GARUDA Indonesia is planning to launch services to London, Brisbane and Auckland in 3Q2013 with the delivery of 24 new aircraft next year.

Speaking at the Garuda Indonesia Travel Fair (GATF) in Jakarta last weekend, Garuda president and CEO, Emirsyah Satar, said: “Next year we will receive 24 new aircraft comprising four B777-300ER, 10 B737-800 NG, two Airbus A330-200, one A330-300 and seven Bombardier CRJ-1000 NG. This will allow us to ­­expand our domestic and international network to support the Indonesian tourism (industry).

“With the arrival of our B777 aircraft, we are planning to start (the) Jakarta-London (route) next year. We also plan to (to fly) to Brisbane and Auckland (with A330s).”

The airline plans to fly to London four times a week initially, according to Garuda’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, Elisa Lumbantoruan.

Welcoming Garuda’s potential new services, Indonesia’s deputy minister of tourism and creative economy, Sapta Nirwandar, said: “Tourist arrivals will grow much higher than they are today if we have more direct flights. Depending on other airlines means (having a) limited seat allotment. Therefore, we are looking forward to new route openings and capacity increases from our national carrier.”

At GATF, Garuda also introduced the concept of a mobile ticketing counter. A converted minibus will be parked in public places such as shopping malls at stipulated times.

Satar said: “The service will provide convenience for our passengers in areas like South Jakarta, where we do not have a sales office, allowing them to make reservations and check-in to get their boarding pass. They only need to drop their baggage at the airport.”

The airline will first roll out the mobile ticketing counter in Jakarta, followed by other major cities. Schedules will be available on the airline’s website, according to a Garuda spokesman.

INDIA’S Ministry of Civil Aviation has approved flights to a host of new destinations for Indian carriers. As a result, they can operate 1,526 flights a week during summer 2013, up from 1,074 this year.

Permission has been granted for destinations such as Macau, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, Zurich, Sydney, Melbourne, Moscow, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Nairobi and Al Najaf (Iraq) with immediate effect. No Indian carrier currently flies to these cities.

The ministry will also begin talks with Singapore, Oman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai for increased flights.

On top of that, it will start fresh dialogues with several countries on mutual increases in entitlement. Although some foreign carriers are utilising as much as 98 per cent of their allocation, Indian carriers are not using even half.

Gulf-based carriers such as Etihad Airways and Emirates have upped flight capacity to 54,000 seats per week and Qatar Airways, 18,000, but Indian carriers are only taking up 4,000 seats to Doha, for example.

Rajendra Churiwala, director-eastern region, IATA Agents Association of India, said: “Indian carriers flying to new destinations in Asia and Europe are a big boost to tourism. Many countries like Spain, Italy, Vietnam, Indonesia and Macau are popular international tourist destinations, but were not getting enough traffic from India due to a lack of direct flights. Now, outbound volume should improve greatly.”

B T Ramnani, director, Vensimal World Travel Agents, said: “Opening up new cities for Indian carriers will help fulfil India’s target of 12 million tourists by 2015. Direct flights from these destinations will help bring more tourists into the country.”

SEVERAL resolutions covering the areas of environment, taxes, passenger services, passenger facilitation, safety and security were passed at the conclusion of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) 56^th Assembly of Presidents on Friday.

In the area of environmental conservation, AAPA called on the European Union to postpone the inclusion of international aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, pending international agreement.

AAPA also pleaded for governments to refrain from increasing aviation levies in any form, which would put financial strain on travellers and the aviation industry.

Andrew Herdman, AAPA director-general, said: “The bold initiatives being taken by Asia-Pacific carriers to change the competitive landscape offer great promise to the travelling public, but governments seem oblivious to the counterproductive impact of never ending new legislation and taxation.”

On passenger services, AAPA wanted governments to recognise the role of a competitive marketplace in motivating airlines to respond to passengers’ needs and service expectations, and to steer clear of legislation that would act as a disincentive.

Government agencies were also asked to consult widely with the aviation industry to strike a better balance between national border control objectives and the need for efficient passenger facilitation, and to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated towards passenger processing at checkpoints.

For safety, AAPA said air transport remained the safest form of travel because of cooperation between the industry and governments, coordinated by the International Civil Aviation Organization, urging governments not to impose punitive measures and restrictions on foreign carriers.

Lastly, to ensure security, the association encouraged governments to develop and implement intelligence-led, outcome-based security measures that realistically balance risks against the costs and inconvenience posed to travellers.

– Read more in TTG Asia, November 16-29, 2012

JAPAN’S Prince Hotels Inc has charted a growth strategy of expanding in Asia, particularly China and South-east Asia, in the next few years.

Part of the Seibu Group, Prince Hotels was established in 1956 and is Japan’s largest domestic hotel company by number of rooms. However, through those decades, its overseas footprint only comprises three hotels and three golf courses in Hawaii, which it owns, and four franchised hotels, three in Taiwan and one in Malaysia.

But following a focus on cost-control in the past seven years, the time is now ripe to revisit its Asian expansion plan, particularly as its main domestic focus has now been established, according to Masahiro Sekine, corporate director-managing administrator.

It intends to expand through management and franchise agreements and has already secured two management contracts in China, one a ski resort and the other a hotel, opening in December 2013 and in 2014 respectively.

The hotel management arm, Prince Hotels & Resorts, operates three brands, The Prince, Grand Prince Hotel and Prince Hotel.

Sekine and other Prince Hotels senior executives were at the Hotel Investment Conference Asia-Pacific in Hong Kong last month to study the market and seek opportunities.

