AVIATION

Kudos for Cream Soda

Elephant House 'Cream Soda' won the award for the 'PEOPLES FMCG - Beverage Brand of the Year', for the third consecutive year, in the FMCG category at the recent 'Power of the People Awards'.

Organised by Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) together with AC Nielson, the largest consumer research company in the world, the 'Power of the People Awards' recognise and celebrate brands that are most popular with the vast majority of the general public. The results were based on intense consumer research carried out over a period of six months.

Head of Beverages, Ceylon Cold Stores PLC S. Srikanth said this was an unqualified endorsement by the people of Sri Lanka of the undiminished popularity of the Cream Soda brand.

"It is purely the Peoples' Choice and the Peoples' Choice alone which has placed Cream Soda and the Elephant Brand right on top for the third consecutive occasion ahead of heavy competition", he added.

A flagship brand of the Elephant House range, Cream Soda has also supported upcoming Sri Lankan music talent, supporting artists such as, Iraj, Ashanthi, Krishan, Centigrades, Sureni, Chinthy, Shihan and many others.

 Abacus sweeps regional ‘Best gds’ award

Abacus International, Asia Pacific’s leading travel facilitator won the Best Global Distribution System (GDS) at the 19 TTG Travel Awards 2008 sealing a decade of achievement of this industry accolade.

The respected award is organised by leading travel publisher, TTG Publishing, with readers of TTG Asia, TTG China, TTGmice and TTG-BT mice China across Asia Pacific casting their votes based on criteria such as network comprehensiveness, ease of operation, user friendliness, efficiency and reliability.

CEO Robert Bailey with the award

Abacus International President and CEO Robert Bailey said, “Abacus is the first and only GDS to attain the ‘Best GDS’ award for ten consecutive years. We really appreciate the effort and contributions of our thousand-strong team and the many travel suppliers who have supported us throughout Asia Pacific in achieving our aspirations for both the travel distribution industry and the travel industry at large.”

“Asia’s travel industry has evolved at an unprecedented pace over the past decade, with economic, political and industry factors creating the impetus for growth and a more dynamic environment. This award adds to our 20th year celebration list and we will continue to strive for innovation and provide leadership within the rapidly-evolving industry, in the years to come.”

In the past year, Abacus has launched a suite of online solutions that is designed to help travel agencies build stronger internet presence, and added a Maldives national marketing office to its network. In addition, Abacus uploaded net fares for the historic cross-straits flights and now facilitates travel bookings between Taiwan and China.

“As the only GDS rooted in Asia, our deep understanding of the region’s travel markets together with our innate Asian spirit provides a firm foundation to help shape the region’s travel distribution scene,” said Bailey.

The annual TTG Travel Awards is an opportunity for the Asia Pacific travel industry to honour and recognise its peers for their outstanding achievements and contributions. The awards were presented in Thailand.

Singapore-based Abacus International is the Asia-Pacific’s leading travel facilitator with more than 15,000 travel agency locations in 25 markets.

With 20 years of experience in fusing international best practices and local expertise with global and local partnerships, Abacus provides travel information and reservations specifically tailored to the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore Airlines, SilkAir adds frequencies to Kuala Lumpur

Singapore Airlines and SilkAir customers will enjoy the added choice, convenience and flexibility of up to 15 flights a day between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from December 1.

The three winners with General Manager Singapore Airlines, and M. Chia, Sasi Ganeshan, Keethi Jayaweera, Radhini Senevirathne and the sales team.

“We have extended and strengthened our cooperation with Malaysia Airlines by including our sister Airline, SilkAir in our ongoing codeshare arrangement with Malaysia Airlines on the Singapore-Kuala Lumpur route.

With the spread of services and a frequency of up to 15 flights a day offered jointly by Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Malaysia Airlines, customers will be spoilt for choice!” commented Mr Huang Cheng Eng, Executive Vice President Marketing & The Regions for Singapore Airlines.

“SilkAir is pleased to be able to offer, together with Singapore Airlines, a wider choice of flights for customers travelling between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. This is the first time we will have flown to Kuala Lumpur, and we are excited about the prospects for this new route,” says Mr Chin Yau Seng, Chief Executive SilkAir.

SilkAir will commence twice daily flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur from 26 October 2008, while Singapore Airlines will operate five daily flights. From December 1, Singapore Airlines and SilkAir will operate four flights each. Together with Malaysia Airlines, the three carriers will offer up to 15 flights a day.

Customers will generally have access to all flights operated by the three airlines, as interchangeable tickets are available for travel on most fare types apart from some issued on restricted fares.

