Regional carrier Flybe has confirmed via Twitter that it will drop its Southampton-Frankfurt route from mid-September. A follower of the airline’s Twitter feed posted the following tweet: “@flybe looking at flights from Southampton to Frankfurt in Sept /Oct but dates on the website are greyed out after 10/9.”
To which Flybe responded: “@newbathroom1 Hi, unfortunately this route will be stopping due to there not being enough demand. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.” Last year the carrier dropped flights from Frankfurt to both Birmingham and Manchester and this latest move will leave no Flybe services from the German hub.
Gulf Air now claims its German passenger have seamless rail travel to all cities across Germany. Passengers can buy one combined ‘Rail & Fly’ ticket that allows them to fly on the airline and travel to and from any destination on Germany’s Deutsche Bahn network. When booking you need to select Deutsche Bahn Rail Station as your end destination. Upon arrival in Frankfurt you proceed to the fly-rail booth and will be given a voucher for the train.
A Bahrain-Frankfurt ‘Rail & Fly’ ticket cost BD308.100 in early July, rising to BD333.100 on July 25, inclusive of taxes. Karim Makhlouf, Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer, said Germany is a key premium market for Gulf Air and the agreement will strengthen its presence in the country and enable it to serve the substantial number of passengers who travel to Frankfurt and beyond.
Gulf Air now operates 11-weekly flights in two split schedules giving customers convenient options to travel to and from Frankfurt. On Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, the flight will depart Frankfurt at 1620 and reach Bahrain at 2320. The increase in frequency also provides better connectivity to Frankfurt (via Bahrain) for passengers travelling from Lahore, Addis Ababa, Islamabad, Karachi, Chennai, Jeddah, Khartoum, Kochi and Mumbai.
Starwood has announced the first European property under its “eco-wise” Element brand. The 133-studio and suite Element Frankfurt Airport is scheduled to open in 2014, and will be located within the Gateway Gardens development, a new city district on the site of former US military airbase. The district is linked to Frankfurt airport by a shuttle service (approx. four minutes to Terminal 1, and two minutes to Terminal 2), with access to the ICE Express rail system. As with all Element properties, the hotel will be built adhering to LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards.
Features will include a 24-hour business centre, a meeting room, and a signature restaurant and espresso bar, while rooms will offer fully-equipped kitchen, swivelling flat screen TVs, large desks with open shelving and custom-designed cupboards, bathrooms with rain showers and dual-flush toilets. Starwood’s Element brand launched in 2008 with a property in Lexington, Massachusetts, and has since grown to 15 hotels either open or under development. Most of these are located in the US, including properties in Las Vegas, Miami, Houston and New York.
The Westin Grand Frankfurt, Starwoods flagship property in Frankfurt, has just finished a renovation of the new restaurant ‘Motions’ which is used for breakfast and lunch/dinner for groups. Breakfasts and brunches at Motions encompass hearty super foods selections, full of antioxidants and vitamins that boost your energy for the day and it now offers a much fresher and contemporary setting for group catering. The hotel also has 3 other restaurants, including San San, a classic-meets-contemporary Chinese restaurant, and Sushimoto, a Japanese restaurant with a sushi counter and teppanyaki grill.
Le Meridien Parkhotel in Frankfurt will start offering free WIFI in the lobby starting in 2013. This is a fantastic development for this hotel, as most European properties charge for WiFi. With 12 meeting spaces and 297 bedrooms this hotel offers a beautiful, central setting for any conference or event and now, with the benefit of complimentary WiFi, there is no reason not to give it a try!
Sheraton Frankfurt Airport Hotel just finished a Summer-long renovation of the bar areas and are now looking forward to welcoming guests in Lemons & Limes (Main Bar) plus the new La Cubano Bar (the first smoking bar at the airport). They are also in the process of soft-renovating the guestroom hallways. The Sheraton is the largest of the Starwood conference hotels in Germany for any functions from 2 to 1200 people – and all covering the Pharma Code as a non-rated hotel.
