Posts by Sharon Evers

Maris Life, the newest label of Corendon, was festively launched in Hotel Dry (Amsterdam). The label was conceived by Corendon employee Mariska Nunes. Along with Emma Blanchard (founder Crusj single trips) they studied the feasibility, which Corendon founder Atilay Uslu and director Steven van der Heijden gave green light.

Maris Life offers fully catered holidays for single parents with their child or children (aged 0 to 18). At present there is a demand on the destinations of Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Macedonia and Greece, but when Maris Life is a success we can always choose to offer the product in other Corendon destinations. An excursion is always included. Children can have fun at the kids club or during a Maris Life activity.

“Although I like to spend time with my daughter, I also like to socialize with other parents. However, on holiday you often see families who just are together and have less need to socialize. During a Maris Life holiday the children can play in the kids club and you can walk on the beach, have a drink or a good conversation with other single parents.” said (single mom) Nunes.
Read more about Maris Life in TravelPro 12

In January this year, the Swiss currency rose dramatically compared to the euro. The decision of the Swizz National Bank led to a price increase of 17% for tourists from the Eurozone in Switzerland. This resulted to a large decrease in the number of last minute bookings in the local tourism industry. The outlook for the summer is alarming. At the moment the bookings of tourists from the Eurozone is 25% lower than last year. Because of this development, Interhome immediately reduces the prices for their Swiss cottages.

In good mutual consultation, D-rt Group B.V. and her CEO Will van den Hoogen have decided to end the collaboration by the first of February 2015, after the completion of the start-up phase of D-rt Group.

D-rt Group thanks Van den Hoogen for the collaboration and his great effort for D-reizen in the past years. Will van den Hoogen is being followed up as CEO of the D-rt Group by Don Kaspers.

Don Kaspers: “I am happy with the trust the German and Dutch shareholders give to me and to lead the further expansion of the D-rt Group in the future. We have two fantastic brands, VakantieXperts and D-reizen, where a lot of motivated people are working with lots of knowledge and experience and who knows how to serve the modern consumer. The challenges and ambitions are great. That is necessary, while the developments in the travel industry go very fast. But with this much craftsmanship and knowledge, as well online as in our shops, I see the future positively.”

The strategy for the new Alitalia is recently revealed. With the strategy, the new management and the investors aim to a new, ‘reinvented’ airline. For this, Alitalia introduces new routes, new products and services, a new cost strategy and a new corporate identity.

In the new strategy there will be worked with three hubs: Milan Malpensa for long distance flights, Milan Linate for better connections with hubs of partner airlines. From Rome Fiumicino flights will depart as well long, short as medium distances to stay relevant on the Italian market.

Network
Flight schedules in the whole network will be optimalised for better connections and more codesharing with current and new partners. New routes from Rome to Berlin, Düsselforf, San Francisco, Mexico City, Santiago (Chile), Beijing and Seoel, with an increase of the number of flights to New York, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Abu Dhabi. Alitalia also adds 13 flights a week from Milan Malpensa, with daily connections with Abu Dhabi, four flights a week to Shanghai and extra flights to Tokyo.

Collaboration
The possibilities to strengthen the relationships with the members of Skyteam, and especially Air France/KLM and Delta, will be researched further. In the meanwhile, there will be coming new, important partnerships with airberling and NIKI and improved connections with Etihad Airways. There are also plans to co-operate more closely with Air Servia and Etihad Regional. Because of these collaborations, clients will get more possibilities everywhere.

Fleet
Alitalia, Etihad Airways and their partners are looking for possibilities to improve the jointly fleet efficiency. Alitalia is busy with moving the 14 Airbus A320s to airberlin and with looking at the possibilities to get extra widebody-airplanes for Alitalia with Etihad Airways. Alitalia also gets the possibility to receive airplanes from pending aircraft orders from Etihad Airways.