HAINAN Airlines will introduce thrice-weekly direct services between Shenzhen and Kolkata from July 12, using Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a configuration of eight business-class and 154 economy-class seats.

K. Goswami, of Kolkata-based Travelcorp, said: “The timing of the new flight is great because our holiday season in October is just around the corner. Moreover, there has been increasing interest in FIT travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau over the past two years.”

The three-and-a-half hour flight to Shenzhen will offer onward connections to about 20 cities in China. Hainan Airlines will provide complimentary coach transportation from Shenzhen airport to Hong Kong, which is less than an hour’s drive away. Bus services from the airport to Guangzhou will also be available for a reasonable fee.

At the moment, Kolkata is linked to Kunming via flights operated by China Eastern Airlines. Kolkata has no other direct connections to China, and travellers usually have to transit through Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore to go to China and Hong Kong.

Special promotional fares are being offered by Hainan Airlines for travel before July 31 from Kolkata to Shenzhen and several other destinations.

Kolkata, the main gateway of eastern India, has substantial trade links with China, while Indian participation in the Canton and Hong Kong trade fairs is becoming increasingly common.

By Sirima Eamtako

AIR China will host and chair the 68th Annual Conference of the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) and the World Civil Aviation Summit, to be held in Beijing in 2012.

The event will bring together executives and decision-makers of the world’s airlines, airports, aircraft manufacturers and service suppliers.

IATA has 230 member carriers and holds its annual conference in different cities each year to release important industry economic data, produce industry projections and deliberate on crucial industry decisions.

WITH China and South Korea having agreed in May to establish direct flights between Seoul Gimpo Airport and Beijing Capital Airport, four airlines will be adjusting their Seoul-Beijing services from July 1.

This is to take advantage of Gimpo’s location nearer Seoul’s city centre.

Air China, which operates four daily flights on a Boeing 737-800 between Beijing and Seoul (Incheon), will be reducing this service to thrice-daily. One daily flight will be diverted to the Beijing-Gimpo route.

China Southern will be halving its twice-daily Airbus A321 service between Beijing and Incheon, and will be launching a daily Beijing-Gimpo flight.

Asiana Airlines and Korean Air, each operating thrice-daily services between Incheon and Beijing, will reduce these to twice-daily. The third daily flight from Beijing will be diverted to Gimpo.

CLAIMING resounding success for its first Global Deals, Dream Getaways sale in May (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 6), Malaysia Airlines (MAS) released a second wave of promotions yesterday. This time, up to 80 per cent off airfares to more than 100 destinations worldwide are on offer.

MAS executive vice president sales and marketing, Bernard Francis, said: “The offer covers all travel segments, for business and economy seats. It is an opportunity for everyone planning a romantic getaway, family vacation or group retreat. Even business travellers who have planned conventions or seminars can purchase these deals.”

One-way business-class fares range from US$94 for flights from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, to US$417 for flights to regional destinations.

Commenting on the revived promotion, Elok Tour branch director, Pauline Suharno, said: “I guess MAS does not want to lose momentum, especially as Thai Airways also has economy- and business-class promotions going on.”

Wita Tour sales and marketing manager, Rudiana, said: “There seems to be a shift in marketing strategy by some Asian legacy airlines, to compete with the low-fare longhaul services offered by carriers like AirAsia X and the aggressive marketing of Middle Eastern carriers.

“With lower fares across the board, business travellers who usually fly economy are able to fly with premium airlines like Singapore Airlines. Malaysia Airlines is probably doing this mega-deals promotion to keep this market from shifting away,” Rudiana added.

SCANDINAVIAN outbound tour operator TUI Nordic will be sending 150,000 holidaymakers to Thailand during the winter season from November to March, up from last year’s 135,000, in spite of increasing costs.

TUI Nordic CEO, Christian Clemens, said the figure was based on the continued strong demand for Thailand, which is firmly entrenched as the tour operator’s second most popular destination. The Canary Islands is its number one destination.

Clemens said tour prices for the coming winter season had been maintained, even as the tour operator battled increasing fuel costs, the stronger Thai currency against the euro and later-booking trends.

He said that TUI Nordic was able to achieve this through fuel hedging and early-booking discounts from hotel partners.

During the winter months, TUI Nordic normally operates six flights per week from 10 Scandinavian cities to Bangkok, Phuket and Krabi. This year, it will start operating the flights from mid-October, extending the high season by an additional month for its 160 Thai hotel partners, and facilitating the use of early-bird discounts.

TUI Nordic has also urged Thai tourism authorities to spend more on destination marketing targeting outbound travel during the summer season from early-April to early-October. The tour operator has only been operating one regular weekly flight between Scandinavia and Thailand for three consecutive summers.

“We need sustained destination marketing support from the Thai tourism authorities,” said Clemens.

By Sirima Eamtako

THE LURE of a 1,600-euro (US$2,347) Thailand tour package – which turned out to be a con deal – was just too hard to resist for 1,000 would-be Spanish holidaymakers.

The police have issued an international arrest warrant for the owner of travel agency Siente Tailandia (Feel Thailand), Pedro Marti, who has apparently absconded with the money and closed shop.

According to reports, Marti operated from Tarragona, south of Barcelona, and is rumoured to be married to a Thai national.

The regional information technology crimes unit in Catalonia estimated that as much as 700,000 euros could have been fleeced from victims of the fraud, and reported that complaints about the company continue to pour in daily.

