Y.A.Bhg Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, flew on AirAsia X’s flight to London today. The former premier flew on AirAsia X flight D7 2006, which departed Kuala Lumpur for London at 9:10 am (local Malaysia time) and will be touching down in Stansted, UK later at 3:55 pm (local UK time) today.

Tun Dr. Mahathir was accompanied on the flight by his wife, Tun Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali and Deputy Group CEO of AirAsia and co-founder of AirAsia X, Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun.  This is the first time for the airline to receive the honor of having Tun Dr. Mahathir as a guest onboard and also the first for Tun Dr. Mahathir to experience AirAsia X’s Premium fly flatbed on the Airbus A340 aircraft.

In future, airberlin and Iberia are offering selected flights under joint flight numbers. The codeshare agreement comes into effect today and applies to flights starting today. The connection possibilities from and to Madrid will improve for airberlin passengers as a result of the agreement. In addition to the airberlin flights to Madrid, passengers can also book non-stop Iberia flights leaving from Berlin-Tegel, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich as well as Geneva to the Spanish capital effective today. Iberia in turn will benefit from the extensive domestic route network and the good connections to destinations in Scandinavia via the airberlin hub in Berlin.

MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) today debuted the Company’s first Electric Vehicle Charging Station and the first such facility on the Las Vegas Strip for environmentally conscious consumers driving the cleanest, most advanced vehicles on the road. This new Charging Station is located at the valet entrance to The Shoppes at Mandalay Place, between Mandalay Bay and Luxor resorts. Charging service is available free of charge to retail and resort customers driving personal electric vehicles, like the Nissan LEAF and the Chevy Volt.

Fourth CIBTM Pan Asian Meetings Industry Research Report to provide most up-to-date market information on state of meetings and incentives industry

The China Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Exhibition (CIBTM), taking place in Beijing from 30 August – 1 September 2011, is calling on meetings professionals to take part in their fourth global research study. The results from the research will provide the most up-to-date market data on Chinese inbound and outbound demand and supply trends.

Eric Rozenberg, President of Belgian based Swantegy has been appointed as Non-Executive Chair of Reed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) global portfolio of meetings events www.ibtmevents.com. Having just completed a year as the first European to be Chairman of MPI, he will take up this position from July 1^st 2011.  Eric remains fully committed to the development of his own company, Swantegy. The IBTM portfolio includes AIME (Australia), EIBTM (Spain), CIBTM (China), GIBTM (Middle East) and AIBTM (USA).