by Reinhard Hohler

The world’s air travelers have spoken yet again: AirAsia is the world’s best low-cost airline for the third consecutive year!

In the annual global survey conducted by respected London-based aviation consultants Skytrax, almost 19 million travelers polled worldwide chose AirAsia as the World’s Best Low Cost Airline for the third consecutive year. AirAsia came out tops in the independent survey that measures airlines’  product and service standards.

UNWTO Member States attending the 90^th Session of the UNWTO Executive Council have expressed their support for UNWTO’s activities aimed at positing tourism higher in the global political and economic agenda (19-21 June, Mombasa, Kenya).  Chaired by the Minister of Tourism of Italy, Michela Brambilla, the 31 council members, representing UNWTO’s full membership worldwide, welcomed the ‘Global Leaders for Tourism Campaign’ which, together with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), is promoting the socio-economic importance of tourism to heads of states and governments around the world.

TAT Frankfurt

The Thailand  TAT ( Tourism Authority of Thailand ) Frankfurt Office will get a new boss. The current Director will be retire and the successor , starting in september, will be a new lady  from Thailand. This Lady, so the first rumors, is coming from the Public Relation Sector and she would be act very strong for the image of Thailand.

World Tourism Day 2011 will be celebrated under the theme Tourism – Linking Cultures, an opportunity to highlight tourism’s role in bringing the cultures of the world together and promoting global understanding through travel (27 September 2011). “The message on this World Tourism Day is that, thanks to tourism, millions of people from different cultures are being brought together around the world like never before,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. “This interaction between people of different backgrounds and ways of life represents an enormous opportunity to advance tolerance, respect and mutual understanding”.

AirAsia announced today that it has signed with CAE, a global leader in flight training solutions, a joint venture agreement to set up a world-class aviation training centre that will offer state-of-the-art training for airlines throughout Asia. The signing was witnessed by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia, Yang Berhormat Dato’ Saifuddin bin Abdullah. The centre, to be aptly named the Asian Aviation Academy, is the initial effort and a part of the joint venture between AirAsia and CAE which forms the company Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence Sdn. Bhd. The establishment of the training centre will positively contribute to AirAsia’s vast expansion plans by providing highly skilled and certified personnel required for the airline’s fast growing fleet and operations.

airberlin and American Airlines have expanded their codeshare relationship to include airberlin’s new services between Berlin-Tegel and New York-JFK. The non-stop flight operates since May 2011 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday between the German capital and New York. With the addition of this new flight, the codeshare agreement between airberlin and American Airlines now encompasses the entire U.S. network of the second largest German carrier.