In the news: Pegasus Solutions’ findings on leisure travel, MAS shops for ATRs, Chinese language website for RCI members

2012’s holiday leisure bookings set to overtake 2011’s

Leisure hotel bookings for the 2012 holiday season are expected to outpace 2011, according to Pegasus Solutions. These anticipated results follow November 2012 volumes that also surpassed the prior year’s.

Globally, leisure bookings increased over prior year by a substantial +5.7% in November, which follows an increase of +9.2% realised in October.

In North America, where the month heralds the start of the busy holiday travel season, bookings grew by +6.6% over prior year. Rates on the global level held steady, growing +0.6%, as North America saw larger gains of +2.8%.

“Our hotel clients are harnessing the power of e-marketing to drive bookings through mobile this holiday season,” said David Millili, chief executive officer of Pegasus Solutions.

“People are away from their office and their desktops, but they’re still accessing email on handheld devices. This means guests can take advantage of seasonal rates, or make plans for special events directly from the hotel’s branded communication, which links directly to the booking page.”

November’s global corporate bookings slipped from October’s spike of +5.3% over last year to just -1.7% under last year, yet remained favourable to the -2.8% decrease year-to-date. Rates improved slightly from October’s decrease of -1.6% to -1.4% below 2011 in November.

North American corporate bookings remained within -3.3% of prior year, which was accompanied by a rise in rates of +1.4%. Looking forward, the managed travel segment is expected to keep pace with prior year through January, potentially easing in February and March.

Data reported by Pegasus Solutions comes from billions of transactions processed monthly for nearly 100,000 hotels, facilitating more than US$16 billion a year.

Malaysia Airlines buys turboprop jets for Firefly, MASwings

Hot on the heels of AirAsia placing an order for 100 aircraft worth US9.4 biliion from Airbus (read story) Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has inked a deal with European turboprop maker, ATR Inc, to buy 36 ATR 72-600 turboprop jet planes for its fully-owned subsidiaries, