Road Warrior: European air traffic outside EU falls 2.5% in May

European air traffic outside EU falls 2.5% in May

The European air traffic report for May released by ACI Europe has interesting underlining trends.

While traffic figures across the European network are up on average by 3.6 per cent airports outside the EU bloc had a decline of 2.5 per cent.

Passenger traffic in Russia and Turkey are now weighing down the overall figures. The impact of geopolitical issues and terrorism risks is shifting demand towards Spain, Portugal and Cyprus. Dublin performed well in group one airports (over 25 million passengers), with an increase of 11.6 per cent in May.

Airlines will suffer fallout from Brexit, terrorism

IATA has also warned that the continuing fallout from the EU exit vote in Britain continuing terrorist activity and the fragile state of the global economy will weigh heavily on airlines.

International passenger demand slowed in May for the third month in a row. International growth has fallen to 4.3 per cent from five per cent in April.

"The shockwaves of the Brexit vote have extended worldwide and the fallout will affect the air transport industry from both economic and regulatory perspectives," said Tony Tyler director-general of IATA.

Doyle hotel group spends €200m on refurbishment

Irish hotel group The Doyle Collection has spent more than €200 million refurbishing its properties and refreshing the brand.

The 50-year-old family firm has eight hotels: three in Ireland, four in the UK and one in Washington.

The renovations include new bars and restaurants, upgrading rooms and refreshing the visual identity of the four- and five-star hotels.

The last upgrade of the hotels was during the period of 2007-2011 during the tenure of chief executive Bill Walshe.

Hotels under attack from malware

Malware attacks on hotels are increasing with Omni Hotels and Resorts the latest to report a breach of the point-of- sale systems at some of their properties.

The latest breach was discovered on May 30th and would appear to have been in place since December last.

Payment card information – including cardholder name, credit/debit card number, security code and expiration date – may have been compromised.

Other hotels with similar problems during the past year include Starwood, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt and Trump Hotels.