European vehicle sharing trend has taken ahold in New ZealandAugust 2, 2016 - In 2014, there were over 25,000 car sharing vehicles all over Europe, and as those numbers have grown, the trend has spread to New Zealand. Kiwis are taking the vehicle sharing trend by storm, and one vehicle sharing company has experienced massive growth in less than 6 months due to the demand for vehicle sharing opportunities. My Car Your Rental is a New Zealand-based, peer-to-peer (P2P) car rental company that lets vehicle owners list their cars for rent. My Car Your Rental offers insurance and a sleek…

Transport Minister Simon Bridges has welcomed the signing of an air services agreement opening the opportunity for code-sharing between New Zealand and Mauritius airlines. The agreement was signed today after being negotiated by officials at an international air services conference in Turkey in 2015. “This agreement opens up opportunities for code-share services linking New Zealand and Mauritius, through Air Mauritius services to and from Perth, Australia. Passenger airlines of each side can now also operate up to 14 services per week,” Mr Bridges says. “This agreement will further enhance New Zealand’s international air connectivity, bringing both trade and tourism benefits.”…

Gatwick Airport has announced it is increasing its investment in improving the airport over the next several years by an extra £200 million. Since becoming privately owned in 2009, around £1.3 billion has been spent on developments to the airport and with this latest increase in investment, the overall spend is expected to hit £2.5 billion by 2021. The new Capital Investment Programme (2016 to 2021) includes expansions to the North and South Terminal departure lounges and immigration halls, improvements to the shopping facilities, further parking stands for aircraft and taxiway optimisation. The developments to the airport are being made…

Qantas will increase capacity from Christchurch to Australia to support growing trans-Tasman demand and to better link New Zealand to the group’s global network. A new daily Christchurch-Melbourne service will begin from 4 December, timed to connect with onward flights to Dubai, London and a range of European destinations. Additionally, flights between Christchurch and Brisbane will grow from three per week to daily from 30 October. These have been timed to connect to Qantas’ Asian and US network via Brisbane. The changes are made possible by reductions in domestic capacity, which have freed up flying time within the airline’s Boeing…

Demand from Korean travellers wanting to tour the South Island has led to a new charter service for the coming summer. From December 2 to January 28, Asiana Airlines will fly a weekly service between Incheon, Seoul and Christchurch Airport, to bring 2500 visitors to the South Island. The airport's Chief Commercial Officer - Aeronautical, Justin Watson, says the nine weeks service is a direct response to requests from South Korean travel agents. "The Korean travel agents consistently get requests for direct flights to the South Island, so eight of them have worked Asiana to put the charters together," he…

Hong Kong-based Swiss-Belhotel will open its first Australian property in Brisbane on 1 November, 2016. Located at 218 Vulture Street South Brisbane, the Swiss-Belhotel Brisbane is in close proximity to the CBD, international sporting facilities, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre and three large hospitals. In addition to its 134 guest rooms, the property will have a corporate lounge, two banquet and meeting rooms, an indoor pool and gymasium and onsite parking. Industry veteran, Dinah-Louise Marrs has been appointed general manager.  - Meeting Newz July 26, 2016

Continuing to strengthen New Zealand borders 25 July 2016 - All travellers flying to, from or through New Zealand will now be checked against INTERPOL’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database in a move that will make the border even safer. een implemented for all travellers at the time of check-in. This new security check will take place at the time of check-in. Travellers should notice no difference to the current check-in process as this check will integrate seamlessly with Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) Advance Passenger Processing (APP) checks that airlines already conduct for people travelling to New Zealand.…

New Online Travel Management Application Drives Cost Savings and Productivity Gains for Smaller Businesses Auckland, New Zealand. 25th July 2016 – Serko Ltd. (SKO.NZ) launched its new small business travel management application, serko.travel, in conjunction with Xero, the leader in online accountancy software. From today, businesses in New Zealand and Australia with up to 150 employees can sign up and make bookings online without any service fees, kick-starting a revolution in small business travel. Designed to fundamentally change the way small businesses book and manage company travel, serko.travel gives users access to the same travel-booking technology and some of the…

Dusseldorf has become the third German city in Singapore Airlines’ route network, with the arrival of flight SQ338 from Singapore this morning. The new route is being served with the latest-generation aircraft to join the Singapore Airlines fleet, the Airbus A350-900. The first service departed Singapore Changi Airport at around 2340hrs local time last night and arrived at Dusseldorf Airport at around 0620hrs local time this morning, after a flight of nearly 13 hours. Dusseldorf will initially be served three times per week. Singapore Airlines also serves the German cities of Frankfurt and Munich. Customers departing from Singapore were treated…

Singapore Airlines will fly non-stop between Singapore and Manchester from 30 October 2016. In addition, as part of the Northern Winter Schedule, services to Adelaide, Christchurch and Kolkata will increase during peak periods, while seasonal services to Sapporo will be operated in December 2016. The non-stop Singapore-Manchester flights will be operated five times weekly and will continue on to Houston, which is currently served via Moscow. Flight SQ52 will depart Singapore at 0235hrs and arrive in Manchester at 0900hrs. Flight SQ52 will then depart Manchester at 1015hrs, and arrive in Houston at 1535hrs. The return flight SQ51 will depart Houston…

Frequent flyers may have used the Skybus to get from Auckland airport to the city (or vice versa) since October 2015, and also may have noticed that the bus now has a new name, but is also much more connected. The airport-city bus service, formerly known as Airbus, was purchased in October 2016 by Melbourne-based company, Skybus. The company increased the frequency to a 24-hour services, and brought Spark Digital on board to provide on-board wi-fi. Michael Sewards, Skybus director, believes it was Spark's tech and innovation that encouraged his company to invest in the transport service. More than 200,000…