Customers will have to note restrictions and conditions of the fare type they intend to purchase. Tickets that are not interchangeable include certain discounted tickets and tickets bearing restrictions for use only on a specific carrier.

Details of flight numbers and flight schedules for services between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur are shown in the Attachment. For general information on other flights, fares and schedules, please visit singaporeair.com and silkair.com.

Kuwait Airways offers free lounge for Economy Class

Kuwait Airways is offering free lounge facility for Economy Class passengers.

Sudesh Rupasinghe

District Sales Manager, Kuwait Airways, Sri Lanka, Sudesh Rupasinghe, said that it is privilege for them to offer this facility for economy class passengers to Europe and USA.

Kuwait Airways is the only carrier which provides this facility in Colombo.

UK passengers can now enjoy morning breakfast with a mix of Sri Lankan and Western food and unlimited beverages. “Our passengers can now enjoy telephone facility comfortable seating TV, WI FI facilities.”

Rupasinghe said this value added service will facilitate valuable customers to enhance their performance with a prestige airline and would take every efforts in satisfying the needs of our valuable customers.

This free lounge voucher can be collected from Kuwait Airways office.

Kuwait Airways has grown to become one of the most modern fleet of the century. Kuwait Airways fly to over 50 destinations around the globe.

US Airport slot auctions illegal and unjustified

Washington - The International Air Transport Association (IATA) condemned the final rule issued today by the Bush Administration, which allows the government to confiscate and auction airport take-off and landing slots at New York’s airports as an ineffective and illegal way to alleviate flight delays.

“Today’s decision is incredibly disappointing. Rather than addressing the root-causes of congestion at New York’s airports, the Bush Administration is spending its last days in office single-mindedly pursuing an alleged free-market experiment at some of the globe’s most important aviation gateways,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.

“The Department of Transportation (DOT) is out of touch with reality. Substantially raising airline costs with an illegal scheme in the middle of a perfect storm of high oil prices and falling demand makes no sense.

Consumers, airlines and airports and local communities all stand to lose from today’s decision,” said Bisignani. Slot confiscation is almost universally opposed. “DOT has made it abundantly clear that it will ignore the nearly universal opposition to this slot confiscation plan by the international airline and airport community as well as the U.S. Congress.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has already concluded it is an illegal scheme. The industry is now forced to use the U.S. judicial system to get the Government to accept its own advice,” said Bisignani.

Proven methods to manage congestion exist. “DOT ignored 60 years of internationally accepted and proven slot management procedures contained in the IATA Worldwide Scheduling Guidelines (WSG).

Over 140 airports around the world use these guidelines to effectively manage congestion while maintaining a level playing field for airlines to compete,” said Bisignani.

Cathay shows a near double digit growth

Cathay Pacific released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for July 2008 that show a near double digit growth in the number of passengers carried by the two airlines compared to the same month in 2007, along with a rise in cargo tonnage.

In July the two airlines carried a total of 2,308,738 passengers - an increase of 9.7% over the same month last year.

The month’s load factor was down 0.5 percentage points to 84.1%, while capacity, measured in available seat kilometres (ASKs), increased by 16.3% on the previous year.

For the year to date, the passenger total is up 13.1% compared to a capacity rise of 14.6%.

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair between them carried 142,770 tonnes of cargo and mail in July, up 5.0% on July 2007. Capacity for the month, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, grow by 2.4% while the cargo and mail load factor dipped by 0.1 percentage points to 66.0%.

For the year to date, the 6.6% rise in cargo tonnage compares to a 6.2% capacity climb.

Singapore Airlines travel agents reward scheme, STARS

“STARS” is the latest competition introduced by Singapore Airlines, the world’s most awarded Airline, for travel agency frontline staff in Sri Lanka. This competition will run from August to November 2008.

To participate in the competition, travel agency frontline staff are given the challenge of selling the most number of tickets to selected destinations where they will be able to earn points and win many fabulous prizes.

At the end of each month, there will be 03 winners selected for tickets issued during that month and all winners will qualify for the final draw.

While the monthly prizes are Gift Vouchers, The grand prizes awarded at the end of the competition will include an all expenses paid holiday to Singapore, comprising of two return air tickets to Singapore with a 3Day/2Night stay at a hotel on a twin sharing basis, Return airport - hotel - airport transfers in Singapore and cash for shopping.

The runners-up will win weekend stays for two at Heritance Kandalama and Heritance Ahungalla along with cash prizes.