The first of Air New Zealand’s new-look Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners has touched down in Auckland, with a freshly configured interior offering more premium seating options for customers. The airline has refreshed the cabin configuration for its next four Dreamliner deliveries in response to growing demand for premium travel, increasing the number of Business Premier seats from 18 to 27 and Premium Economy seats from 21 to 33. Air New Zealand Chief Marketing and Customer Officer Mike Tod says the airline is expecting the new cabin layout to be popular with customers. “Since we introduced the Dreamliner, we have seen strong customer demand for our award-winning Business Premier and Premium Economy cabins and the products and service that come with these. Increasing the size of these cabins on our new 787-9 Dreamliners will give more customers than ever the opportunity to experience why Air New Zealand has been named by Airlineratings.com as the best airline in the world for the past four years,” Mr Tod says. Mr Tod says the team at Boeing has been excellent to work with during the design process. “They share our vision of taking comfort in the sky to the next level for more people and have supported Air New Zealand as we set a new benchmark for 787-9 Dreamliner travel,” he says. Boeing Commercial Airplanes Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific & India Sales Dinesh Keskar, says the manufacturer has enjoyed the opportunity to work with the 787-9 Dreamliner launch customer on this reconfiguration of the aircraft. “Since the launch of the 787-9 Dreamliner, Boeing and Air New Zealand have partnered together to bring a new level of capability and comfort to passengers around the world. With the delivery of its tenth 787-9 Dreamliner – and its newly refreshed interior – Air New Zealand is once again demonstrating its commitment to taking the customer experience to the next level,” Dr Keskar says. Air New Zealand was the first airline in the world to take delivery of the revolutionary 787-9 aircraft in 2014 and this latest arrival takes the airline’s fleet to 10 Dreamliners. The delivery is also the airline’s first from Boeing’s facility in North Charleston, South Carolina. The fleet has performed well to date, delivering good fuel efficiencies with each aircraft 20 percent more efficient than the aircraft they have replaced. The latest aircraft, with the tail number ZK-NZL arrived in Auckland just before 7pm last night, Sunday 8 October (local time). Air New Zealand’s newest aircraft is currently scheduled to enter service on Sunday 15 October, operating a service to Sydney. It will be deployed onto the Auckland–Houston route in December 2017, the first time a Dreamliner will regularly service one of the airline’s North American routes.

| An Air New Zealand release  ||  October 09,  2017   |||

Australasia’s long-established Customised operator Out-Distances competition with long-range journeys onto the Roads less Travelled

Australasian tour operator Odyssey Traveller anticipated the narrow ultra-specialised consumer requirement so evident today.

Now of course the customised preference drift has become the dominant leisure industry direction echoed so distinctly in outward and inward packaged travel everywhere.

Tailored around the knowledge-seeking experience Odyssey’s expeditionary-style tours are sharply defined around just a few time-frame durations, notably of nine and 30 days.

Focussed on the 50 plus age sector Odyssey’s concentration on the exclusivity of small travelling groups means that the operator can mould its offerings to conform to traveller preference rather than the other way around.

The Sydney-based Odyssey is owned by the Australian and New Zealand universities.

In an academic-dimension lightbulb moment a generation ago these universities conjured forth Odyssey because saw the future in adding an adventure element to what had previously been academic field trips.

In recent years Odyssey CEO Mark-Banning Taylor (pictured) has tightened up still further on this sharp destination emphasis by sending tours into regions which people have long read about, but who have never encountered anyone who has actually ever been there.

These destinations include nations such as Togo and Benin, Madagascar, and Papua New Guinea.

He has similarly sharpened his profile on inward tours by emphasising subject areas over destinations, basing them for example on studies of Australasian ethnicity, arts, flora and fauna, photography, pioneering, and so on.

In fact he has let expire the organisation’s agency arrangements in order to concentrate on Odyssey’s own inward intellectual tours.

He has similarly enhanced the perspective on Odyssey’s outward tours.

For example, with the resurgent interest in battlefield travel, those of antiquity to those of modern times, Odyssey has expanded its range of tours encompassing the Pacific theatre, North Africa and Europe.​Odyssey has also nudged still further to their geographic extremities its standard tours to the Russian/Asian landmass.

Iran is a particular thrust at the moment, with departures guaranteed years ahead for these small groups.

According to Mr Banning-Taylor the objective is to implant tour members directly into the environment and its culture with the minimum of distraction.

This applies across the swathe of the tours including such mainstays as the one that “Island Hops” through Scotland’s Western Isles.

Here members will find themselves lodged in remote crofts and listening to Gaelic as part of everyday life.

