Quantas and Emirates Partnership

Australia's competition watchdog has given final approval for a partnership between Qantas and Emirates. 

Under the alliance, the two airlines will collaborate on pricing, sales and flight scheduling. 

It will also see Qantas switch its hub for European flights from Singapore to Dubai. 

"Qantas is an Australian icon and the future of its international business is much brighter with this partnership," said Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce. 

"Customers are already responding very strongly to the joint network that Qantas and Emirates have built, and to the frequent flyer benefits that extend across it, with a significant increase in bookings." 

This is a fantastic partnership which has been created. Both Quantas and Emirates are large and very well respected airlines with millions of passengers a year. This partnership will make them as a brand stronger, they will be able to fight off competition. As the article said they will be able to fly more routes, as well as bringing together their frequent flyer benefits, which will be a very big positive for the customer. I think this is a great opportunity and i hope that these airlines work together well and bring the best out of the current situation. I think this will be a partnership to watch!

American Airlines to Provide Refunds after Tech Failure

All American Airlines’ US flights were put on hold for several hours yesterday after a fault with the carrier’s reservation system.

At least 670 flights were cancelled before its systems were fully restored at 4.30pm local time.

But the airline warned travellers to expect “continued flight delays and cancellations throughout the remainder of the day”.

The carrier initially said its reservation system, managed by Sabre Holdings, a ticket distributor, was offline, but American later clarified that the problem was with its own access to the system, not with Sabre itself, the Financial Times reported.

The airline said passengers who needed to travel on Tuesday could rebook their flights, even on other airlines, and it would pay any fare difference.

American also said it would waive change fees and provide full refunds to customers who chose not to travel on Tuesday.

Earlier in the afternoon, the carrier had said its system was “experiencing intermittent outages”.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that American requested a “ground stop” of all flights at US airports.

I found this article on Travel Weekly which was released in the early hours of this morning. It is interesting to see that such a large airline can face a large problem such as the reservation system going down. The airline will have had to reassure their customers so that the brand reputation does not get severely damaged. Another interesting fact was seeing that American Airlines would refund any customers who decided not to travel, whilst stating they would also pay the additional cost for customers to swap airlines. This sort of incident does not happen very often but when it does, and airline needs to have a contingency plan in place to protect the airline and its customers. Personally i feel that American Airlines coped with the situation very well which has lead to customers being disappointed but accepting. 

Cathay Pacific Upgrading

Cathay Pacific Airways will change over to a new passenger reservations system the weekend of 11 and 12 February. The new technology will replace an in-house system introduced in the 1980's. This will ensure Cathay Pacific can continue to meet passengers’ needs in the future.

During the transition, it will be necessary for the airline to temporarily suspend certain customer facing technology. This includes Cathay Pacific’s Web site, www.cathaypacific.com, and its mobile sites.

The airline’s flight schedule over the weekend, however, will be unaffected by the changeover.

Cathay Pacific Chief Operating Officer Ivan Chu said: “Our current system has served us well. However, just as we upgrade the products and services our customers can see and touch, we must also update our technology behind the scenes so that we can support the continued growth of our airline and the expanding expectations of our customers.”

The new Altéa reservation and inventory system is provided by Amadeus, the same reservations system used by the majority of oneworld alliance carriers. Cathay Pacific is a founding member of oneworld.

Mr Chu continued: “Preparations for this change began several years back as it is quite a massive undertaking. For example, as just one part of the process during the cutover, we will migrate more than 1 million passenger bookings between systems. Unfortunately, as we modify the reservations system and more than 40 down line systems, we’re forced to temporarily suspend some of the conveniences that our customers appreciate and count on. We appreciate their understanding and patience for these necessary measures.”

The Cathay Pacific Web site will be taken offline worldwide at approximately 3 pm Hong Kong time on Saturday, 11 February. Functionality will be brought back online in stages throughout the day on Sunday, 12 February. The majority of the site will be available by 8 pm on Sunday Hong Kong time.

Online check in and self-service kiosks at airports will also be unavailable throughout much of the weekend. Additional information on which services will be unavailable along with potential alternatives is provided on the attached “appendix.”

