline's Airbus A380s, Boeing 777-300ERs and future Airbus A350s. It will make its debut in Paris a month later, with three flights a week, before being introduced on a daily basis from the start of...