The business of travelling for work
Getting to London . . . via Southend-on-Sea
DOING BUSINESS in the southeast of England got easier with the opening of the Dublin to Southend, three times daily service from Aer Lingus operated by Aer Arann. With 15 minutes from plane to train and four minutes queuing for security, it could beat other airports in the London area on timings. Aer Lingus will be promoting this route as an easy option for passengers from the UK travelling to the US with immigration and customs pre-clearance in Dublin.
The train journey from Southend to Liverpool Street takes 50 minutes and the station is at the airport. In the 1960s, Southend was one of the busiest airports in the UK. Easyjet will be operating 70 flights per week into Europe from there.
C'est combien pour le club?
THE HUMBLE club sandwich, a staple of road warriors across the world, is being used by hotels.comas a barometer of affordability – and Paris is the most expensive place to grab one. The standard chicken, bacon, egg and lettuce sandwich was priced in 750 hotels in the five-, four- and three-star categories in 26 countries.
The survey found that le club in Paris can cost as much as €40.10 in a five-star hotel and €16.45 in a three-star property. The second most expensive city was Geneva in Switzerland, with an average cost of €24.72.
Ireland was one of the cheapest countries on the list, with an average price of €11.82. The cheapest city worldwide was New Delhi in India at an average price of €7.27.
Average price in cities across the world were Beijing, €11; Moscow, €12.44; New York, €12.85; and London, €14.21.
Busiest airport just got busier
THE WORLD’S BUSIEST airport, with 92 million passengers last year – Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International – becomes even busier from today with the opening of the Maynard H Jackson Jr International terminal.
The new terminal will the first point of arrival for international passengers. Construction on the 1.2 million sq ft site began in 2008 and cost $1.4 billion (€1.09 billion).
Delta Airlines will have priority use of six of the 12 new Concourse F gates and passengers will be able to connect via train to the other concourses. Inside the new terminal there will be a Delta Sky Club with 12,000sq ft of space for 300 passengers. The Sky Club will have views across the airport.
Every day, Delta operates more than 1,000 flights to over 200 destinations from ATL. Delta passengers from Ireland will benefit from onward connections to about 150 destinations in the US, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Fly north to go east
FINNAIR OPENED a direct service to Chongqing in western China last week. It is a fast-growing city of 32 million people on the Tibetan plateau in an area the size of Austria, where the population is expected to double of the next five years. This is the 11th route to Asia/Australasia from Helsinki, joining services to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Seoul, Bangkok, Delhi, and Sydney.
Bigger Boeing arrives ahead of schedule
FOLLOWING THE resounding success of the Dublin-Dubai route, Emirates again brought forward the introduction of the Boeing 777-300ER wide-bodied aircraft to the route from July 1st to May 1st. With 52 per cent extra capacity, the aircraft carries 358 people in three classes. Cargo capacity will also increase from 15 to 25 tonnes. Emirates has also announced the 24th consecutive year of profits – $629 million (€492 million) net – and carried 34 million passengers.