Cathay Pacific will be unable to sell or modify Cathay Pacific tickets from approximately 3 pm Hong Kong time on Saturday, 11 February, until the system comes back online Sunday, 12 February. Travel agents will be able to put new reservations on request, but those bookings will not be confirmed until the system resumes service. Accordingly, passengers needing to buy or change tickets or make special requests for travel on 11 or 12 February are encouraged to do so prior to that weekend.

Cathay Pacific plans to operate its normal flight schedule on the 11 and 12 February as the upgrade does not impact aircraft systems. As Cathay Pacific has always suggested, it will be necessary for passengers travelling on electronic tickets to bring a copy of their eTickets to the airport. While no expanded queuing is expected, passengers may wish to arrive at the airport earlier than normal.

In the week following the transition, Cathay Pacific’s worldwide call centres may experience higher than normal call volumes. Should that be the case, the airline will do all possible to minimise inconvenience and passengers’ patience is appreciated.

I found this article a little while ago and i believe it is very interesting, especially to see how an airline of that size copes with a situation which has to occur to meet their customers demands. 
Cathay Pacific has recently joined the oneworld alliance, so by updating their systems they are competing at the same level as all of the other competitors. It was fantastic to hear that even though the systems were all being chnaged over there was no disruption to flights, and the customer journey was still of a high standard. 

New Air Platform Vindicates Travelport Stance, says GDS Boss

Travelport chief executive Gordon Wilson hailed the company's new platform unveiled yesterday as a first for global distribution systems (GDSs).

Speaking at the World Travel and Tourism Council summit in Abu Dhabi, Wilson said: "Everything will be on one screen."

Wilson told Travel Weekly: "We are working with easyJet, British Airways, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, KLM. There will be so much content."

Travelport, parent of GDSs Worldspan and Galileo, argues the platform will let airlines distribute however they choose and differentiate services while aggregating everything on a single screen for agents.

Wilson said: "We don't want customers worrying about the plumbing."

Travelport is working to incorporate American Airlines' direct connect technology into the platform after the companies signed a new distribution agreement and dropped their competing legal claims in the US last month.

Wilson said: "We reached a long-term agreement acceptable to both parties, with a guarantee of access to all existing and future content.

"American Airlines will plug their technology into our Universal Desktop. We are working on the plans with American at the moment.

"The capability is in place and should be available within months."

Wilson said the deal "vindicated" Travelport's stance through the dispute with American, transatlantic partner of British Airways.

"We always said it was never a question of technology," he said. "We were not the logjam."

He declined to discuss the duration of the deal with American, but the agreement is believed to be for a minimum five years. Wilson said 70% of Travelport customers moved to one of the company's new desktops in the past year.

Travelport rules out Iata NDC Pilots

Travelport has told Iata that it is too busy with its existing production schedule to be able to pilot any airlines through its New Distribution Capability platform.

The GDS is still working closely with Iata on the development of NDC which promises to turn the distribution system on its head.

In a statement this week Travelport issued three questions it said needed to be answered by Iata over the intentions of NDC.

These sought to ascertain whether Iata intends to preserve transparency, balanced governance and the involvement of all stakeholders, including agents.

Having launched its new air merchandising platform this week, Travelport's focus was on bringing more carriers into the GDS fold, particular the growing number of low-cost airlines.

"Travelport is currently in implementation with a number of additional carriers using XML technologies which will further extend the list of carriers present within the Travelport GDS without them having to use existing industry standards.

"If an Iata airline wishes to use NDC schema to distribute products to production then we are happy to work with such an airline but at this time our production workload means that we cannot partake in pilots for NDC."

The statement continued: “To date our concerns [about NDC] have not been fully addressed. We call on Iata to demonstrate a commitment to meaningful, transparent governance among all the interested parties."

Security Review, after Boston Bombs Kill Three

Security is being reviewed for the London marathon on Sunday after two bombs exploded killing three people and injuring more than 130 at the end of the Boston race.

FBI special agent Richard DesLauriers, who is in charge of the investigation, said the blasts close to the finishing line of the  Boston marathon were being treated as a "potential terrorist" attack.

