million – The News Desk

Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi to deliver Tourism Strategy 2030, to attract over 39 million visitors and contribute Dhs90 billion to UAE GDP

3Apr

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Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi to deliver Tourism Strategy 2030, to attract over 39 million visitors and contribute Dhs90 billion to UAE GDP

The first pillar, Offering and City Activation, looks to further enhance the overall guest experience by unveiling additional cultural sites, theme parks, retails offerings and new hotel chains. Overall boosting the emirate’s events calendar of year-round concerts, festivals, and family events. The dining landscape will diversify significantly, offering expanded options including the introduction of culinary schools and training programmes. DCT Abu Dhabi will also more than double its Promotion and Marketing efforts, expanding its international reach from 11 to 26 markets and enhancing synergy within Abu Dhabi’s tourism ecosystem. It will also establish strategic global partnerships with media outlets and well-known brands for high-profile collaborations, creating compelling, market-spec...

VisitBritain forecasts 39.5 million visits to the UK in 2024 – Business Traveller

24Dec

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VisitBritain forecasts 39.5 million visits to the UK in 2024 – Business Traveller

VisitBritain has published its inbound tourism forecast for 2024, with an increase in both the number of visits and spend expected compared to 2023. A total of 39.5 million visits are forecast to be made to the UK next year, up 5 per cent on the expected 37.8 million for 2023, but still 3 per cent lower than 2019 levels (and also slightly down on figures in 2017 and 2018). International visitors are forecast to spend £34.1 billion in the UK in 2024, up 7 per cent on 2023 and a 20 per cent increase on 2019 – although when adjusted for inflation the figure stands at 96 per cent of 2019 levels. Visitors from the United States are expected to contribute £1 in every £5 of all inbound spending, with the US market set to be worth £6.7 billion in 2024, up 28 per cent on 2019 levels even when adj...

Airbnb to Pay About $20 Million After Charging Australians in U.S. Dollars

20Dec

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Airbnb to Pay About $20 Million After Charging Australians in U.S. Dollars

An Australian court on Wednesday ordered Airbnb to pay a fine of 15 million Australian dollars for misleading customers by not clearly showing that prices for its property rentals were listed in U.S. dollars, instead of Australian dollars, which are worth less.Airbnb admitted in the Federal Court of Australia that it had made “false or misleading representations” to about 63,000 customers who had used the accommodations-booking platform between January 2018 and August 2021.In addition to the fine of 15 million Australian dollars (or about $10 million), Airbnb will provide up to another 15 million Australian dollars in compensation to the affected customers, who had made more than 70,000 bookings paid in U.S. dollars.Gina Cass-Gottlieb, the chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer ...

U.S. Fines Southwest Airlines $140 Million for Holiday Meltdown

18Dec

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U.S. Fines Southwest Airlines $140 Million for Holiday Meltdown

The Transportation Department on Monday announced a $140 million fine against Southwest Airlines over a meltdown last winter that disrupted travel for about two million people during the holiday season.Of the $140 million, Southwest Airlines will pay $35 million to the federal government. For the remaining amount, the department is giving the airline credit for providing frequent-flier points as an apology to customers affected by the meltdown, and for agreeing to give out tens of millions of dollars in vouchers to customers affected by future delays and cancellations.The fine is roughly 30 times what had previously been the department’s largest penalty against an airline for consumer protection violations, a $4.5 million settlement with Air Canada in 2021 over customer refunds.“Today’s a...

One million travellers use Schiphol’s pre-booked security time slots – Business Traveller

15Dec

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One million travellers use Schiphol’s pre-booked security time slots – Business Traveller

Amsterdam Schiphol has provided an update on the use of its pre-booked security time slots, with the service having reached the one million customer milestone. The airport launched the initiative on Schengen routes in March this year, before extending it to non-Schengen routes in June. Amsterdam Schiphol extends pre-booked security check time slots to all destinations The service is free of charge, with passengers able to reserve slots up to three days before departure on the Schiphol website or app. They will then receive a confirmation email containing a QR code, which can be scanned at the airport by a member of staff, who will direct the customer to the correct security check entry point. Time slots are open for 15 minutes, and Schiphol said that the service had been “extremely succ...

