Brexit

"Don't ever call me Thalys again". On 1 October this year, Thalys disappeared, merged with Eurostar, the brand chosen because it is the best known, particularly among overseas customers. This new beginning was well worth a presentation yesterday in London at the company's offices near St Pancras International station, and a small party to celebrate its first campaign...

Charlie Cornish, Chief Executive of MAG, the company that owns Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, has made this blunt statement. He is in fact the boss of the UK's largest airport group. The Guardian newspaper reports that, at the Airlines 2022 conference in London, Charlie Cornish declared...

With all the new regulations that have been introduced in recent months, it's almost easy to forget about Brexit. However, the process is continuing, with changes that directly affect French travellers. From 1 October, French business travellers to the UK will no longer need an identity card, even if they are travelling on business...

A hard-fought agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom finally puts an end to four years of bitter and acrimonious discussions. On 24 December, all the protagonists were singing their own praises. According to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, "it was worth fighting for this agreement because...

On Friday 31 January at 11pm in London and midnight in Brussels, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union after 1,317 days of procrastination and three postponements of the Brexit process. For travellers between the UK and Europe, not much has changed in practice. Planes will continue to fly between the continent and...

How did the partnership between Paris and London on MICE come about? Corinne Menegaux - London and Paris have a lot in common, a lot of shared values. So we met with the London teams and decided to run a joint campaign. We started with a...

The Cities & Trends report published on 26 March by BCD Travel is based on data relating to air tickets booked by the business travel agency's clients in Europe. This edition looks back at last year's preferred destinations for business travel, and shows a degree of stability. London for Europe and...

Were you surprised by the results of the EVP barometer? Yorick Charveriat - What surprised me was the strong growth seen in 2018, which should be even more marked in 2019. As far as trends in travel management are concerned, I don't think there's much talk of travellers buying into the policy...

What are the features of the new interface unveiled at the Business Travel Show in London? Stéphane Donders - We have taken into account the requests of our customers, expressed in particular during the user groups that we organise regularly in France and the UK. So we worked on the "Look & feel"...

As Theresa May wrestles with the details of Brexit, what do business travel professionals think? The Business Travel Show - which opens in London on 20 February - took the temperature of the market by surveying 134 buyers, the vast majority of whom were British (74 %). It has to be said that the subject...

Britain's planned withdrawal from the European Union in March 2019 - two years after it officially began the process of leaving the EU - could have led to a slowdown in passenger numbers on air routes between France and the UK. On the contrary, according to...

As it does every year, BCD Travel has compiled a list of the top business travel destinations, based on the number of airline tickets purchased in 2017 by the company's European clients. It has to be said that, despite the uncertainties surrounding the Brexit and its terms and conditions, the United Kingdom still dominates the ranking included in the Cities &...

How would you sum up the 2018 edition of the Business Travel Show? David Chapple - It was an unqualified success. You only had to stand in the main aisle to see that: the stands were bigger, more creative and livelier. The number of participants rose again, from 7962 to 8608 visitors, an increase of 8%....

While easyJet has just announced on 14 July the launch of a European subsidiary in Austria in anticipation of Brexit, it seems that all the British airlines have a 'plan B' or are more or less safe from the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the single European market. The simplest case is that of Ryanair. The airline...

Airlines are preparing for Brexit and its consequences. The British airline easyJet is setting up a European subsidiary in Vienna, Austria. The event itself comes as no surprise - British carriers have already indicated since the Brexit vote that they would seek a solution to remain in the European Union. However, the...

The 26th EVP, the annual meeting of American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), came to a close on 5 April at the Pavillon Cambon in Paris. The format of the event is evolving, particularly since its 2016 edition. Last year, Guillaume Col, GBT's CEO for France, Benelux and Southern Europe, described the event as "a 2.0 event", "a condensed meeting", with...

How long has La Compagnie been attending IFTM Top Resa? Jean-Charles Perino - It's been three years now. We were there in 2014, just a few weeks after our first flight, to introduce the product. We were also there in 2015 to 'kick things off', and this time to present the launch of our second...

Supporters of the case for a third runway at London Heathrow, Europe's biggest airport in terms of passenger numbers and also one of the most congested on the continent, may have found some unwitting support with Brexit. What do the British people's recent decision to turn their backs on the European Union and the planned expansion of Heathrow have in common?