In the news: Ascott’s new The Crest Collection, Lion Air flies with Sabre, Amadeus’ revenue management solution for SIA, GfK-ForwardKeys on inbound travel to India
The Crest Collection from Ascott – luxury with a sense of home
La Clef Tour Eiffel Paris is part of The Crest Collection.
Ascott has added a touch of European elegance and grandeur to its collection of service residences with the addition of The Crest Collection, which features unique, luxury properties.
According to Ascott, the collection “caters to corporate and leisure travellers looking for a quintessential lifestyle in a homely space”.
The Singapore-based wholly owned serviced residence business unit of CapitaLand launched the collection on April 13 with four properties – three in Paris and one Bangkok.
The Paris properties are Ascott’s Citadines Suites that have been renamed to La Clef Louvre Paris, La Clef Champs-Élysées Paris, and La Clef Tour Eiffel Paris. The newly added Metropole in Bangkok will open in June 2016.
La Clef Tour Eiffel Paris, acquired in 2011, was included in the global asset enhancement programme rolled out by Ascott in 2010.
“Since we started with an extensive refurbishment programme in 2010 we have invested S$230 million to renovate 45 properties globally, 23 of which are Citadines properties in Europe,” said Lee Chee Koon, Ascott’s chief executive officer.
“The Crest Collection opens up more opportunities for us to work with property owners who want Ascott to manage their property while maintaining its unique features.
Lee added that Europe was a key market for Ascott.
“Ascott has achieved an asset size of over S$1.5 billion in Europe. We will continue to deepen Ascott’s presence in the region’s gateway cities where we have properties such as Paris, London, Hamburg and Munich, as well as explore new markets to achieve Ascott’s target of 10,000 apartment units in Europe by 2020.”
This would be done through acquisitions of turnkey developments or existing buildings, which Ascott can convert into serviced residences, management contracts and franchises.
France, which has more than half of Ascott’s Europe portfolio, will remain a key part of the company’s growth in Europe, said Lee.
“We have been in France since 2002 and have invested more than S$1 billion in the country through acquisitions and product enhancements.”
The launch of The Crest Collection follows Ascott’s recent unveiling of its Tujia Somerset brand to cater to the booming segment of middle class travellers in China.
• Images credit including featured image of Metropole Bangkok: Ascott
Lion Air flies with Sabre in its push for regional growth
Lion Air crew in front of airline’s 150th Boeing B737 aircraft.
Indonesia’s low cost carrier, Lion Air, has selected Sabre Corporation suite of solutions to help it optimise daily operations and reduce costs as it expands across South East Asia.
Sabre will deliver to the airline an end-to-end airline operations and crew management platform to do just that.
The Sabre AirCentre Operations and Crew Platform includes aircraft tracking solution – Sabre AirCentre Movement Manager; crew management platform – Sabre AirCentre Crew Manager; and advanced pairing and rostering solutions delivered with provider of crew planning solutions – AD OPT.
Sabre is deployng these technologies simultaneously across Lion Air and its subsidiary airlines – Batik Air, Wings Air, Malindo Air, and Thai Lion Air – to support route network and fleet growth in the region.
“Through one unified operations platform we will help Lion Air deliver consistently on customer expectations and on-time commitments, while creating greater efficiencies and achieving lower operating costs,” said Kamal Qatato, vice president, Sabre Airline Solutions.
Edward Sirait, CEO of Lion Air Group, said Sabre’s solutions matched the airline’s needs as it undergoes rapid route and network growth.
“With this agreement we are able to scale as well as streamline our operations while creating efficiencies and cost savings across all five airlines.”
SIA adopts Amadeus revenue management technology
SIA working with Amadeus in revenue management. (Image credit: Domanich/iStock)
Singapore Airlines has signed up for the full suite of Amadeus Revenue Management solution, which will provide the airline with the necessary platform to future proof its revenue management capabilities.
The airline will adopt Amadeus Altéa Network Revenue Management, a next generation origin and destination (O&D) based system designed with the future in mind.
The solution is fully integrated with new merchandising practices such as dynamic pricing, fare families and ancillary sales.
According to Amadeus, as the solution draws on data from multiple sources it will provide faster, more accurate and intelligent recommendations on the best price and packaging of airline offers.
“A changing landscape requires a revolutionary approach. Traditional revenue management is no longer adequate to support the complex needs of network carriers, and this is where ‘big data’ creates opportunities for more sophisticated practices,” said Julia Sattel, senior vice president, airline IT, Amadeus IT Group.
SIA will also adopt the Amadeus Dynamic Pricing and Amadeus Altéa Group Manager solutions as part of the agreement.
Sporting events boost arrivals to India in Q1 2016
Mumbia is one of the main gateways for tourist arrivals. (Image credit: nstanev/iStock)
International sporting events such as the ICC World Twenty20, which took place in March in India, is attributed as a key driver of growth in the country’s tourism in the first quarter of this year, according to data from GfK-ForwardKeys.
The report captures flight bookings by travellers around the world on a daily basis through the air reservations handled by more than 200,000 online and offline travel agencies.
Findings show the main Indian airports collectively received 4% more international travellers from January to March this year compared to the same period in 2015, with the leisure segment driving growth by 7%.
The four busiest Indian airports – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad – collectively contributed to over half of all travellers’ arrival.
All top 10 inbound tourism markets for India saw strong growth with the UK, Canada, and Australia registering the greatest surge among the larger markets.
The top three inbound markets – America, Saudi Arabia and the UK – accounted for 37% of the total market in Q1 2016.
Anant Jain, travel and hospitality industry lead, India for GfK, said the 10% surge in tourist arrival in March this year compared to a year ago could be contributed by sports tourism.
For the second quarter of the year, from April to June, GfK-ForwardKeys has reported fewer forward air travel bookings for arrivals into India.
Current bookings showed overseas visitors arriving at the four main airports are anticipated to be slower than last year, except for Bangalore where there is already a 5% expected increase in arrivals.
Interestingly the smaller airports of Udaipur and Pune have seen current arrival bookings gone up by 18% and 13% respectively.
Jain attributed the global economic situation as one of the possible reasons for the slowdown in travel bookings.
“The fact that it’s the hot summer season during the next few months could also be a deterrent for the leisure travellers, which is the main segment contributing to this drop,” he added.