Final JKIA Audit For Direct New York Flights Starts
KATA – Officials from an American security agency will from today conduct an audit of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) that will determine the fate of direct flights between Nairobi and New York.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials will audit the airport until Friday in the race to get the Last Point of Departure (LDP) status. The exercise will find out whether Kenya has addressed issues raised by TSA last year in regard to security.
Jonny Andersen, the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) managing director, sought to be excused from Parliamentary sessions this week to facilitate the audit.
“This will allow us prepare to host the US team that is coming to assess the entire airport. We will have staff available to help in the audit,” Mr Andersen told the Public Investments Committee.
Kenya Airways Seeks Exemption To Discuss Prices With Precision Air
Kenya Airways (KQ) is seeking exemption from competition rules in its joint venture deal with Tanzania’s national carrier Precision Air.
KQ, which has a 41.23 stake in Precision Air wants regulatory approval to discuss revenue sharing, price setting, route schedules, sales and marketing on the two airline’s joint venture routes in Kenya and Tanzania.
The two carriers already have a code-sharing agreement that allows airlines to sell seats on each other’s planes on the Nairobi-Dar es Salaam route. They have now applied to be exempted from competition regulations until April 2022.
“In the joint venture agreement, the parties intend to align and coordinate reciprocal code sharing on the joint venture routes,” said Competition Authority of Kenya director-general Wang’ombe Kariuki in a notice.
The routes in discussion are Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu, Dar-es-salaam, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar.
“The parties intend to align and coordinate network management activities with respect to the Joint Venture including terms of routes, schedules, capacity and designation; pricing of ticket fares on the joint venture
Lufthansa Debuts Distribution Capability Programme
The Lufthansa Group has launched its New Distribution Capability (NDC) Partner Programme, offering agents a preferred value proposition encompassing technology, servicing, offers and strategic cooperation components.
The newly introduced website provides general information for customers seeking more details and wanting to ask questions regarding Lufthansa Group’s NDC API solution.
The website is accessible to all and is beneficial for travel agencies, corporates and travel technology providers as they can now find detailed information on the website.
Travel agencies interested in using the free of charge NDC web solution SPRK, can now register to access the booking and servicing platform by simply filling out the online form available on the new website. Until the end of this year Lufthansa Group will be offering a special incentive of 1EUR per coupon for agents using the NDC API solution SPRK.
General Manager Sales Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, Lufthansa Group, Robin Sohdi, said the Lufthansa Group continuously aims to serve our local agencies with the best possible solutions, and the newly launched NDC Partner Programme and website will be of great support.
How A Mobile First Transformation Is Shaping The Future Of The Travel Industry
Mobile has already reshaped the travel industry when it comes to online bookings. According to eMarketer, 40 percent of last year’s nearly $190 billion in US travel sales came from mobile devices.
The competitive landscape for these bookings underscores the central role mobile plays in helping to connect consumers with the experiences they seek. But the mobile first transformation taking place across the travel and transportation industries is only just beginning. Travel brands are looking beyond mobile’s ability to drive sales and are examining other ways it can help shape the future of the travel industry, including its ability to revolutionize how travel is experienced.
From reducing consumer friction to helping travelers enhance their own experiences through the use of mobile technology, here’s how travel and transportation are setting the course for a bold new future.
How GDSs Are Dealing With New EU Privacy Rules
The new European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which was officially effective on May 25, two years after being adopted by European Parliament, will impact businesses both inside and outside of Europe, including travel agencies around the world.
Two of the largest distribution systems in the world, Sabre and Amadeus, spoke with Travel Market Report about what this means for them and what agents should know about the GDPR and how it impacts their GDS dealings going forward.
“Sabre takes privacy and data protection very seriously,” Sabre Data Privacy Officer David McKinney told Travel Market Report.
According to McKinney, Sabre has formed a “cross-functional project team and dedicated significant global resources” to deal with the implementation of the new rules. That includes adopting new legal requirements that will satisfy new GDPR requirements, and putting out new customer and supplier contracts to address the new rules.
“Where necessary, we have refined our system capabilities to accommodate new data subject rights request and revised in-scope policies,” McKinney said. “We monitor the evolving regulatory landscape and will implement additional changes as appropriate.