The twin explosions put police on alert in major cities across the US, including in Washington DC and New York City, sites of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

There was heavy security around the area of the explosions and outside the hospitals where the injured were being treated. A no-fly zone was in place above central Boston.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office warned of possible travel disruption in the wake of the explosions at 2.50pm local time yesterday.

“At least two explosions took place close to the finishing line of the Boston marathon, causing many injuries,” the FCO said.

“You should exercise vigilance and caution, monitoring local media and following the advice of local authorities. If in the affected area you should let family and friends know you are safe. Additional information can be obtained through the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.”

Boston police set up an emergency hotline for friends and relatives: 001 617 635 4500.

A spokesman for the Fairmount Copley Plaza said yesterday: “An explosion was reported at the finish line of the Boston marathon, two blocks away from the hotel.

“At this time, only guests and colleagues are being allowed into the hotel, and per the direction of the Boston police those already in the building are encouraged to stay inside.”

A room was set up for people to relax and get in touch with loved ones.

“All hotel colleagues are safe and our thoughts are with those affected by this tragic incident,” the spokesman added.

The travel industry was among the first to express its concern and disgust at what happened in Boston.

Cheapflights has an office in Boston and UK employees tweeted they hoped their US colleague was safe.

Travel Counsellors’ chairman David Speakman said the agency had already got a list of customers in Boston and was checking to make sure all were well.

Abta chairman and Advantage Travel Centres chief executive John McEwan said: “Dreadful news coming from Boston with bombs set off at the marathon. My thoughts are with everyone involved.”

There are 2,000 people due to fly to Boston from Heathrow on six flights today.  British Airways is allowing passengers to switch US destinations over the next three days.

The travel industry was starting to get itself back on track since 9/11 and the London bombings, until it was hit with this disaster yesterday in Boston. I believe this came as a large shock to the travel industry as they have worked so hard to make sure a disaster does not occur again. The next challenge they face is the London Marathon. From reading the article and listening to the news, i heard that competitors will be contacted on a daily basis with an update as they do not want competitors dropping out due to worry. I hope that this does not affect the London marathon, as it is a fantastic event with thousands lining the streets every year. It was also interesting to read that British Airways will be allowing passengers to switch destinations, this is a very large step for the worlds leading airline, this will create positive brand recognition and reassurance in their customers. A very smart move i believe. 

Low-cost Flights Now the Majority, Amadeus Research Finds

More than half of all flights from the UK (52%) are now operated by low-cost carriers (LCC), a rise of 4% on 2011, new research out today reveals.

Spain has the highest share of departing LCC traffic in Europe at 57%, followed by the UK. Meanwhile, 65% of all air travel in the Philippines and 61% of all air travel in Thailand is made on low-cost carriers.

LCC penetration is highest in Europe at 38% and North America at 30%

The new analysis from Amadeus Air Traffic Travel Intelligence shows that worldwide air traffic grew by 5% between 2011 and 2012, with Asia being the largest, fastest-growing and most competitive market.

Asia saw year-on-year growth of 9%, followed by Latin America, at 6%.

The study also highlights that 22% of all global air travel is concentrated on just 300 ‘super routes’, each of which carries more than one million passengers a year.

Furthermore, 69% of all global air travel is made on major routes with 100,000 annual passengers.

The Middle East is a strong performer for connecting traffic, with the three key airports of Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai all showing high traffic volumes, serving about 15% of all air traffic between Asia and Europe and from Europe to the southwest Pacific.

Europe-Asia traffic routed via the Middle East is growing at roughly 20% a year.

Asia is the world’s most competitive aviation market with 75% of routes served by three or more airlines and just 25% of routes by one or two carriers, according to the study.

Analysis of the busiest routes in the world by passenger volume shows that seven out of the top ten world’s busiest air travel routes are in Asia.

Jeju-Seoul in South Korea is the world’s busiest route, while Beijing-Shanghai has risen from seventh-busiest route to fourth-busiest in 2012.

Sapporo-Tokyo has overtaken Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo to second-busiest route ranking, and Okinawa-Tokyo has entered the top ten table, as ninth-busiest route in the world.

Globally, the airline industry has become consistently more competitive over the past three years. The percentage of air traffic served by just one or two airlines has fallen by 2% each year from 39% in 2010 to 35% in 2012.