A particular strength of Odyssey is considered to be its carefully selected local guides who must be local residents and accredited to a tourism authority.

Similarly the company’s tour “leaders” as they are described are drawn from those who have had a vocational, often academic, association with the region being visited.

The tour planning starting point tends to be at the learning end rather than with the destination itself.

In other words, what are party members going to acquire in a knowledge sense from their experience that they did not know before?

Observes Mr Banning-Taylor: “We ask ourselves, ‘what do people of curiosity really want to discover, see for themselves?’ “

This is a particular characteristic of the Odyssey inward tours which deliberately cater for these special fine-focus interest groups.

Aside from the obvious ones of terrain, settlement and ethnicity, we also find, for example an emphasis devolving onto governance, national character, and how these came about.

One example is a tour for those curious about Australian literature.

Here, the tour takes in visits to the homes in which the authors once lived and takes party members through the institutions and landscapes that determined their output.

This fine-slicing embraces broader gauge interests such as the tours of Australasian distinctive cuisine and wine regions that are sectored into regional specialities, terroirs and marques.

Odyssey according to Mr Banning-Taylor, seeks always to put plenty of distance between what it offers its travellers and the general Australasian tourist concept of looking at the familiar sights.

In its central Europe offering for example is one on the Hapsburgs with reference to their pioneering role in the entertainment industry as we know it today.

It turns out that this is a variant on the usual Danube type of experience insofar as it takes into account the little-understood fact that it was the Hapsburgs who liberated live entertainment and thus gave the world Mozart and Beethoven among other luminaries.​Similarly a tour of Provence features this connectivity between past and present with an emphasis on the walled cities of Avignon and Carcassonne which turns out to be where the global heritage and conservation movement as we know it had its beginnings.

Odyssey’s intellectual point of embarkation features a notable sociological emphasis that some may interpret as downright serious.

For example a South American tour is one into Peru centred on the influence of women in regard to the matrilineal nature of the Inca society which was pretty much wiped out by the patriarchal Spanish colonisers.

The tour includes contemporary manifestations of the subsequent resurgence in the status of women especially in textile design and development, thus blindingly indicating the linkage between perceived economic value and civil rights.

Symbolically the expedition is capped by two nights in the middle of Lake Titicaca on Suasi Island owned by a prominent Peruvian womens activist.

In operational terms an enduring shared worry of both providers and their clients is that offered tours will in fact not take place because they are under-subscribed.

It is no consolation to would-be travellers that their deposits will be recovered should there be insufficient bookings to launch it. Time has been allocated, arrangements made.

To this end Odyssey from its long experience categorises certain tours as guaranteed.

Other tours such as the pioneering ones into the paths less travelled are cited as being dependent on a minimum number of takers, usually as low as three people.

A recent tour to see the world’s largest ever dinosaurs in Argentina is just one example “You could say that we are in a joint venture,” noted Mr Banning-Taylor

“A client seeks from us a memorable experience—it is up to us to be candid about the need to find a few others who wish to share in it.”

He summarises the Odyssey endeavour as being quite literally one of an applied taste test.

“Would your Odyssey travellers’ tales stand up at a dinner party; command some attention?

“We like to think that if you have been on an Odyssey tour, then, yes, they would.

“Our objective is taking travel quite some distance beyond sightseeing.”

Similarly Odyssey itself travels just a little bit further also in a community sense

It is known that Odyssey via its board allocates surpluses to university types via a series of cash scholarships for students across New Zealand & Australia of AUD$10,000 who demonstrate financial need and academic performance.

| From the  MSCNewsWire REporters desk - travel   ||  Monday 27 September  2017   |||

Air New Zealand is continuing to experience disruption to its operations following a temporary shut-down of Refining New Zealand’s pipeline into Auckland.

The shut-down is currently impacting all airlines operating into and out of Auckland Airport and limiting the volume of jet fuel able to be uplifted to 30% of normal usage. It’s estimated around 2,000 Air New Zealand customers will be affected by flight cancellations today as the airline works to consolidate passenger loads and minimise fuel usage.

In addition to the cancellations, some long-haul services to and from Asia and North America will undertake refueling stops at selected Pacific or Australian airports. To date, three North America services have refueled in Nadi, Fiji. Today flight NZ99 from Auckland to Narita, Tokyo will make a refueling stop in Brisbane, Australia.

he airline is also ensuring domestic jet services uplift maximum fuel limits when operating out of Wellington or Christchurch to limit refueling in Auckland.

Air New Zealand Chief Operations Integrity & Standards Officer Captain David Morgan says the refueling stops completed overnight went well and the practice will continue to alleviate pressure on fuel supplies in Auckland.

