ACCOR has launched Pullman Shanghai South, the second Pullman brand property in the bustling Chinese city.

The hotel is connected to a shopping mall, supermarket and office building in the Star Plaza commercial complex, and also offers easy access to Hongqiao International Airport.

Pullman Shanghai South’s 338 rooms and suites range from 40m² to 406m² and come with free high-speed Wi-Fi access.

For F&B, the hotel features an all-day dining restaurant with an open kitchen, a Chinese restaurant with nine private dining rooms, a Japanese restaurant with a teppanyaki island and sake bar, and a lobby lounge for drinks and tapas.

Other amenities include a heated indoor swimming pool, spa, gym, connectivity lounge and meeting facilities such as a 1,300m² pillarless grand ballroom and seven multi-function rooms equipped with the latest technology.

All meeting rooms can be found on the third floor with Wi-Fi access and the hotel has a dedicated evet manager and IT solutions manager.

To commemorate its opening, the hotel has rolled out a special rate of 1,288 yuan (US$213) for one night in a Superior room. Guests will receive another night free. Available from now until March 15.

INDIA has finally given the green light for airlines to operate the Airbus A380 into New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, cities deemed by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to have the necessary infrastructure.

A statement released by the Ministry of Civil Aviation noted that “the operation of A380s will help airports to generate more revenue, give more comfortable and luxurious travel to passengers, liberalise the civil aviation milieu in India and boost the image of Indian civil aviation in the international market”.

Chennai is expected to join the list of A380-ready airports soon.

It was previously reported that Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Lufthansa were among the airlines keen to deploy the A380 on services to India. Nine out of 10 airlines that currently operate the A380 run scheduled services into India.

SIA’s general manager for India, David Lau, said: “The clearance to deploy A380s on Indian routes is favourable news to the Indian aviation industry. SIA will evaluate the commercial viability of this recent development based on available traffic rights and resources.”

Similarly, an Emirates spokesman commented: “We welcome the decision of the Indian aviation authorities to allow A380 operations. Any decision to deploy an A380 on our network is dependent on passenger demand on that particular route, as well as the ability of airports to handle the aircraft.”

TIGERAIR has launched a new four-times-weekly service from Singapore to the Maldivian capital of Malé.

Flights leave Singapore at 09.50 and touchdown in Malé at 11.25, while return flights leave the city at 12.15 and arrive in Singapore at 19.40.

Flights are operated with an Airbus A320 and operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Ho Yuen Sang, COO at Tigerair, said: “The Maldives is widely considered to be a premier tropical beach destination and it is one of the best idyllic spots to relax and unwind from the hustle and bustle of our modern lifestyles.

“As the only no-frills airline flying direct from Singapore to Maldives, we hope to make this exotic holiday destination even more accessible than before to everyone, from families to honeymooners to beach lovers.”

JAPAN will ease visa restrictions for India’s travellers as part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for tourism signed between the two countries last week.

In the MoU, Japan agreed to issue multiple-entry visas with validity of up to three years for Indian nationals, who currently are only allowed single-entry visas for short visits.

India is among the top 10 source markets for Japan, registering 18 per cent year-on-year growth in 2013 for a total of 160,000 arrivals.

Debjit Dutta, director of Kolkata-based Impression Tourism Services, said: “Multiple-entry visas for Indians to enter Japan will enable us to create itineraries combining trips to the US west coast for business travel and tourism. Moreover, longer visa validity can prompt repeat visits within a shorter time frame. This will encourage increased tourist traffic between the two countries and may lead to an increase in flight services too.”

Commenting on Japanese traffic into India, Parvez Dewan, secretary – tourism, Government of India, the Indian signatory, said: “Buddhist heritage tourism draws Japanese tourists to India.

“(The number of) Japanese tourists availing of visas on arrival (VoA) has grown significantly and the highest number of VoAs ever was issued to Japanese visitors in 2013.”

About 220,000 Japanese tourists visited India in 2013.

LION Group is making Batam its second major hub for operations with plans to launch more domestic and international services from the island.

Announcing this in a press release yesterday, the group said it has increased the number of Lion Air domestic services based out of Batam to 15 in recent months and will raise it to 20 in future.

Upcoming launches include a daily service between Batam and Pontianak beginning January 29, and Batam-Makassar and Batam-Bali (Denpasar) services.

Said Lion Group president director Rusdi Kirana: “Batam is ideally located for people wishing to travel between eastern and western Indonesia.”

He added: “This is a win-win (situation) for consumers and for the airline. The shorter flying time makes flying more convenient for passengers and it means aircraft burn less fuel, leading to significant cost savings.”

Lion Air is also eyeing destinations such as Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Jeddah, New Delhi and Mumbai for overseas services.

Rusdi pointed out that transiting in Batam requires less time than transiting in Indonesia for those travelling within Indonesia and from India. Developing Batam as a hub would also aid the congestion situation at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Furthermore, the group has been building up an aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility on the island that it wants certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

“Some airlines are sending their aircraft overseas for heavy maintenance checks. But it costs money to ferry empty aircraft overseas and doing heavy checks is very labour-intensive work. Therefore, it makes more sense for this work to be done in Indonesia,” said Rusdi.

Bloomberg has reported that Lion Air is looking to list shares by 2015 in order to fund its ambitious fleet expansion programme.

TRAVEL consultants from more countries can now access Oneworld’s online training programme and learn more about its products in any one of six language options.

Formerly available only in English, the alliance yesterday began offering the Oneworld training academy programme in Chinese, French, German, Japanese and Spanish.

The first module, which Oneworld says will require less than half an hour to complete, takes the travel consultant through a series of Oneworld product lessons with an emphasis on the flagship Oneworld Explorer round-the-world fare.

Travel consultants who complete the module can download and print out a diploma that confers upon them the title of Oneworld Explorer round-the-world specialist.

The Oneworld training programme is available at travelagent.oneworld.com and further modules will be released at a later date.

NOBU Hospitality debuts in Asia with the 3Q2014 opening of a hotel within the City of Dreams Manila integrated resort, backed by big name partners such as actor Robert De Niro and film producer Meir Teper.

Trevor Horwell, CEO of Nobu Hospitality, said Nobu is a luxury lifestyle hotel that would attract the leisure market, while efforts would also be made to court the MICE market.

Named after celebrated chef Nobu Matsuhisa, the hotel will offer 321 rooms and feature the eponymous restaurant with an outdoor cabana style dining terrace overlooking Manila Bay.

Nobu Hospitality opened its first hotel in Las Vegas capitalising on the success of the Nobu restaurant brand. De Niro, who was at the launch ceremony yesterday, said celebrity culture helps a brand but “goes only so far”.

“People will come once or twice or thrice out of curiosity, but they will not come back if you don’t have a good product.”

The hotel is expected to be a hit with Chinese tourists. “This is a bet on the Philippines and it is a bet on China,” said James Packer, director of Melco Crown Entertainment, which runs the City of Dreams in Macau and is one of the companies behind the Manila offshoot.

“We really need it to work for the people of Manila and to also be an attraction that is good enough to get the Chinese market to come here and have fun.”

Nobu hotel is the second hotel in the City of Dreams Manila complex.

SOFITEL Luxury Hotels has rolled out its Sofitel Lunar New Year offer for guests from now until February 28.

Available at Sofitel hotels across China, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, India, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, the offer includes: free daily breakfast; US$60 in F&B credit per room per night for use at any hotel restaurant or bar; and gourmet delicacies such as traditional sweet treats, mandarin oranges and local beverages.

Visit www.sofitel.com/hotel-cms/gb/hotel-deals/offers-532.shtml for bookings or more information.