BA’s Project Speedbird SAF partnership secures £9 million government funding – Business Traveller

18Nov

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BA’s Project Speedbird SAF partnership secures £9 million government funding – Business Traveller

British Airways has announced it has secured £9 million in funding for its sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) partnership dubbed Project Speedbird. The carrier is working with Teesside-based cleantech company Nova Pangaea Technologies (NPT), and leading ethanol to SAF technology firm LanzaJet, with the project set to produce 102 million litres of SAF per year by 2028. The funding from the government’s Advanced Fuels Fund competition sees NPT being awarded £7.5 million, with LanzaJet receiving £1.5 million. BA intends to purchase all the SAF produced through Project Speedbird, which it says will reduce CO2 emissions, on a net lifecycle basis, by 230,000 tonnes per year – the equivalent of approximately 26,000 British Airways domestic flights. The SAF will be developed using a combination of ...

VINCI announces £100 million investment plan for Belfast International – Business Traveller

19Oct

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VINCI announces £100 million investment plan for Belfast International – Business Traveller

The owner and operator of Belfast International has announced plans to invest £100 million in the airport over the next five years. VINCI Airports said that the investment would enhance the airport’s operational and environmental efficiency, with work already underway to construct a new £25 million security building next to the existing terminal. The new facility is scheduled to open by summer 2024, and will have the required new generation CT scanners meaning passengers will no longer need to remove liquids of electronics from their luggage. Existing terminal facilities are also set to be revamped, with an improved airside departures area with additional gates and seating, new catering and retail outlets, and an extended immigration area. Finally VINCI confirmed that a 26 MWp solar farm...

Leeds Bradford to begin work on £100 million upgrade – Business Traveller

18Oct

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Leeds Bradford to begin work on £100 million upgrade – Business Traveller

Leeds Bradford has announced plans for a £100 million regeneration of its terminal facilities between now and 2026. The works will include “significant refurbishment of the current terminal building”, as well as a three-storey, 9,500 sqm extension. The upgrade programme is effectively a return to a project originally unveiled in 2018, which was superceded in early 2020 by plans for a brand new terminal building, only for the latter to be abandoned in 2022 “following excessive delays and the decision to call in plans by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities”. Leeds Bradford abandons plans for new terminal The regeneration programme will now begin this autumn, with passengers set to benefit from “the creation of additional aircraft stands, more seating, faster s...

UK Air Traffic Control Chaos Was a ‘1 in 15 Million’ Problem

6Sep

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UK Air Traffic Control Chaos Was a ‘1 in 15 Million’ Problem

The technical failure that led to hundreds of flight cancellations and severe disruptions for thousands of people traveling in and out of in Britain last week resulted from a “one in 15 million chance,” the country’s air traffic control service said on Wednesday.“We have processed 15 million flight plans with this system,” Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of Britain’s National Air Traffic Service, told the BBC’s “Today” program. And the service, he said, had “never seen this before.”On Wednesday, the service published a report based on an internal investigation of the event, detailing what Mr. Rolfe described as “an incredibly rare set of circumstances.”According to the report, the air traffic control system encountered two separate pieces of navigational data in one aircraft’s flight pl...

U.S. Fines American Airlines $4.1 Million for Lengthy Tarmac Delays

28Aug

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U.S. Fines American Airlines $4.1 Million for Lengthy Tarmac Delays

The Transportation Department fined American Airlines $4.1 million on Monday, saying the carrier violated federal rules by keeping passengers stranded on airport tarmacs for hours on dozens of occasions in recent years.The agency said the fine was the largest penalty it had ever doled out for tarmac delays. The violations stem from 43 domestic flights between 2018 and 2021 in which passengers were stuck on the tarmac for more than three hours without being given a chance to deplane, according to the department.A majority of the delays occurred at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, the largest hub for American Airlines. Others took place at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, San Antonio International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington. The most e...