Concurrently, the percentage of air traffic with four or more competing airlines has also risen consistently from 35% in 2010 to 38% in 2012, the research shows.

Amadeus head of travel intelligence Pascal Clement, Head said: “The rapid pace of change and increasing competitiveness of the global airline industry, as evidenced by this data, means airlines and the wider travel industry increasingly need to base operational decision-making on data insights and analytics, in order to identify opportunities and risks as they emerge.

“This data provides good news for the airline industry, showing that passenger air traffic has increased in every region of the world from 2011 to 2012. As in 2011, this growth is led by Asia, however, the data points to a further opportunity in the region, where the majority of traffic is on a small number of busy routes.”

I found this article on travelweekly.com which was released earlier this morning. I found it very interesting to see that even with the recession hitting the world more people are now choosing to go away, increasing the traffic in the air. But now with more people choosing to fly with lost cost airlines, will this lead to large airlines such as Virgin Atlantic, American Airlines and British Airways facing a shortage of passengers? I believe it is essential that the larger airlines look closely at meeting their customers demands and needs so that they can stand out and keep loyal customers returning. 

I recently went for an interview at British Airways, and they said within the introduction to the job that it is essential they employ graduates and apprentices as they need the younger generation to promote the airline, as well as bringing in new ideas. I found this very interesting as it shows that they can clearly see the competition, and are now looking at other approaches to tackle the issue. Apprentice jobs go live on their website in May/June so keep looking if your interested!

On the Beach Signs First GDS Deal with Travelport

Travelport has announced a new agreement with On the Beach, one of the UK’s leading online travel agencies.

The agreement is the first time On the Beach has signed a partnership with a GDS.

Carrying more than 900,000 passengers every year, On the Beach creates tailored holiday itineraries to popular beach destinations around the world.

The partnership with Travelport allows the online agent to break into new hotel and flight options outside their current destination profile.

“Travelport’s uAPI technology allows us to tap-in to new flight and hotel content to build on our traditional beach travel product, and significantly grow our scheduled air offerings”, Andy Tilby-Baxter, head of supply, On the Beach, explained. 

“It opens up a whole new area for us to grow, and provides our customers with even more options to create exciting travel experiences.”

I believe this is a fantastic opportunity for On the Beach, they have proved to be very successful since forming in 1995. They state that unlike other travel agents they do not sell package holidays, they allow their customers to choose any flight or hotel singly or together to suit your requirements. They pride themselves on offering value for money flights and hotels to the worlds most popular beach holiday destinations, providing consumers with a huge selection of travel products, from 50 million available flight seats and more than 30,000 hotels around the world, insurance and in-resort transfer partners. 

Thomson Add Video to Newspaper Articles

As we are all aware Thomson are one of the largest travel agents on the high street, along with strong competitors such as Thomas Cook. Over the last 10 years it has proven very difficult for high street stores to maintain high figures, due to most holiday makers now booking a holiday online, and looking for the cheapest deal. With this in mind Thomson have created a fantastic new marketing technique, this is explained in the article below:

Thomson has become the latest in a growing list of tour operators to run an interactive print campaign, which allows customers to view video content on their smartphones.

Viewers can watch videos of hotels and resorts by hovering their smartphones over images in newspaper ads, which have been created using Aurasma technology. The Aurasma app recognises images and symbols and uses them to deliver images, webpages or audio.

Interactive ads featuring Thomson's Sensatori hotel in Tenerife have appeared in the travel section of the Times and The Guardian and are scheduled for future use, said the company.

Saga Holidays became one of the first UK travel companies to use the Aurasma technology late last year, closely followed by Kuoni.

Thomson said videos would continue to be used in future print advertising and, if successful, it plans to roll out the technology across further communication channels including retail POS, brochures an direct mail.

I think this is a fantastic idea that has been used for Thomson, it will be very interesting to see the results from this campaign  I hope that this proves to strengthen the high street stores. It will also be interesting to see what the next step in advertising will be, as well as which travel agent will be leading it. Ice Lolly have already set up a new campgain using well know celebrities, so what could be next?

