A Focus on Travel - MSC NewsWire

Real-time aircraft tracking slowly gaining traction but important questions remain unanswered

Despite widespread agreement that real-time aircraft tracking must be at the top of the air transport industry’s list of priorities, the adoption of tracking solutions continues to be slower than everyone would like. ICAO’s mandate that airlines must adopt 15-minute position reporting as standard will not be implemented until November 2018, while from January 2021 aircraft will need to satisfy the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS) on “distress” tracking, which means aircraft location must be reported at least every minute when an aircraft is in distress. Offering its thoughts on the 2018 deadline, IATA, which has liaised closely with ICAO…

Emirates Boosts Capacity to Milan with Introduction of Second Daily A380

Emirates today unveiled plans to increase capacity on the Dubai-Milan route with the deployment of a second daily A380. The migration from a Boeing 777-300ER to the iconic double decker represents a capacity increase of 1,834 seats per week between the two cities; enabling more A380 to A380 connections to and from key destinations in Australia, China, South Korea and South East Asia with just one stop in Dubai. Commencing 1st October 2016, Emirates flights EK91/92 will be operated by an Airbus A380 aircraft in a 3-class configuration with 14 Private Suites in First Class, 76 flat-bed seats in Business…

Air New Zealand heads to Hollywood for its latest safety video

Air New Zealand has teamed up with Hollywood actress Anna Faris and New Zealand actor and comedic legend Rhys Darby for its latest safety video, Safety in Hollywood. The video, shot at Warner Bros. Studios in Los Angeles, explores several different Hollywood film genres as Darby tries to convince the star of the hit TV show Mom and the Scary Movie films to play a role in Air New Zealand’s new safety video with him. Safety in Hollywood was filmed at four different sets at Warner Bros. with some of the filming locations seen in legendary movies such as Jurassic…

Hawaiian Airlines introduces new auction service for First Class seats

Hawaiian Airlines has launched a new auction service, in partnership with Plusgrade, which allows passengers to bid for available First Class seats. The service, which is called ‘Bid Up’, is designed to be simple to use for travellers and is available to those in the main cabin, who are flying between Hawaii and North America. Those eligible receive an email 10 days before the flight and if they win, they are contacted 48 hours before the flight is set to depart. For the winners, they will be able to utilise some of the extra features in First Class such as…

Emirates introduces the world’s first interactive amenity kit in Economy Class

Emirates has launched the world’s first interactive amenity kit in Economy Class providing a more comfortable travel experience. The stylish new amenity kits utilise augmented reality (AR) technology to unlock immersive content on mobile devices. The kit bags come in six designs inspired by six regions in Emirates’ global network – Australasia, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Far East. The designs incorporate the colours and patterns of each of these regions and the Middle East design, in particular, features Arabic calligraphy by UAE-based artist, Tagelsir Hassan. The kits include all the necessities for additional comfort on long-haul…

serko.travel to launch with XERO on July 25th 2016

Auckland, New Zealand. 7th July 2016 – Serko Ltd. (SKO.NZ) announced that its new small business travel management application, serko.travel, will launch on 25th July 2016, in conjunction with Xero, the leader in online accountancy software. The application is targeted at businesses in New Zealand and Australia with less than 150 employees, will drive significant productivity gains and unlock meaningful cost savings for businesses by streamlining every aspect of business travel. The application, which is free to use, is a simplified version of the same well-established platform used by large corporations across Australia and New Zealand. Serko.travel will give businesses…

SIA launches eBay-style bidding system for upgrades

July 6, 2016 - Singapore Airlines is letting economy class passengers bid to be upgraded to premium economy, using a new system called mySQupgrade – which works a bit like the bidding process on eBay. mySQupgrade is not as simple as it sounds. For a start, not anyone can bid. Invitations “are made at Singapore Airlines’ sole discretion based on certain criteria and combination of factors, which are dynamic”, the airline says. That means, in essence, that you don’t know what the factors are and they are not going to tell you. “To stand a chance of being invited, please…

Trump Travel - “Not affiliated with Donald J. Trump or the Trump Organization”.

BALDWIN, Long Island, New York, June 13 2016 - - A Baldwin business owner spoke with News 12 Long Island about how she had to fight Donald Trump over the name of her travel business. Claudia Rabin-Manning bought Trump Travel in 1989. Shortly after, she was slapped with a lawsuit by the presumptive Republican presidential candidate for using his last name. She says the family-operated travel agency had already been named Trump Travel when she bought it - the name referring to a term used when playing cards. The lawsuit was eventually settled and wound up costing Manning thousands in…

Heritage Town's New Café and Style shops on site and out of sight

Catering for tourists while leaving intact what they have come to see MSCNewsWire, Tuesday 7 June 2016 - Now that tourism is overtaking dairy to become the biggest industry, the problem remains of heritage destinations especially those on the main north-south traffic routes accommodating the surge without in the process wrecking their appeal to the very visitors they seek to attract. Greytown’s ribbon development athwart state highway 2 poses the problem in miniature. Its historic Main Street is also the main road. The solution has been to push development back into the narrow hinterland allowing the preservation of the Victorian…

London’s Heathrow Airport has announced plans to ban night flights in an attempt to boost its bid to build a third runway.

London’s Heathrow Airport has announced plans to ban night flights in an attempt to boost its bid to build a third runway. The airport revealed the measure as part of a package designed to reduce the impact of expansion on the local community and the environment. It will support the introduction of an independent noise authority, and pledged not to add new capacity unless it can do so without delaying UK compliance with EU air quality limits. The west London hub also revealed it would accept any government decision to rule out building a fourth runway in the future. In…

Air New Zealand Dreamliner takes off to Honolulu

Air New Zealand will become the only airline to operate scheduled Dreamliner services between Auckland and Hawaii with the inaugural Boeing 787-9 flight departing to Honolulu tonight. The inaugural Dreamliner flight departs Auckland International Airport at 8.55pm this evening and is due to arrive in Honolulu at 7.30am the same day. This is the first time the airline has operated the Dreamliner on one of its five North American routes on a scheduled and exclusive basis. Air New Zealand Chief Sales and Commercial Officer Cam Wallace says the deployment of the Dreamliner between Auckland and Honolulu enables us to offer…