Road Warrior

The business of travelling to work

Asia flying high in world's busiest airline routes

IT IS NOT HARD to guess that seven of the 10 busiest airline routes are now in Asia and the BRIC markets showed impressive growth too. The airline market intelligence report from Amadeus, the airline reservation system, analysed traffic across the globe for 2010 over 2011.

Traffic between Asia and Europe and between Asia and North America grew by

9 per cent, and with the Middle East by 6 per cent. Traffic between North America and Europe remains the busiest with 60 million passengers, closely followed by Asia to Europe with more than 53 million travellers and Latin America to North America with 47 million passengers.

The strongest growth is led by the BRIC counties with China adding an extra 19 million, Brazil 12 million, India eight million and Russia six million passengers. Chile, Philippines and Indonesia are also showing strong growth.

The fastest shrinking markets were Egypt and Japan due to the Arab Spring and the Tsunami.

Snooze away the journey

IT MAY NOT be the shortest way to England, but the P&O Ferry service ( poferries.com) for business travellers from Dublin to Liverpool allows you eight hours on board to relax, have a meal, go to bed, bring your car, cram in lots of luggage/samples and be on the motorway network in no time.

Fares from €182 return for car and driver include two meals and there are up to three sailings a day. Cabin accommodation is available for overnight sailings at an extra charge.

Putting down a Marker Snooze away the journey

HOTELIERS IN Dublin will be rubbing their hands with glee when they hear that The Marker hotel at Grand Canal Dock, due to open next February, will not be dumping rates and discounting. The Marker believes that business will pay for luxury rooms and service and sees no need to go in cheap. Four- and five-star hotels rates have been the best value in Europe for years and the Marker’s decision will be a sign that rates are improving.

Jurys sale in a flash

Get ready to click today for a flash one-day sale from Jurys Inn. Hotel room rates in cities across its network will be discounted by 25 per cent off the best available rates. Edinburgh and Heathrow are not taking part, but rooms in Newcastle and Newcastle Gateshead will be offering 50 per cent off. There are 32 Jurys Inns across Ireland, the UK and one in Prague. The booking period is from June 1st to September 9th with rooms in London being available from August 13th. Book on JurysInns.com.

Shhh . . . it's a Virgin flight

ON THE DIRECT service from London to Vancouver with Virgin, launched by Richard Branson (above) last week, if you are in the Upper Class Dream Suite, don’t worry, the staff will not disturb you. Virgin crew has been trained by a “whispering coach” in tone, volume and sentiment they should use to passengers.

In other Virgin news, the carrier is returning to the Mumbai on the winter timetable and its new Clubhouse airside at JFK has opened. It is inspired by Manhattan and has a cocktail bar, brasserie, spa and a hair salon.