Understanding the Key Aspects

From our recent talk with a guest speaker from Royal Caribbean, it was clear to see that as a company they have a very good understanding of the differences between, data, information and knowledge. The talk was very useful and included a number of facts which we linked into this module. Below i am going to explain one of these in depth:

One of the most common uses of data on a cruise ship is food usage, on each ship there are thousands of people, all who like to eat different food, guests who are of  different nationalities. From looking at their most common routes they are able to take note of what ingredients they are using and what food is common on a certain route.

From gaining this data the staff will be able to look and see if their is a pattern, for example does one nationality go on one route more often and eat more fish than another? Once the pattern can be seen this turns into knowledge that the staff can work from. This then turns into information, where the staff can work together and act upon there findings. 

Please watch the video below, i found this on the Royal Caribbean website. It is all about their food decisions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAr-845vlfo

Will Large Airlines Still Use GDS

For large airlines such as British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, a question from travel professionals which keeps occurring is, 'will these airlines carry on using GDS or will they follow American Airlines into the world of direct-connect, so that contracts with GDS can end?' 

I think this is a very interesting story, a large number of travel services rely on GDS but larger airlines believe they can create the business without being tied into contracts with GDS. 

British Airways in under the microscope over its distribution strategy as GDS negotiations start to appear on the horizon and sister carried American Airlines continues to push the direct-connect model. 

When this article was released, Willie Walsh stated:
"We will continue to distribute our products through the global distribution systems, but i am conscious that many airlines around the world look at the value chain and see profitability in other areas when they are suffering losses. One area highlighted was the profitability of the global distribution systems, but at BA, we have no issues with our GDS partners at the moment".

It would be sensible to presume the next 18 months will see a jockeying for position by BA and its GDS partners, Amadeus, Travelport and Sabre, it happens ahead of every round of GDS negotiations by major airlines. The difference this time is the situation in the US with American Airlines. With BA previously trying to sit quietly on the sidelines but because of its relationship with the carrier, they are unable to do so. 

With this in mind, this statistic was recently released:
'GDS make margins of up to 30%. They have priced themselves as distribution gatekeepers, using other people's money to fund unsustainable market share battles. Many in the industry would privately admit the model s broken, but they are struggling to make the transition'. 

From reading the article, i think that large airlines will see a drop in their sales if they were to use direct-connecting services rather than the well known global distribution systems. Airlines will have to consider the impact, as Willie Walsh said other competitors are able to see all of the prices, so profit can be made whilst other airlines are suffering. 

http://www.tnooz.com/2011/05/16/news/british-airways-moving-into-the-spotlight-over-distribution-model/#comments

Pilots Forced to make Emergency Landings

Pilots have had to make 28 emergency landings so far this year because they were running low on fuel according to figures compiled by the Civil Aviation Authority. The incidents led to the aircraft being given landing priority by airports over other flights were often triggered by planes facing difficulties after having been diverted because of bad weather.

A number of airlines have been involved including Virgin Atlantic when two jumbo-jets sought priority landing at Stansted in January and last month Ryanair was forced to seek an emergency landing for three of its aircraft in Spain.

Although the total represents of fuel-related emergency landings is a reduction on 2008-10, when there were 41 such incidents, some pilots have warned the airlines are operating on very narrow margins as they seek to cut operating costs.

Legally pilots entering British airspace must not only carry enough fuel to complete their journey, but also a reserve which would allow them to reach an alternative airport with enough in hand to allow for 30 minutes circling before being permitted to land.

On top of that there must be a contingency reserve supply to cope with headwinds which can lead to more fuel being consumed.

Once they have less than 30 minutes flying time left, pilots have to seek an emergency landing.

There are two classifications of emergency landing. A “PAN” – standing for Procedure for Air Navigation Service – is a request for priority over other aircraft.

More serious is a Mayday, where fire and rescue will have to be put on alert.

In January two Virgin Atlantic flights, which had been diverted to Stansted because of bad weather, sought a PAN priority landing. According to CAA records this was because of a “fuel shortage”.

A Virgin spokesman said: Following standard procedures a PAN alert was issued to give priority landing. Our fuel management procedures are approved by the CAA and comply with all industry regulations.