“Aviation is a critical transport industry and the lifeblood for tourism and we are naturally extremely disappointed with this infrastructure failure,” Captain Morgan says.

Based on information available at this stage, Air New Zealand believes the fuel supply issue is unlikely to have a material impact on the FY18 annual result.

Any necessary schedule changes are being communicated to affected customers directly. A full list of flight cancellations is available on the Air New Zealand Travel Alerts page and will be updated regularly.

The following flights have been cancelled for today, Monday 18 September:

NZ722 – Melbourne to AucklandNZ543 – Auckland to ChristchurchNZ550 – Christchurch to AucklandNZ413 – Auckland to WellingtonNZ420 – Wellington to AucklandNZ437 – Auckland to WellingtonNZ444 – Wellington to Auckland

Customers currently booked to travel into or out of Auckland over the coming week are advised to keep an eye on the Travel Alerts page of the Air New Zealand website for the latest information.

| An AirNZ Travel Alert  ||  september 18,  2017   |||

Foreign Minister Gerry Brownlee has announced New Zealand will provide $11.5 million for aviation security in the Pacific, to support trade, tourism and the safety of the travelling public, most of which are New Zealand citizens.

"Pacific island countries must meet global aviation safety and security standards, and this funding will provide passenger and baggage screening equipment that will help them to meet those standards," Mr Brownlee says.

"The aviation package of equipment and training will benefit nine countries over the next five years, and builds on our existing $2.5 million programme to help Pacific island countries to meet their international aviation regulatory obligations.

"As aviation security requirements are regularly increased, upgrades to security processes and screening equipment are necessary.

"The new security package will be provided to signatories of the Pacific Island Civil Aviation Safety and Security Treaty, which include Niue, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Nauru," Mr Brownlee says.

New Zealand's aviation support to the Pacific is implemented by the Civil Aviation Authority New Zealand in cooperation with the Pacific Aviation Safety Office.

| A Beehive release   ||  September 8,  2017   |||

Auckland Airport | As part of its major upgrade of the international departure experience, Auckland Airport has opened a new $4 million, 185-seat lounge for international passengers, known as the “Strata Lounge”.

Richard Barker, Auckland Airport’s general manager retail and commercial, says, “the Strata Lounge is an exciting part of the upgrade of Auckland Airport’s international departure area – which creates a new and uniquely New Zealand departure experience.”

“We have already opened the first stages of our new and expanded security screening and processing area for all passengers, as well as part of the new stores for our two duty free operators. The rest of the international departure area upgrade – including a reconfigured landside farewell portal, a new retail hub and a new passenger lounge – will be unveiled over the coming 12 months.”

“Auckland Airport’s new Strata Lounge replaces our Emperor Lounge and provides a comfortable and relaxed space for travellers who do not belong to an airline lounge programme and 13 airlines that choose to use the lounge to accommodate their premium passengers prior to boarding.”

“Our new Strata Lounge means that no matter which international airline or class you are flying, before boarding your flight you can enjoy a modern lounge – with a fresh range of international food, beverages, work stations, shower facilities and a separate children’s space for families to use. In the future the lounge will also have sleeping pods and a beauty spa.”

International passengers can purchase entry into the Auckland Airport owned and operated Strata Lounge for $49 online or $55 on the door. The Strata Lounge also welcomes members of Diners Club International, DragonPass, Lounge Key and Priority Pass.

The Strata Lounge was designed by Ignite architects and constructed and fitted-out by Alaska.

|  An AucklandAirport release with MSCNewsWire  ||  September 6,  2017   |||

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber chose Dara Khosrowshahi, who leads the online travel company Expedia, to be its chief executive on Sunday, two people with knowledge of the decision said. The selection capped a contentious search process as the ride-hailing company seeks to move past a turbulent period.

Mr. Khosrowshahi emerged as the leading candidate from a field of three finalists over a weekend of Uber board meetings, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details were confidential.

Continue to read the full article here on the NYTimes  |  August 28,  2017   |||

According to the CWT Connected Traveler Study, released today by Carlson Wagonlit Travel, business travelers are bringing more devices, and feel more productive as they are on the road conducting business. The survey of more than 1,900 business travelers found that travelers on average carry four different types of technology (mobile phone, tablet, laptop, etc.), with the smartphone being the one “travel tool they can’t live without,” as more than 80% of travelers across the globe rely on their phone to conduct business.

