Business Travel Tips

Beginning January 11, 2009 Northwest Airlines will reduce flights between Portland, Ore. and Amsterdam from five flights a week to four.

The carrier has announced it is a temporarily reduction of the service; the schedule of five weekly flights will resume on March 23.

NWA will also continue to provide daily flights between Portland and the Dutch capital throughout the summer months starting in July.

As a NWA service between Hartford’s Bradley International Airport and Amsterdam is expected to start on June 2 2009.

According to data released by IATA, international air cargo traffic dropped by 13.5 percent in November. It’s the worst drop since the September 11 terror attacks, reflecting the impact of the economic downturn and the associated fall in global trade.

International air passenger traffic fell by 4.6 percent from a year earlier, the worst drop in the past three months — it was 1.3 percent down in October, 2.9 percent in September.

Regionally

Freight traffic declined by 16.9 percent for the Asia-Pacific airlines, with North American, European and Latin American carriers also registering double-digit drops.

Asia-Pacific carriers were also the heaviest hit in the air passenger traffic with a 9.7 percent drop.
North American airlines recorded a decline of 4.8 percent.
Middle Eastern airlines posted a growth of 5.6 percent — it was a double-digit growth before the crisis.

Industry analysts say that despite weakening demand, many airlines will be in better financial conditions in 2009 because lower fuel prices would more than compensate for fewer passengers.

US’ largest low-fare carrier Southwest Airlines is set to entry into the airports of Minneapolis-St. Paul (next March) and New York’s LaGuardia as well as to increase service on more heavy business-travel routes in 2009. That is part of the Southwest’s strategy to capture more of the business-travel market in 2009.

Southwest has already introduced some changes in 2008 to better serve business travelers.
A new pricing system offering up to 15 different fares — the old system offered as few as three fares on many routes. A new flight-scheduling system gradually is reducing flight frequencies on lower-demand routes and adding flights on business-travel routes. Also airport gates have been updated with business-traveler-friendly features such as laptop workstations.

By citing the result of an internal research Southwest says it is already No. 1 in domestic business travel.

Dave Ridley, Southwest’s senior vice president, says:

“We’ve always appealed most to people who pay for it out of their own pocket, whether it be entrepreneurs, or small-business owners, or professionals who recognize that what they spend on travel isn’t coming out of some big corporation’s travel budget but out of their own pocket, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appeal to those who don’t pay for it out of their own pocket”.
He adds: “We are trying to convince business travelers that our service offerings really do meet their needs”. (Source)

Airlines can no longer use maintenance issues or other aircraft’s technical problems to withhold payments to customers affected by flight cancellations or delays.

A European Court has recently ruled that carriers must now prove that the problems causing flight cancellation or severe delays were extraordinary events. An example could be the case of terrorist attack or extreme weather conditions.

Airlines were able to not pay compensation to passengers using as an excuse aircraft’s simple technical problems.

British Airways has launched a huge sale on worldwide economy flights.

You can choose from over 75 worldwide destinations with round-trip fares starting at as low as £279 for flights from London Heathrow to Atlanta or £329 for flights from London to Mumbai, just to cite a few examples.

Below a sampling of deals in Economy BA is offering.
Fares are rond-trip and include taxes and surcharges.
Booking must be made by January 27.
Travel period: between January and March 31, 2009.

From London Heathrow Airport to:
- Atlanta (Hartsfield Jackson) from £279
- Chicago (O’Hare) from £289
- Los Angeles (Intl) from £339
- New York (JFK) from £259
- Bangalore from £359
- Mumbai from £329
- Shanghai (Pu Dong) from £439
- Tokyo (Narita) from £519
- Sydney (Kingsford Smith) from £699
- Rio de Janeiro (Intl) from £549
- Mexico City (Benito Juarez) from £549
- Dubai from £299
- Milan (Malpensa) from £59
- Berlin (Tegel) from £55
-Istanbul (Ataturk) from £79
You can change the departure date for a fee of £30 for domestic and European routes and £50 for the other worldwide destinations. Full details of this British Airways’ sale at BA website.