Stan Brown, corporate director-executive adviser business management division, said opportunities in South-east Asia would include locations with a strong presence of Japanese factories, such as Vietnam.

“Prince Hotels is so established in Japan. It has years of experience in managing hotels and is a brand that can bring Japanese business to you,” he said.

A capital investment of 10 billion yen (US$125.8 million) has also been set aside to upgrade existing key properties in the portfolio.

BANGKOK Airways is on a trail to expand its regional destination network as well as ink more codeshare agreements, hot on the heels of its new Bangkok-Vientiane daily services, beginning next month.

Bangkok Airways senior vice president of network management, Peter Wiesner, said: “It is our policy to fly to two destinations in neighbouring countries, and we are already flying to Luang Prabang.”

The airline will also add a new destination in Myanmar – Mandalay being among the possibilities – to its network next year, he added. The airline currently operates three daily flights to Yangon.

As for its Koh Samui-Kuala Lumpur service, which commenced on April 12 with Malaysia Airlines as a codeshare partner (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 27, 2012), Wiesner described this route as “doing well” and “better than expected”.

He said: “The next step is to work on a frequent flyer programme with Malaysia Airlines next year.”

Wiesner revealed that the airline is also looking at launching four to five new codeshares in 2013 with partners such as Qatar Airways and British Airways.

The Thai airline recently embarked a codeshare tie-up with Japan Airlines (JAL) on selected flights between three airports in Japan and Bangkok operated by JAL, as well as between Bangkok and four points within the region operated by Bangkok Airways (TTG Asia e-Daily, November 7, 2012), effective November 15, 2012.

QANTAS has dealt the industry a painful one-two punch as it seeks to restructure its operations and tackle rising fuel costs, slashing 400 jobs and increasing international fares by three per cent.

According to news agency AFP, the airline announced it was slashing the jobs of 150 staff and 250 contractors, after axing hundreds of maintenance posts six months earlier.

Lyell Strambi, chief of Qantas’ domestic operations, said: “The Qantas group fleet age is at its lowest level in 20 years, with 122 new aircraft joining the fleet in the past four-and-a-half years.

“I believe we have some of the most highly skilled and capable engineers in the world. Unfortunately, we just have too many for the work we have right now and the work we expect to have in the future.”

Meanwhile, news has also been circulating about a fare hike by Qantas.

According to the website of Corporate Travel Connections, an Australian TMC, fares for Qantas’ international first, business, premium economy and economy cabins will increase by around three per cent. The new fare levels will apply to Qantas International core tariff fares from Australia for tickets issued on or after November 21.

This has also been reported by local broadsheet The Australian.

CHINA is likely to overtake the US as the biggest business travel market by 2020, with expenditure and investment in infrastructure already skyrocketing and secondary cities emerging as viable business destinations.

Said Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) China director of sales & account management, Yates Fei: “Despite a slowdown in the speed of economic growth in China, business travel to the region continues to increase.”

He added: “Figures from the GBTA (Global Business Travel Association) suggest China will become the world’s biggest travel market within three years.”

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, business travel expenditure in the country leapt from US$18 billion in 2000 to US$62 billion in 2010, and this figure is expected to balloon to US$277 billion by 2020, eclipsing the US.

China is also setting aside substantial amounts for infrastructure investment. GBTA reports that US$237 billion has been earmarked for infrastructure development between 2011 and 2015, with a further US$239 billion committed to growing China’s high-speed rail network.

Boeing predicts that Chinese carriers will grow at an annual average of 8.9 per cent over the next 20 years, partly due to the burgeoning domestic market but also because of their sufficient resources to compete in the international market.

Air travel currently makes up 85 per cent of business trips, though rail travel should see a rise as Chinese authorities aim to have all cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants connected by 2020.

“China began investment in infrastructure a long time ago, with particular peaks before 2008 to accommodate demand from the Beijing Olympics, and the pace has picked up in recent years,” said Fei.

HRG also found that hotel rates were stabilising in Beijing and Shanghai, proof that the business travel landscape in China is maturing. Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Chengdu are the fastest emerging business travel destinations, witnessing significant corporate travel bookings over the last few years.

KEMPINSKI Hotels will open the 480-room Kempinski Ambience Hotel Delhi on November 26, its first Indian property independent of Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts.

“We were in partnership with Leela for a long time, and both companies have done so well. Leela wants to expand overseas and we want to expand in India, and that’s why we decided to move apart. From a commercial perspective, that was the right decision,” said Vella Ramasawmy, general manager, Kempinski Ambience Hotel Delhi.

In a press release earlier this year, Kempinski stated that the opening of Kempinski Ambience Hotel Delhi would not affect the 25-year partnership between it and Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts, which will only end in 2015/2016.

The two firms are undergoing a progressive and controlled phase out that will be implemented over the next few years. At present, Leela continues to benefit from Kempinski’s sales and marketing network.

Owned by the Ambience Group, Kempinski’s maiden hotel is primarily targeting the MICE segment with its state-of-the-art conference and banquet facilities, including a 5,000-pax ballroom. It is expecting 70 per cent of its business to be MICE-generated, with an average occupancy of 60 per cent.

“Delhi in the past has faced stiff competition from cities like Hyderabad and Pune as far as hosting MICE events is concerned. I believe Kempinski Ambience Hotel Delhi is going to be a landmark iconic property in the Delhi region,” said Ramasawmy.

He revealed that Kempinski was looking to open another six properties in India by 2015.

“We want to position ourselves in the right city, right place. We are open to collaborating with partners besides the Ambience Group, and are looking at areas including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kerala and Goa. Our focus is to have a mix of products,” said Ramasawmy.