“We plan our fuel loading on a number of factors, we carry more than regulatory minimums and load extra fuel for anticipated factors such as weather.”

On landing both aircraft, whose pilots had believed they were about to start using their reserve supplies, were found to have over the legal minimum fuel requirement in their tanks.

The Virgin planes were among 18 diverted to Stansted because of the weather, one other short haul operator also declared a Mayday because of a fuel shortage.

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For a large number of passengers who are already nervous flyers a story such as this would probably make them not fly. I personally do not understand why airlines are getting away with this! Pilots and their air staff have all passengers lives in their hands from the moment they take off, to the moment the passengers steps off the plane. No airlines should have to ask for a PAN or a Mayday. I understand that airlines are trying to save money by not carrying enough fuel but surely the reputation of both Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic would have now been damaged? I believe all airlines need to have a better look at the data they are receiving to see how much fuel is used on each flight, and turning this into knowledge so that a certain figure is created, so that the information gained can be looked into, so that an emergency landing does not have to be used again. 

What is the difference?

Within the travel industry decisions have to be made continually, in some cases these decisions may have to be made immediately  It is important that all staff who are involved understand the needs of the customers and how this could affect the company. This is when staff need to have a clear understanding of the difference between:

• Data
• Information
• Knowledge

It is important that a good understanding is gained, as well as being able to see how they link and work together too. At Brooklands Hotel, we often have to make decisions on our own, especially if a guest is in front of us. As staff members we are reminded to consider the following three aspect before making a decision:

I believe that this method works very well and gives the staff a better understanding. If you are having to consider giving a customer some discount, the staff member must look to see how this will affect other staff members. Has to much money already been lost by one team today? They will then look to question, will this customer be returning? Is the customer a regular? The staff member will then need to consider the affect it may have on the business, as staff member we want the best for our company and if we loose this customer will this lead to a drop in our profits, as this customer stays 5 days a week. 

Customers like Control!

Through carrying out my work experience it is easy to see that customers like to have control, they like to know exactly what is going on. As we know technology is now incredible, and the amount of different things both customers and businesses can do is overwhelming. 

So is interactive tables at restaurants the next big thing? A large number of people say yes, as long as it is within the right environment. I suggested the technique within the video to my duty manager the other day. This has now been passed on to our marketing team to see if it could work within our bar area. 

I believe that the opportunities that technology could bring to a business are large, as long as it is within the correct environment. For example this would not work at all on an plane, but you could put this in a hotel restaurant where it could prove to be very successful, whilst being a talking point for customers which could lead to the hotel reputation being lifted. 

Please let me know if any of you have been anywhere where this has been done, i would be very interested in visiting a place and seeing it in action for myself!

Obese Airline Passengers Should Pay More..

...economist says.

What do you think? Now read this article and see if you change your mind!

Airlines should charge obese passengers more, a Norwegian economist has suggested, arguing that “pay as you weigh” pricing would bring health, financial and environmental dividends.

Bharat Bhatta, an associate professor at Sogn og Fjordane University College, said that airlines should follow other transport sectors and charge by space and weight.

“To the degree that passengers lose weight and therefore reduce fares, the savings that result are net benefits to the passengers,” Bhatta wrote this week in the Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management.

“As a plane of a given make and model can accommodate more lightweight passengers, it may also reward airlines” and reduce the use of environmentally costly fuel.

Bhatta put together three models for what he called “pay as you weigh airline pricing.”

The first would charge passengers according to how much they and their baggage weighed. It would set a rate for pounds (kg) per passenger so that someone weighing 130 pounds (59 kg) would pay half the fare of 260-pound (118-kg) person.

A second model would use a fixed base rate, with an extra charge for heavier passengers to cover the extra costs. Under this option, every passenger would have a different fare.

Bhatta’s preferred option was the third, where the same fare would be charged if a passenger was of average weight. A discount or extra charge would be used if the passenger was above or below a certain limit.

That would lead to three kinds of fares – high, average and low, Bhatta said.

From reading the article, which model do you believe would be best?

I personally believe this is a very controversial story, i do not feel that a decision will be made anytime soon. This economist has a valued point, and the strategies he has created could work, but not without a lot of arguments. 