The German National Tourist Board (GNTB) has launched their Top 100 mobile app to help tourists discover the country’s most popular tourist attractions. The GNTB’s first mobile app for Android and iOS devices includes a brief description of each attraction, along with photos and information on opening times, admission prices and directions. The Top 100 was determined by an online survey that attracted over 5,500 respondents and will be repeated annually to keep the list as updated as possible. Users can see the rankings of the attractions as they change in real time, and can also post comments and recommendations. The app can be downloaded for free at www.germany.travel/top100
Air traffic in and out of Frankfurt airport, Europe’s third busiest, struggled to normalise on at the beginning of the month after hundreds of flights were cancelled due to a Lufthansa cabin crew strike. The effects were felt throughout Europe. The Lufthansa strike affected about 900 flights and caused disruption chaos for thousands of passengers. A Lufthansa spokesman said: “On average there are 1,800 Lufthansa flights during a normal day, around half of these took place.” All German regions and all types of flights have been affected, said the spokesman, including long-haul.
Thousands of passengers faced disruption as the strike – called by the UFO union – affected Germany’s six main airports including Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich. Frankfurt airport was “strongly affected”, the airline said. UFO is seeking a 5% pay increase for cabin crew and assurances on jobs.
The union, which represents about two-thirds of Lufthansa’s 19,000 cabin crew, argues that its members have had no pay rise for three years. The airline has now resumed normal flights and the UFO union representing cabin staff and Lufthansa has now agreed to enter formal mediation talks to resolve the dispute over pay and conditions. Lufthansa has also made concessions on the use of temporary workers
Germany has again defended its position as one of the leading global destinations for meetings and conventions. For the eighth year in succession, the study conducted by the International Congress & Convention Association (ICCA) showed that Germany is the top location in Europe for association meetings. Globally, Germany occupies second place. According to the rankings, only the USA has more international conventions.
In 2011, the experts counted a total of 577 international association meetings in Germany – an increase of 35 over the previous year – and considerably more than second-placed Spain, which hosted 463 conventions. The United Kingdom follows in third place with 434 events. Evaluations conducted by the GCB offer an insight into the sectors principally involved in the association meetings included in the ICCA study for Germany in 2011. Technology and innovation accounted for more than one quarter of the international conventions in Germany while around 20 percent of the association meetings considered were in the medical and healthcare sectors.
Vienna lands 2018 International Astronomy Conference
The International Astronomical Union, which unites researchers in the field of astronomy / astrophysics from more than 70 nations, will be holding its 2018 general assembly in Vienna. The event will last more than two weeks and generate some 30,000 bednights for the city.
The prestigious general assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) is held every three years together with the world’s largest international astrophysics conference. In August 2018, this event will see over 3,000 of the world’s leading scientists in the field of astronomy and astrophysics convening in Vienna. Altogether this event consisting of numerous symposiums and workshops over several days will last more than two weeks. The decision to hold the assembly in Vienna was taken at this year’s general assembly in Beijing. The event was also attended by Gerhard Hensler, Austria’s national representative, professor of theoretical astronomy and dean of the University of Vienna’s Faculty of Earth Sciences, Geography and Astronomy and vice president of OeGAA, the Austrian Society for Astronomy and Astrophysics. He had prepared the application in collaboration the Vienna Tourist Board’s Vienna Convention Bureau, and presented the official application book together with a PowerPoint presentation on Vienna. These made a deep impression on the executive committee of the IAU and convinced the national representatives that Vienna was clearly preferable to other destinations.
With the choice of Vienna as a venue, in 2018 Europe will once again be in the limelight of international astronomy after assemblies in Sydney (2003), Prague (2006), Rio de Janeiro (2009), Beijing (2012) and Hawaii (2015). Local organization will be carried out by OeGAA – which made the application – together with the Austrian Academy of Sciences as the Austrian association belonging to the IAU, whilst organizational support will be provided by the University of Vienna. According to Christian Mutschlechner, Director of the Vienna Convention Bureau, this congress will mean about 30,000 bednights for Vienna and contribute some 12 million euros to GDP. However, hosting the IAU’s general assembly in 2018 is not just an achievement for the congress city Vienna, but also for Austrian astronomy, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of its membership of ESO, the European Southern Observatory the same year
