In October, airberlin again showed a very high capacity utilization and was able to welcome more passengers on board per flight. Capacity utilization over the entire airberlin flight route network amounted to 84.61 percent, thus slightly exceeding the level reached in the corresponding period of the previous year (84.49 percent). In total, airberlin welcomed 3,013,054 passengers on board for the month of October.

Carlson Rezidor, one of the ten largest and most dynamic hotel groups worldwide, announces the Radisson Blu Le Vendome Hotel Cape Town in South Africa. The upper upscale property featuring 143 rooms is scheduled to open within the next six months. Formerly known as “Hotel Le Vendome” and a local landmark, the property is undergoing renovation and refurbishment in order to be re-positioned as one of Cape Town’s leading upper upscale addresses.

Paul Gregorowitsch, 57, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at airberlin since September 2011, has decided to leave the company with effect from 1st December of this year to return to the Netherlands and take up a new professional challenge there starting in March 2014.

Our friend Imtiaz Muqbil from Travel Impact Newswire is based in Bangkok as a Journalist since 32 years. Between 1999 and 2006, right after PATA moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Bangkok, Imtiaz Muqbil became the first Asian travel industry journalist to edit, write and research Issues & Trends. During this period, I&T produced cutting-edge analysis on topics that were well ahead of their time.
Today he watched the PATA CEO at the ITB Asia in Singapore very critically:

The United Kingdom is now Thailand’s second largest market out of Europe. In January-June 2013, Thailand welcomed more than 410,538 UK visitors, up 3.07 percent over January-June 2012. Given the recent economic conditions in the UK, that is a very acceptable result. In 2013, TAT is projecting 838,000 visitor arrivals and earnings of 57 billion Baht from the UK market.

American Express Global Business Travel Predicts Country-Specific Economic Trends and Supply-Side Dynamics to Drive Changes in Business Travel Prices in 2014 .Subdued global economic growth is not likely to impact business travel demand; road warriors expected to continue pursuing business across the globe. According to the American Express Global Business Travel Forecast 2014 (the “Forecast”), country-specific, rather than global, economic trends – such as Brazil’s preparation for upcoming global sporting events, Germany’s relative economic strength within the Eurozone and China’s slower but stabilizing growth – are expected to contribute to a slight uptick in business travel prices within specific regions.