Dear reader,

The electronic newsletter 'CWT Traveler' informs you on a monthly basis about business travel related topics. This month a special Star Alliance edition. If you would like to react on the content or ask a question please send an e-mail to info@carlsonwagonlit.nl

• Adria Airways increased frequency to Ljubljana
• New Austrian Premium Service
• Capital Magazine votes Austrian best airline in Europe
• Company Rewards: make your travel budget go further
• Fourth Airbus joins Singapore Airlines fleet
• TAP selects Star Alliance common IT platform
• TAP pays hommage in Farewell to A31010
• TAP increases Fleet Serving Europe
• TAP elected Superbrands 2008

Adria Airways increased frequency to Ljubljana
Adria Airways, the Airline of Slovenia, has increased frequency on Amsterdam-Ljubljana from 6 to 9 weekly flights. All flights are operated with Canadair Regional Jets. Adria’s improved summer 2008 schedule offers good connections to Athens, Bucharest, Podgorica, Pristina, Sarajevo, Skopje and Tirana.

New Austrian Premium Service
With the new Austrian Premium Service, Business Class passengers on flights to/from the Middle East and to/from Central Asia will be treated to an exclusive experience that appeals to all the senses.

Austrian Airlines is converting four of its Airbus A320 aircrafts on a staged basis until September 2008, equipping the Business Class zones of each aircraft with 24 exclusive Recaro business sleeper seats. The new Premium Service will enable Austrian to increase its competitive edge in the Middle East and Central Asia will be increased further still. A unique service including a range of delicious creations from DO&CO – in tune with the duration of flights and specific cultural requirements – will ensure passengers hit the culinary heights when traveling with Austrian.

Capital Magazine votes Austrian best airline in Europe
Austrian, together with Lufthansa and Swiss, has been voted into first place in its traditional European scheduled segment in the readers’ survey of specialist business magazine Capital.

Austrian earned first place in the rankings with an overall mark of 2.3. The company achieved its top figures in the Service and Catering categories. Austrian has implemented a wide range of innovative products and services in recent years as part of its highly successful and distinctive quality and service offensive. By focusing on individual and personal service in particular, the ‘we care’ project has provided an essential foundation to Austrian’s successful differentiation from the competition.

Company Rewards: make your travel budget go further    
The flexible bmi loyalty programme for small and medium enterprises, is now easy accessible online.

Every time employees fly with bmi, they’ll be earning points for the company. Points can be redeemed against bmi e-vouchers, cash or charity donations. And, if the company spends more than € 10.000 a year on bmi flights, they’ll get a reward of 4% cash back bonus. Sign up before 31 October 2008 to receive 30 bonus points.
To register or find out more visit: flybmi.com/smenl (English version) or flybmi.com/mkb (Dutch version).

Fourth Airbus joins Singapore Airlines fleet
Singapore Airlines (SIA) took delivery of its fourth Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, at the Airbus Delivery Centre in Toulouse, France, on 26 April 2008.
The addition of this fourth aircraft into its fleet will allow SIA to commence daily A380 flights to Tokyo Narita per Tuesday 20 May 2008. Tokyo is SIA’s third A380 destination outside Singapore, and its first one in Asia. Daily services to other destinations commenced on 25 October 2007 (Singapore-Sydney) and 18 March 2008 (Singapore-London).

Fitted with the luxurious Singapore Airlines Suites, the award-winning 4-abreast Business Class and a new, more comfortable Economy Class, the A380 allows SIA passengers to travel to Tokyo in unprecedented comfort, space and luxury.

Service to Tokyo Narita (SQ636) will commence from the early morning of Tuesday 20 May, returning as flight SQ637 on the same day. The A380 will operate this pattern thereafter on a daily basis.

The quietest large passenger aircraft ever built, the A380 delivers substantial fuel burn reductions per seat mile over the next largest aircraft and allows for the addition of extra capacity to congested airports like London and Tokyo. Four Rolls Royce Trent 900 engines power the SIA A380.
SIA is the first to fly the A380, and currently the only airline in the world operating this aircraft. SIA has firm orders for a further 15 A380s and options on six more.

TAP Portugal selects Star Alliance common IT platform
TAP Portugal, a member of the Star Alliance network, has chosen the Star Alliance Common IT Platform (CITP) as a replacement for its current IT systems, including reservations, inventory, ticketing and check-in. CITP is a joint centralised platform developed and hosted by Amadeus for participating Star Alliance member carriers. TAP plans to migrate all key airline IT systems to CITP by 2010.

The project was originally launched in 2005 with Lufthansa and United as the lead carriers. Today, Austrian and TAP, as well as regional members Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines have joined CITP. Additionally, Star Alliance member carrier South African Airways is using Amadeus Altéa, based on a similar technology as CITP. 

CITP is based on the first next-generation Customer Management System available in the airline industry. CITP will enhance customer service functionalities, specifically for sales and airport environments, including schedule, availability, reservations, inventory, fare quote and ticketing as well as passenger check-in.

The new platform will improve airlines’ efficiency within the alliance through common services; ease of use, as well as through the provision of better quality and common data for airline service agents when dealing with alliance customers. This will allow a higher level of customer service to be delivered across the Star Alliance network, benefiting all stakeholders.

TAP pays hommage in Farewell to A31010
AeroNostalgia 2008 in Sintra on May 25 2008. Twenty years after beginning flights with TAP livery, the A310 Airbus bids farewell to the company this year. The TAP A310 still have a high standard of performance and comfort but they are being replaced in the TAP fleet by the more modern and efficient A330.

TAP Increases Fleet Serving Europe
A319 ‘Soares dos Reis’ now operational TAP’s medium-haul fleet has been increased with the arrival of a new A319 aircraft that will be integrated into regular company flights on May 17 after undergoing initial maintenance and engineering preparatory work.
In June, TAP will take delivery of another A319 to further expand its medium-haul fleet and support the growth in company operations on routes in Europe.