Here & There: Hospitality Industry 2013, Mobile Apps Updates, Survey Results
Today’s Here & There covers updates from the airline industry, hospitality industry outlook for 2013, travel industry survey results, updates on travel mobile apps and thought provoking reads like – What does it take to fly for free? Increasing demand for self-service functionality at airports.
Kingfisher Airlines’ Shares Plunge After Lenders Decide To ‘Recover’ USD 1.5 B
Trouble for the Indian carrier Kingfisher Airlines doesn’t seem to stop. Lenders of Kingfisher has decided to start the process of recovering Rs 7,500 crore (USD 1.5 Billion) outstanding loans from the airline. The decision was taken at a Tuesday meeting attended by the consortium of lenders and Kingfisher management, including CEO, Sanjay Agarwal, and UB Group president and CFO, Ravi Nedungadi.
Cleartrip Launches ‘Pricewatch’ – Auto-Refunds Money When Airfare Drops
Today, Cleartrip launched Pricewatch, a new solution that will continuously monitor air fare (after booking) and when the fare falls by more than the associated amendment chages, PriceWatch auto-refunds the difference amount. This is a much needed feature and Cleartrip is the first Indian OTA to implement this.
Sabre Travel Network Adds New App – ‘Clipboard’, To Its Red App Centre
Sabre Travel Network, a global technology company serving travel agencies and suppliers, has unveiled “Clipboard Red App” as a new app to its Sabre Red App Centre. Sabre launched Sabre Red App Centre in March 2012. Sabre Red is the desktop terminal that Sabre’s network of travel agents use. Sabre Red App Centre is a centralised repository of apps for Sabre Red desktop application.
New Patent-Approved Device To Monitor Baggage Handling In Real-time
Cambridge Consultants, UK based technology enabled product development company has developed a patent-approved device called ‘DropTag’ that monitors and alerts the parcel/baggage handling at transit. Baggage handling is a critical aspect in an airport, both for the airline company and the customer. Airlines levy a variety of fees centered around baggage. But, are the customers 100% satisfied in the way their baggages are handled?
Here & There: Etihad Sets New Record, IATA Passenger Demand Report, List of Travel Industry Survey Results
Today’s Here & There covers updates from airlines/airports, hospitality/restaurant, cruise line, some interesting and notable travel industry surveys, travel companies update, awards and recognitions and career changes in travel industry.
50+ Airline Fees Changes Noticed In 2012; Detailed Study On Ancillary Revenue
Airline fees are on a rise and there is no question to that. In recent years, a price increase has always been followed by another price increase and so on. The main cause of this chain reaction is ancillary fee that is added to the base price of the airline. Irrespective of whether a carrier is LCC or full-service, ancillary fee is levied by them. Nowadays, its not a question of “Who doesn’t charge ancillary fee?”, rather its a question of “Who charges lesser ancillary fee?”.
Here & There: Travelocity’s FREE concierge service, Redesigned TRX site, HomeAway’s new app
News from: United Airlines cash award to employees, Gogo’s service in AA’s flights, redesigned TRX website, HomeAway’s new Reservation Manager application, Travelocity’s free concierge service, US travel agents flight bookings, Bedandbreakfast contest and career changes.
United Airlines Launches Baggage Delivery Service – New Ancillary Revenue Channel
United Airlines has launched a new baggage delivery service where in United will deliver traveler’s checkedin baggages to places that are within 100 miles from the destination airport. Travelers no more have to wait in the airport to collect their bags. United has partnered with BagsVIP to offer this service.
FlightsWithFriends Adds Hotels To Its Real-Time Group Planning Service
FlightsWithFriends, a California based travel startup (that emerged out of beta early this month) has added ‘Hotels’ as its second offering, in addition to Flights. FligtsWithFriends launched in early 2012 offers group travel planning service where user can invite his/her Facebook friends to chat, finalize and select flights – all in realtime. Simply put, its a social meta-search engine.
Product 360: WhichAirline: Visual Meta-Search Provider In Airline Industry
Travel reservation engines are turning more visual. The entire shopping and booking experience is made visually appealing by travel players like Hipmunk in hotel sector and QuickAirLink in flight sector. An addition to visual flight search provider is – WhichAirline, a company that searches 100,000 airline routes and offers cheap flight search results in an innovative display.
Delta, United, American and US Airways – Tops The List of Baggage, Booking Modification & Cancellation Fees
Airline industry still remains as a cut-throat competitive business to be in. Profits are still razor thin. Airlines are looking for new source of revenue to remain profitable at the same time maintaining quality service. Ancillary revenues are a godsend for airlines and in the recent years there are many innovative ways adopted by airlines to generate ancillary revenues.
Here & There: High-tech Luggage Bag, Tips For Small Scale Restaurants, Aircraft MRO
Earlier this week, we launched a new offering in Travopia, its called Here & There, where we present tidbits of varied type of travel industry news in a single article. This article marks the launch of Here & There. In this article, we discuss about technology to monitor alcohol abuse, high-tech luggage bag, tips for small scale restaurants, hospitality industry scope for 2013, aircraft MRO market and career changes in travel industry.
Airlines – American, United, Copa – Operational Results For December 2012
American, United and Copa airlines have declared their operational results for december 2012. Overall – the report is indicating a not-so-strong-profit scenario. Various KPI factors are reported.
Virgin Atlantic’s New Ad Showcases Its Crew Members As Superheroes
There has been multiple developments in Virgin Atlantic. The immediate recent one was Delta’s 49% stake acquisition in Virgin Atlantic for $360 million. Another interesting development that spiced this deal was the war of words between Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson and Willie Walsh, CEO of British Airways owned IAG (International Airlines Group). Mr Walsh predicted that the Virgin brand would vanish if the deal with US airline Delta was agreed.