Looking at the first model, i do not understand how this would be successful. Individuals will know how much they weigh but they wont be sure of the weight of their luggage until they have packed. Would this mean that they would charge all customers for the top limit of the bags weight? Would this not lead to customers saying ' My bag pays 4kg less than that customers so why should i pay the same'. 

The second model would be more likely to work than the first, but it is important to consider the feelings of passengers. If more and more airlines are using self service check in how would they know that the passenger was heavier until they turned up at the gate. The staff then could not turn the passenger away because they have not paid the correct weight. 

Lastly, the third model would probably to some passengers be an incentive. For customers who are of an average weight they would not be charged extra, and may even receive a discount. Could this work though?

Overall, all of the models discussed by this economist have valued points, but if an airline offends a customer they are going to loose that business for the future. Could this lead to less people wanting to fly? Will people feel self-conscious? This is a debate which will need to be thoroughly discussed by airline bosses for a decision to be made. 

http://tribune.com.pk/story/529487/obese-airline-passengers-should-pay-extra-economist-says/

End of airport Check-In desks?

It has traditionally been the first port of call for passengers jetting away on holiday but the airport check-in desk could soon be resigned to the history books.

From April 30th, the airline will ask travelers with checked luggage to use bag-drop only desks. Ryanair made a similar move in 2009 and currently charges those who don't check in online a fee of £70 at the airport to print out boarding passes. EasyJet said it is unlikely to charge passengers and, for the near future at least, would ensure a limited check-in service at the airport is still available.

This story shows the next step in managing information, technology has increased so much over the last few years that there is less need for customer facing roles. Could this result in more jobs being lost within the industry which is already suffering? I believe that the next step for EasyJet will be having automated bag drop. One of the aspects of travel that staff have a trouble with is customers going over the weight limit for their luggage. If airlines were to introduce an automated bag drop, it would be impossible to let any customer get away without paying. The bags would not be accepted which would results in the customers not being able to go through to security without paying. This system would work very well within this industry as all customers would have to meet the criteria or pay. I hope this aspect of travel will be introduced into the industry within the near future. 

Travel Apps

In today's generation technology is used everyday all over the world. Individuals are becoming reliant on technology to guide them through a process, and this is very true within the travel industry. A large number of apps have been created, whether these guide an individual on how to fight jet lag, all the way through to language translation. Below are some of the most recent Business Travel Apps:

BlackBerry Travel App 10:
The BlackBerry Travel app was only realised yesterday for BlackBerry 10 devices, giving Z10 owners the ability to plan, book, manage and share their travel arrangements on the move. 

It has been stated that most of planning a trip now comes down to the price. Many new services, such as Google Flight, have filters that help users find the cheapest day, time or location to fly out from. BlackBerry Travel is no different, as it now offers a “Price Alert” service that notifies you if there’s a cheaper price for the hotel room you've booked. Likewise, if there’s a similar room in a different hotel, but at a cheaper price, or a far better room for only slightly more, it’s possible to cancel the original booking and re-order from within the app.

Weatherpro App:
An intuitive app offering weather reports for well over two million geographical locations, feeding in everything from cloud formations and atmospheric pressure to wind speed and humidity, all in enough detail to leave Michael Fish clammy-palmed with excitement. It’s also accurate to the point of clairvoyance, so if you’re travelling to Berlin and it predicts rain, pack your best umbrella.
Available on iPhone (£2.49), Android (£1.99) and Windows Phone (£2.29)




Air Sharing App:
In the cut-throat world of business, time is money, making a seven-hour trans-Atlantic flight a lot of wonga indeed. Thankfully, just because your laptop’s packed away, doesn't mean you can’t keep your eyes on the prize. Essentially, this (admittedly pricey) app turns your iPhone into a wireless hard drive, allowing you to quickly and easily load it up with documents at the airport, then browse and amend on the move throughout your trip.
Available on iPhone (£6.99) and iPad (£6.99) 

Galileo

Galileo traces back to 1971 when United Airlines created its first computer reservation system, named Apollo. During the late 1980's and early 1990's a large quantity of airline tickets were sold through travel agents. Flights by the airline who owned the reservation system were the first ones that travel agents and customers would see. Due to the success and high market demands of both Sabre and Apollo systems, Worldspan and Galileo were created.  

