Road Warrior: Airlines share big profits with employees, bizcations and Etihad sale

Share boost at airlines

The airline industry has had incredible ups and downs over the years but it is known for sharing the good times. This year Air New Zealand gave an average bonus of €1,626 to employees, while the government benefitted by €169 million in dividends. In Australia, Qantas employees got €2,020 each. In the Middle East, Emirates are boosting staff remuneration by five-weeks pay and Alaska Air is also giving five-weeks pay or nine per cent. The highest this year is the incredible $1.58 billion that Delta Airlines shared, netting staff a whopping average of $16,000 (€14,355).

Fancy a bizcation?

Dublin appears at number four in the list of top 10 destinations cities for British business travellers using the AirBnB business travel service. Set up two years ago, the service has thrown up some new travel trends such as "bizcations" and "digital nomadisation". The first one is obvious and the length of stays by business travellers using the service is double traditional accommodations at 6.8 nights. Digital nomadisation refers to people who scrape a modest income while travelling.

Change at United Airlines

American Airlines president Scott Kirby has been hired by United Airlines as president, a new role at the carrier and effective immediately. In a sign of the good working relationships in the aviation industry, American chief executive Doug Parker showed a generosity of spirit in his response to the move: "Scott has been a key member of our team for over 20 years. We would not be where we are today without his leadership. More than 100,000 team members of American Airlines, most notably me, will be forever grateful to Scott."

Etihad sale

The Etihad global sales campaign runs until September 5th and has up to 50 per cent off fares for travel to June 2017. If you are organised you can be flying to Kuala Lumpur from €399, Bombay from €401 and Melbourne from €669 economy. Business class destinations have big reductions and Colombo is from €1,593, Hong Kong from €1,485, and Sydney from €2,326.

jscales@irishtimes.com