The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has been honored as Hotel Group of the Year at the Worldwide Hospitality Awards 2012. At the gala event in Paris, Trudy Rautio, president & chief executive officer, Carlson, and Kurt Ritter, president & chief executive officer, Rezidor, received the prestigious trophy for the group’s outstanding achievements in four complementing areas: development, innovation, human resources, and business performance.

With the motto “Flying Home for Christmas”, the airberlin Christmas aircraft is taking off once again. This year the Boeing 737-800 with the registration Mike Juliette has a 2.54 metre high and 4.2 metre wide Santa Claus made of photos from nearly 2,000 airberlin fans and employees who uploaded their images to the airline’s Facebook page.

The Rezidor Hotel Group, one of the fastest growing hotel companies worldwide and a member of the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, announces two new Radisson Blu hotels in Germany. Both are existing properties – the Radisson Blu Hotel Dortmund featuring 190 rooms will be re-branded in January 2013; the Radisson Blu Hotel Bremen (235 rooms) will follow in June 2013. The hotels will be softly renovated over a period of 18 months.

by Reinhard Hohler, Chiang Mai
According to the latest PATA news, destinations in the ASEAN bloc remain remarkably popular for Chinese visitors. With a year-on-year 27% growth rate, arrivals from China accounted over 10% of total international arrivals to ASEAN during the first six months of 2012, making it the second largest source market behind Singapore.

airberlin shows improved operating result of more than EUR 100 million; net income more than doubles. Higher revenue, increased capacity utilization, improved yield and successful partnerships.External cost increases partially offset by efficiency-improvement program. Etihad Airways relationship contributes approximately EUR 50 million revenues in the year to date and significant cost savings; airlines continue to investigate new opportunities. Turbine 2013: Strategic reorientation and concentration on core competence necessary for sustainably improving income in the coming year

Over much of the past decade, Turkish Airlines has been a rising star in global aviation and continues to expand and rejuvenate its fleet. The airline has now reached its goal of operating a fleet of 200 aircraft.
This will give Turkish Airlines, Europe’s youngest and most modern fleet as it works towards its goal of having the largest global network of an airline. It is presently the world’s fifth largest airline and with the addition of the 200th aircraft, the airline continues to strengthen its position.