News in Brief: Tuesday July 15
San Francisco will become the sixth US destination for Etihad Airways, with the launch of a daily flight from Abu Dhabi to San Francisco on November 18.
The service will be operated by the three-class Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, leased from its strategic partner Jet Airways, offering a total of eight seats in First Class, 30 seats in Business Class and 308 seats in Economy Class.
The new flights will open up more than 30 onward connections from Abu Dhabi to more than 30 destinations in the Middle East, Africa and the island nations of the Indian Ocean through Etihad Airways’ global network and codeshare agreements with partner airlines.
In return the flights to San Francisco will connect to destinations throughout the US, Canada and Mexico.
italktravel continues to expand its presence, opening a further three exclusive stores this September in Kensington, VIC (ex Jetset), Bathurst, NSW (ex Travelscene) and Reservoir, VIC (ex HWT).
These stores will add to the 12 itraveltalk stores that opened on July 7.
Independent Travel Group (ITG) chief executive officer Tom Manwaring said he was delighted to have the "prestigious" businesses joining itraveltalk. ITG advised it is well on track to achieve their target of 25 out of 100 stores by October 2014.
Cathay Pacific has experienced growth in passenger loading, increased capacity and a rise in passenger volume for the month of June.
The results released combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for June 2014, compared to the same period last year.
Cathay Pacific general manager revenue management, James Tong, commented the passenger traffic was generally robust across the network in June, though demand in Southeast Asia was affected by various factors including the political situation in Thailand.
Meanwhile the airline has announced its sponsorship of Australia’s largest food festival, Good Food Month, which kicked-off in Brisbane this month.
Aurora Expeditions has contributed to talks in Chile regarding opening access from the country to Antarctica, during discussions over tourism development and planning.
The expedition company last year launched new Antarctica itineraries that include departures from Chile’s most southerly port, Puerto Williams.
Attending the talks in Santiago, Aurora Expeditions’ chief executive officer, Lisa Bolton, said “I am delighted to be able to be a part of, and assist in, the development of Chile as a new Antarctic gateway, helping to support and sustainably develop the growth of the Antarctic tourism industry.”
The coming Antarctic season will be the inaugural expeditions in and out of Puerto Williams for Aurora.
Local marketing and brand consultant Guy Taylor has been appointed as Tourism Tasmania’s new executive director of marketing. Taylor has been involved with Tourism Tasmania previously following his participation in the new tourism brand project in 2012 and 2013, which ultimately led to the development of the successful Go Behind the Scenery advertising campaigns.
Taylor will start with Tourism Tasmania on 11 August, with plans to get out and meet tourism industry groups and major stakeholders in the following weeks and months.
Emirates is expanding on its European services, adding daily flights to Hungary’s capital, Budapest from 27 October this year.
Travellers can experience the A330-200 aircraft in a two class configuration offering 278 seats per day on the new Dubai to Budapest route. As a bonus, Hungarian nationals now benefit from a visa-on-arrival in Dubai.
Emirates president Tim Clark said Budapest will be the third European destination the airline launch services to this financial year, highlighting the continued investment in the region.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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