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Latest business travel news brought to you by Uni-Travel Ltd., courtesy of
news website. |
Qantas unveils A380 plan -
Seats went on sale on 16 June for Qantas’ premier Airbus A380 route from Melbourne
to Los Angeles which will commence on 20 October.
The airline’s first super-jumbo will operate two return services each week to LA,
with the second flying from Sydney (from 24 October). Once it takes delivery of
a second A380 in November, Qantas then plans to run two Melbourne-LA rotations (Mondays
and Wednesdays) and three Sydney-LA rotations (Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays)
each week. It will also introduce the aircraft progressively on selected flights
from Sydney to Singapore and London from early next year.
Each aircraft will be configured with 450 seats, with 14 First Suites, 72 Business,
32 Premium Economy and 332 Economy. A complete redesign of the airline’s First Class
cabin offers passengers more privacy, and Business fliers will enjoy fully-flat
seats and a dedicated lounge.
“All four classes of the A380 will offer passengers greater levels of space and
comfort, as well as state-of-the-art interiors designed by Qantas creative director
Marc Newson,” said Qantas Group general manager sales and distribution Rob Gurney.
Qantas will be the third airline to fly Airbus’ giant passenger jumbo – Singapore
Airlines is the first, and Emirates will begin scheduled services between Dubai
and New York on 1 October. |
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Ramada in Manchester -
Ramada has opened a brand new 142-room four-star hotel in the Salford Quays
development facilities for business travellers.
On Trafford Road, the Ramada Manchester Salford Quays is 15mins from the city centre
by tram, has easy access to the M60 and M62 motorways, and is close to Manchester’s
‘Media City.’
Its 142 en suite rooms are all kitted out with wall-mounted Philips LCD plasma screens
offering 27 channels (including Sky Sports), free Wi-Fi internet access, work spaces,
and leather sofas and armchairs. Sixteen interconnecting rooms are available for
groups.
Five conference and meeting rooms are also available on the first floor, which can
accommodate up to 150 guests. Each has flexible layouts – for theatre, boardroom
or ‘classroom’ style seating plans – and all are furnished with the latest technology
including LCD projectors, plasma screens and complimentary wireless internet connection. |
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UK airline punctuality down -
London City and Heathrow were the UK airports with the lowest number of aircraft
arriving and departing on time in the first quarter of 2008.
Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) show that only 56% of flights
at Heathrow were on schedule (defined as within 15min either side of stated time),
down nine percentage points compared with the same three months last year.
London City’s performance plummeted more sharply still – by 12 percentage points
– as 58% of aircraft landed and left on time.
“We were at capacity during this period but that’s exactly why we introduced four
new aircraft stands on 6 May which have reduced some of the problems on ground,”
a City airport spokeswoman told ABTN. “We are confident it will get better. It’s
also important to remember there was period of quite bad weather – with lots of
fog in the Docklands - so that affected flights which couldn’t land or take off.”
Overall performance of scheduled services at the ten airports monitored by the CAA
fell by four percentage points to 68%. Pulling up the average were Luton, which
jumped five points (76%), Gatwick four (72%), Stansted two (80%) and Birmingham
one (78%).
The average delay was longer this year – 18mins compared to 16mins – and among the
75 busiest routes, scheduled services to Dubai, Istanbul and Helsinki had on-time
records of less than 50%, with the first two suffering average delays of more than
half an hour per flight.
Those to Guernsey were the most reliable with 86% on time, and the shortest average
delay was at Shannon (nine minutes).
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