Global findings

With technology, most travelers (88%) believe travel is easier to navigate today. This has led a significant majority of travelers (78%) to seek opportunities to travel for work and nearly as many find business travel to be stimulating (72%). Today’s travelers are experienced and use that knowledge to plan their trips. More than half (55%) of travelers rely on prior travel experience while planning trips, in addition to hotel websites (54%) and airline websites (50%). Airline and hotel apps make up the bulk of app usage for travelers (45%) while map apps also see heavy use (41%).

“The business traveler can be so much more productive than even five years ago thanks to technology,” said Simon Nowroz, chief marketing officer, Carlson Wagonlit Travel. “Think about the advances where a business traveler used to have so much down time between a flight, taxi and hotel. Now, they can login and work while on the plane or wherever they happen to be. With the continued emergence of the tablet, as well as numerous apps, travelers don’t feel out of touch as they carry out business.”

According to the study, work-based relationships and productivity are strengthened through business travel. Nearly 9 in 10 business travelers (86%) said travel helped them build new knowledge and perspective, while 80% said business travel boosted their productivity. Additionally, more than 9 in 10 (93%) said that travel positives outweighed negatives when it comes to building and maintaining relationships at work, while nearly 8 in 10 (77%) say the same about their home lives.

Business travelers did have two key areas of concern.Two-thirds (67%) of travelers said they believe travel is safer today. However, nearly half (46%) remain concerned about their safety. This has led more travelers (68%) to “sometimes or always” purchase travel insurance. Business travelers also have difficulties maintaining routines and wellness. More than half of travelers (54%) say that their exercise and wellness habits are disrupted when they travel.

According to the study, as travelers connect with co-workers or family, they often use different methods. With family or friends, travelers chose calling (44%), Skype (24%) and text (17%) as their preferred communication methods. However, they connect with co-workers differently: email (44%), calling (24%) and texting (14%).

Regional differencesThere were similarities across the Americas, EMEA and APAC. However, APAC travelers felt more in control (84%) in being able to manage their responsibilities compared to Americas (76%) and EMEA (73%) travelers. Travelers from APAC (53%) were also more likely to say that travel took time away from other work, causing their co-workers to pick up some of the slack.

When it comes to personal relationships, around a quarter of travelers from the Americas felt that travel strained their relationship with their spouse or significant other (27%), more than their EMEA and APAC counterparts (22%). This is likely the reason that travelers in the Americas tried significantly harder to stay connected with family (50%) than APAC (31%) and EMEA (27%) travelers. APAC travelers were more likely to miss important events – with more than half (51%) missing at least two social events or occasions within the past 12 months compared to EMEA (44%) or Americas (42%) travelers.

“There are many variables that can make a business trip a success or a failure in the eyes of the traveler,” said Nowroz. “The easier we can make it for travelers to be organized, the more we help them have a better overall experience.”

About the surveyThe CWT Connected Traveler Study was created by Carlson Wagonlit Travel and conducted through Artemis Strategy Group March 30-April 24, 2017. Survey data was collected from more than 1,900 business travelers between the ages of 25-65 from the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the United States), EMEA (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom) and APAC (Australia, China, India, Japan and Singapore). To participate in the study, business travelers were required to have made more than four business trips within the past 12 months. The purpose of this study is, to understand how business travelers stayed connected to both work and home while on the road.

About Carlson Wagonlit Travel Companies and governments rely on us to keep their people connected. We provide their travelers with a consumer-grade travel experience, combining innovative technology with our vast experience. Every day we look after enough travelers to fill almost 200 Boeing 747s and around 100,000 hotel rooms, and handle 95 corporate events. We have more than 18,000 people in nearly 150 countries, and in 2016 posted a total transaction volume of US$ 23 billion.

Sick of those cramped, seemingly ancient economy airline cabins? Well, we’ve got good news.  Today Qantas announced a whole lotta’ cabin upgrade plans for its fleet of 12 Airbus A380s.

Why?

To improve passenger comfort obviously – especially on those 26-hour flights to Europe every single young Aussie takes each winter.

The announcement was made alongside a Melbourne Domestic Lounge and an evaluation of new ultra-long range Qantas International aircraft in Qantas’ full-year results this morning.

The results also showed that Qantas’ performance was down over eight per cent from last year – but that didn’t stop them from making a tidy underlying profit of over $1 billion before tax.

The multi-million dollar A380 upgrade will make all your wildest airline dreams come true: upping the premium economy seat count as well as removing some regular ol’ economy seats to put more of the aircraft space to more effective use.

This change-up in the seats on the super jumbos is set to meet increased customer demand for premium cabins. This is specifically on flights to the US, Europe and Asia – because more and more Aussies want more leg room and comfier seats if they have to be on a plane for more than five hours.