The main attraction for people booking with Siente Tailandia was a 13-night circuit tour of Thailand for 1,600 euros, or 700 euros, for those who arranged their own flights. The offer included stays at four-star hotels, various excursions, a Spanish-speaking guide and basic insurance.

At least two tours did take place, according to Spanish police.

One of the victims, Silvia Stinga, said she and her boyfriend were planning a trip incorporating Thailand and Vietnam in August. Bank transfers to make final payments for the holiday were set for mid-May, but they never heard from Marti again and nobody answered the contact number.

“Marti didn’t create any lack of confidence because he was very attentive and the price was not too cheap,” said Stinga, adding that the difference between Marti and other tour operators was that he offered “more personalized attention”.

Among those who reported the company to police was a couple on honeymoon, who were due to meet Marti at the airport in Bangkok. When they could not contact Marti, they went to the hotel where they were supposed to have rooms reserved, but discovered that there had been no bookings made.

AN INCREASING number of international hotel chains are eyeing Sri Lanka, now that it appears to be on the road to recovery following the civil war that ended in 2009.

International chains that already have a foothold in the country include Hilton and Taj, while Thai-based Six Senses recently signed a deal with a local partner to establish two resorts (TTG Asia e-Daily, May 10).

Movenpick Hotels & Resorts, which last December signed a management contract with Sri Lanka’s SoftLogic Group to operate a new five-star, 224-room hotel in Colombo, is now turning its attention to other properties.

In an interview with the Sri Lanka-based Business Times in January, Andreas Mattmuller, Movenpick COO for Middle East and Asia, revealed that along with their SoftLogic partners, Movenpick was scouting for properties to manage on the country’s southern and eastern coasts.

The Swiss group is joined by the likes of Accor, Starwood and Four Seasons, which have also shown an interest in either owning or managing properties in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, Banyan Tree yesteday terminated a management agreement for the 77-room Deer Park Hotel in Giritalle, which has been managed under the Angsana brand, in order to focus on developing its own projects in the country.

Banyan Tree revealed in a press statement that its plans for Sri Lanka encompass either single-hotel projects in iconic, pristine areas, or an integrated resort with several hotels, a golf course, residential developments and retail and spa centres.

The model for its envisaged Sri Lanka integrated resort is Banyan Tree’s Laguna Phuket project.

A delegation headed by Ho Kwon Ping, executive chairman of Banyan Tree, was recently in Sri Lanka to visit possible sites.

“We were about to open a beach resort near Colombo when it was destroyed by the Asian tsunami (in 2004),” said Ho. “We are happy to be back and are optimistic about the prospects for this beautiful and now peaceful country.”

SINGAPORE-based Bonvo Travel has partnered with B2B conference organiser Fleming Gulf to manage eight conferences in the region.

As the official travel partner for these conferences, Bonvo Travel will provide corporate travel management services to delegates, covering flight arrangements, accommodation, and other related services.

The conferences will cover topics ranging from aviation to defence, banking and finance, oil and gas, life sciences, energy, transportation, telecommunications and construction.

Each event will attract close to 150 global delegates, the majority of whom are from Fortune 500 companies in the blue-chip sector.

The first three conferences will be the 2nd Annual Asia Islamic Banking Conference (July 4 to 5), the Asia-Pacific HSE Forum in Oil & Gas & Petrochemicals (September 20 to 22), and the 2nd Annual Retail Banking Asia Pacific (October 4 to 5). All three will take place in Kuala Lumpur.

The rest of the conferences take place on different dates stretching until May 2012.

TICKET prices of flights to and from Europe are likely to go up next January, when the aviation sector will be included under the European Union’s emissions trading system (EU ETS), despite continued opposition from airlines overseas.

The EU has set a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, with airlines having to pay for emissions that exceed those limits.

Speaking to media on the sidelines of the IATA AGM in Singapore earlier this week, Lufthansa CEO, Dr Christoph Franz, estimated that the ETS would result in an additional annual cost of 150-350 million euros (US$220 million to US$512 million), depending on the actual price of certificates.

Dr Franz explained that while the airline had started to purchase certificates, it has yet to introduce any ETS surcharge in ticket prices, as there were still doubts whether the scheme would be implemented as scheduled.

He added that the ETS was being met with vehement protest from some countries that “have even announced retaliatory measures against EU carriers, which will then increase the competitive disadvantage for European carriers”.

Some 4,000 aircraft operators around the world will be affected by the scheme, with many arguing that the EU has no right to unilaterally impose this on carriers from other countries.

US airlines will take their case to the European Court of Justice next month, while the China Air Transport Association has said it would recommend “harsher counter-measures” against flights by European carriers operated in and out of China.

At a CEO forum during the IATA AGM, Emirates Airline president Tim Clark said the EU’s scheme would likely spawn a series of ETS-like measures in other regions like Asia and the Middle East, further burdening the industry.

“We are now perhaps the highest taxed entity of any business on the planet today,” he said.

– Read more in TTG Asia, June 10 issue

THAI hotel chain Dusit International has bought a partially-completed five-star resort in the Maldives.

The property, located on Mudhdhoo Island in Baa Atoll, is 80 per cent complete, and consists of 100 villas, one spa building, and three restaurants and bars.

In a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, Dusit revealed that it would pay US$60 million for leasehold rights for 33 years until 2044.

Dusit expects to invest another US$17 million to complete the resort and cover pre-opening expenses.

The company added that it was looking for a co-investor, but that Dusit would keep hold of at least 50 per cent equity.