Business Travel

Kozhikode gets ready for Emirates

Age-old trade ties between Dubai and Kozhikode - a port city in Southern Indian State of Kerala that welcomed its first Middle Eastern traders as early as the seventh century - are set to accelerate with the launch of Emirates Airline’s six-fights-a-week service, effective July 1.

Kozhikode, Emirates’ third gateway in Kerala after Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram and its 10th in India, bears testimony of the airline’s long-standing commitment to this market and its robust expansion drive.

To promote its award-winning product and to brief the travel trade on the wide range of services offered, Emirates hosted a road show in Kozhikode recently.

A high-level Emirates delegation led by Salem Obaidalla, Senior Vice President Commercial Operations, West Asia and Indian Ocean and comprising Orhan Abbas, Vice President India and Nepal, senior executives from the airline’s home base in Dubai and its Indian Headquarters in Mumbai will address a gathering of over 600 agents from Kozhikode and its surrounding district including Cannanore, Pallakkad, Mallapuram, Tellicherry and Trichur.

Salem said “we are gearing up for the launch of our services to Kozhikode in the summer of this year.

In the past few months we have stepped up our recruitment efforts and will soon start training our newly-appointed staff to serve the city’s travellers.

In Kozhikode we will set up a town office, an airport office and separate cargo office to manage the city’ passenger and cargo requirements”.

Mackinnons Amex Travels’ relocates

The strategic decision by Mackinnons American Express Travels (Pvt) Ltd. to relocate its head office from Colombo Fort to a more accessible location after 35 years has paid rich dividends, resulting in an increased leisure customer volume of 20% compared to the previous year.

CEO of Mackinnons American Express Travels (Pvt) Ltd. and Senior Vice President of John Keells Holdings Group, Trevor Rajaratnam said, “At Mackinnons American Express Travels, our vision is to provide a complete range of high quality services to our corporate and individual customers, beyond their expectations.

We continuously strive to increase the standards of our services as well. Keeping on par with this vision, we relocated out office complex, to provide our customers with ease of access and reduce the hassles they would have to face when visiting us due to heavy traffic and difficulty of finding parking space”.

The new office also comprises distinctive departments for different passenger needs, such as Corporate and Retails Travel, Outbound Holidays, Foreign Exchange issuance, and Visa and Immigration facilitation to serve our clients with greater efficiency,” he said.

Mackinnons Americans Express Travels which was set up in 1972 is a joint venture between Sri Lanka’s leading conglomerate John Keels Holdings PLC and American Express International Inc.

Head of Corporate Travel of Mackinnons American Express Travels, V. Yogarajan said, “Utilising the strengths of its holding company John Keels Holdings PLC and partner organisation American Express International Inc; Mackinnons American Express Travels offers a total travel solution to the corporate as well as leisure traveller.

Our corporate and individual clients can also be rest assured of a stress free journey since they could seek travel related assistance from any of our 2,200 offices in 130 countries in five continents across the globe”.

New heads for tourism bodies

SSP Laksman Kaluarachchi, an experienced senior officer who has served the Police Department for over thirty-four years has been appointed as Director of the Tourist Police Division. In addition the Ministry of Tourism has appointed Roy Jayasingha as CEO and Director General of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management.

Jayasingha was a senior officer in public service and he has experience in the Government and Private sector.

He joined the public service as a junior officer and later became the Additional Secretary of the Industrial and Investment Promotion Ministry.

Jayasingha has experience in the mining, textile and the garment sectors.

SATTE 2008 attracts over 225 tour operators

South Asia’s largest travel and tourism exhibition, SATTE 2008, was held in New Delhi, India recently. The 15th annual exhibition drew over 225 tour operators from 35 countries with 13 countries exhibiting their products.

The highlight of the event was the Som Nath Chib Memorial Lecture and interactive session titled “South Asian Tourism - An Opportunity Lost”.

The 23rd Som Nath Chib Memorial Lecture, organised by the Inder Sharma Foundation, was chaired by Shilabhadra Banerjee, Secretary, Tourism Government of India. Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman, Renton de Alwis delivered this year’s Som Nath Chib Memorial Lecture on “South Asian Tourism; the Way Ahead”. The response was delivered by Dr. Shahzad Qaiser, Secretary, Ministry of Tourism of Pakistan.

The lecture was followed by a session on “Indian Aviation 2008: at Crossroads”, by Kapil Kaul of CAPA India.

The late Som Nath Chib, a most distinguished civil servant, was the first Director General of Tourism of India. Chib, a former Deputy Director General of All India Radio was a pioneer in promoting tourism in South Asia.

Not confining himself to his motherland, he gave of his expertise to the then Government of Ceylon in the early sixties and later to the Bahamas.

Chib also advised the governments of Nepal, Malaysia, Iran and Afghanistan and had the distinction of being in the pioneering team that formed the World Tourism Organisation.

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Romesh Jayasinghe, leaders of the tourism industry of India and senior Chib family members were among the invitees at the lecture.

Training for more Pakistani Aircraft Engineers

SriLankan Airlines’ reputation as a leading aviation training centre in South Asia continues to grow, with more Aircraft Engineers from Pakistan undergoing training at Katunayake.

Six more Aircraft Engineers from Airblue, Pakistan’s fast-growing private airline, are undergoing training in maintenance of Airbus A319, A320, and A321 aircraft, at SriLankan’s Technical Training School.

Technical Training Manager at SriLankan Harsha Priyadarshan, said: This is the second group from Airblue whom we are training this year.

We trained three other groups from the same airline over the last two years as well.”

SriLankan Technical Training is one of the few companies in Asia to hold the globally recognised EASA 147 certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency for training in Aircraft Maintenance.

It continuously runs a two-year program in aircraft engineering for Sri Lankans, and has been training an increasing number of foreign personnel, notably from Pakistan, the Maldives, Oman and India.

SriLankan has an all-Airbus fleet, which is an advantage to those who need to be trained in the many aspects of maintenance of Airbus aircraft, including Airframe and Power Plant, Avionics and Radio Engineering.

The course for Airblue runs over two months from March to May and covers engineering and maintenance aspects of the A320 family aircraft. It includes field visits to both Base and Line Maintenance

Airblue now operates to nine destinations - Manchester, Dubai, and seven cities throughout Pakistan - with a fleet of six Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. It recently placed an order for eight more A320s.