On the upper deck, a crew workstation and some partitions will be rearranged – making room for six more business class seats and increasing premium economy seating by 27 per cent (25 seats).

Take a look at the full list of the A380 refurbishment program, straight from Qantas itself:

• Replacing Business Class Skybeds with the latest version of Qantas’ Business Suites, dubbed ‘mini First Class’ by frequent flyers. Every seat gives direct aisle access and allows better use of cabin space compared with the Skybed.
• Installing the airline’s all new Premium Economy seat in a 2-3-2 configuration. This seat is almost 10 per cent wider than the model it replaces and will debut on the Dreamliner later this year.
• Reconfiguring the front of the A380’s upper deck to redesign the passenger lounge to provide more room for First and Business Class customers to dine and relax.
• Enhancing First Class, which remains in its current configuration on the lower deck. Each suite will be fully refurbished, including contoured cushioning and a larger, higher resolution entertainment screen.
• Updating Economy with new seat cushions and improved inflight entertainment.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the upgrade was a major investment, but that customers loved the A380.

“We’re seeing increased demand for Premium Economy and Business Class on the long haul routes that the A380 operates, including from people using their Qantas points to upgrade. When more travellers experience these new seats, we expect that demand will keep rising,” he said.

“Working with Airbus we’ve been able to achieve a very efficient layout on the upper deck. Using this space to increase the proportion of premium seating improves the revenue potential and the overall economics of the aircraft,” he added of the new upgrades.

Qantas is also continuing its efforts to try and eventually offer super-fast Wi-Fi on it’s international routes – and intends to be the first Aussie airline to do so.

The A380s will also be flying more regular routes to Asia – with some elements of the upgrade due to be rolled out later this year.

| A TravelWeekly release  ||  August 25,  2017   |||

Air New Zealand is to further grow its operations to Samoa with a move to fly up to six Dreamliner services a week to Apia during the peak season.

The airline will operate between four and six weekly services using its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner between April and October 2018.

Between November 2017 and March 2018 Dreamliner aircraft will operate three services a week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Other services will be operated by the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft.

Air New Zealand’s Senior Manager Pacific Islands Brent Roxburgh says the move to operate more widebody services comes in response to growing customer demand for travel to and from Apia.

“The move to more Dreamliner flights between Auckland and Samoa represents around 20 percent more seats into Samoa year-on-year.

“Samoa is growing in popularity as an island holiday destination, so today’s news of additional widebody flights is great news for its local tourism economy.”

The number of visitors to Samoa from New Zealand increased by 6.4 percent to nearly 60,000 in the year to July 2017.

| An Air New Zealand release  ||  August 25,  2017   |||

Air New Zealand is poised to launch its first ever global brand campaign showing international travellers why the airline is A Better Way to Fly to New Zealand.

The campaign will kick off in the US on Thursday night (Friday afternoon NZT) with a star-studded event in Los Angeles then roll out progressively across the UK, Europe, Asia and South America in coming months.

It’s set to feature New Zealand’s own Sam Neill (Hunt for the Wilderpeople; Jurassic Park) as the voice of CGI character Pete, a kiwi who wants to see the world but is hampered by his inability to fly. Pete takes viewers along on his journey to show travellers the Air New Zealand inflight experience.

The campaign follows the success of a similar marketing approach launched in Australia last year featuring a CGI goose named Dave who has been convincing Australians that Air New Zealand offers a better way to fly long-haul to North and South America.

Air New Zealand General Manager of Global Brand and Content Marketing Jodi Williams says, “This first phase of the campaign is targeted at North American travellers interested in visiting New Zealand - and potentially Australia - as well as those travelling between LA and London. It uses Pete the kiwi to win potential customers over with our award-winning product and service.

“In the past year alone there’s been a 26 percent increase* in the number of visitors arriving in New Zealand from the US, but more importantly research shows there are still around 27 million** Americans interested in holidaying in New Zealand, demonstrating the huge potential of this market.

“We’ve conducted detailed consumer research all over the world to gain greater insight into travellers’ habits and their understanding of our products and services. Interestingly, we found that perception of distance is one of the greatest barriers to travel to New Zealand with some consumers believing we’re 20 hours or more flight time away. By showcasing our direct services and inflight products in an innovative and creative way, we hope to bust those myths and get more international visitors to commit to travelling on Air New Zealand.”

Video content of the campaign, including the hero video and Sam Neill discussing his latest starring role, along with high resolution images for A Better Way to Fly can be downloaded here

| An Air New Zealand release  ||  August 24, 2017   |||