News from Business Travel Market
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Some news from Business Travel Market in London this week
Qatar Airways showcases B787 seats
Qatar Airways showcased the seats that will be used on its Dreamliner 787 at Business Travel Market earlier this week. The airline displayed the seats in the Hosted Buyer Lounge section of the show, which also showed its new inflight entertainment system. Qatar Airways’ will use its first of 60 Dreamliners on flights between Heathrow and Doha on one of its five daily flights. It will have 22 seats in business class in a 1-2-1 configuration, with 232 economy seats in 3-3-3. The carrier has launched a further 16 routes in the last year, including flights to Kolkata, Chongqing and Erbil.
BTM: Industry talks head by Gray Dawes
Gray Dawes Travel and Expense Management has launched a quarterly ‘dine and discuss’ programme. The company’s CEO Suzanne Cockburn will host the gdviewpoint events with its clients’ senior executives to discuss best practice and industry issues in a relaxed environment. The first event took place last night in London’s Soho House on the topic ‘total cost of trip’. “The first in this series of events provides an excellent opportunity for us to discuss the issues that are important to senior executives and to demonstrate our commitment to assisting corporates to streamline their travel and expense management programmes, take control and ultimately reduce costs,” said Cockburn.
The initiative has been announced after a study by Ideaworks and Amadeus found that 58% of travel managers are unable to track ancillary fees and 37.5% of travel buyers rely on manual expense forms. Amadeus believes ancillary sales through GDS could triple in the future, with better reporting and spending control tools available.