Galileo was formed in 1987 by nine European carriers, these were:

• British Airways
• KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
• Alitalia
• Swissair
• Austrian Airline
• Olympic
• Sabena
• Air Portugal
• Aer Lingus.

How does it work?

Understanding the System

Within this industry there are a number of different systems which are used worldwide, by both travel agents and tour operators. A number of these systems i have already mentioned in my previous posts, but i will go on to talk about these in more depth. Along with the Global Distribution Systems, there is another system called Viewdata. 

What is Viewdata?
Viewdata is a booking system which was created in the late 1970's and early 1980's to make it easier for travel consultants to check the availability of holidays and to place bookings. It proved to be a huge success and travel consultants up and down the country started to use it. Viewdata soon got the reputation to be the trade's favourite booking system. It was so successful because it was simple to use, and it did exactly what it said it would do: look up holidays and complete bookings. 

But it was not long til travel consultants found faults with the system. in the early 1980's a large number of travel consultants were using different systems and changing to all have one system created a lot of fuss and confusion. Some travel agents did not want to move over to Viewdata as they had the reassurance and security of the system they had already been using. It was proved by a small number of travel agents that they could not handle more than one system, all of the systems are very different in the way they book holidays and this caused upset throughout the travel industry. Once again a solution had to be created...

Even though travel agents and consultants all around the world were talking about how fantastic Viewdata was there was always going to be some flaws. Travel experts questioned whether this was the beginning of the end, and whether the travel industry could cope with the demands from customers, and the unfamiliarity with the system. On the other hand this system did allow operators to distribute holidays over the internet  something they struggled to do before. 


I looked at Viewdata's website and discovered that they are soon to be bringing out a new and improved system to offer the travel industry. It states that 'Viewdata remains the tool used for booking 98% of the traditional package holiday and charter flights'. It goes on to explain how Viewdata understand that in today's world consumers have better sales tools then the trade but there new and improved Viewdata brings all these tools together. They are able to display hotel photographs, and in depth descriptions of both the hotel, airline, surrounding area etc. 

I believe this is a very risky procedure for Viewdata to carry out, the reason for this being that it will have cost them as a company a lot of many to produce, and now there are many high established global distribution systems out there, will it really take off and be number one. 

http://www.viewdataplus.com/

Global Distribution System

With 60 million people in the UK going on holiday a year, a method had to be created to control every aspect of a holiday. It has to be able to control the number of people booking, along with the different aspects each individual wanted to incorporate, this could be from a hotel, all the way through to a mode of transport. 

The major market force in online travel bookings is currently the Global Distribution Systems also known as GDS. There are a number of systems which are used, these include: Galileo, Sabre, Travel-Port, Amadeus along with many others. When GDS was first created in the late 1980's it was used for airline reservations. Since then the demands within the travel and tourism industry have increased dramatically, resulting in many GDS systems expanding further. In recent years aspects such as car hire have been introduced and this has worked very well. For travel agents who are using this system it makes it easier for not only themselves but also for their client as they can book all of the extras the client may want through one system. 

With GDS being live 24/7 it means the availability that is showing is correct providing a better service for the customer. 

Changes:

With all technology there will become a time when an aspect will need to be changed or improved. With the Global Distribution Systems a change was paramount. When the systems were first created the industry professionals who used them were highly skilled, and as the industry has developed these individuals do not have to be as skilled or qualified, resulting in the system needing to be clearer and more user friendly. To this day the system has been changed and has proved to be a huge success. Industry professionals are now able to write all details in full and then this will be de-coded by the system used. An example of this being:

• LHR - London Heathrow
• LAS - Las Vegas
• CPT - Cape Town

I personally believe GDS is a fantastic product which has been created, like all software over time more changes will have to be made. GDS has recently started to book hotel rooms, which is slowly but surely starting to take off. A number of the Global Distribution Systems book hotel rooms for Brooklands Hotel where i work, and in the last year i have sign an increase in the amount of reservations being booked through this method. I hope that this system will carry on increasing what it can sell for clients. I personally feel that systems like these make the travel and tourism industry one step ahead of other industries.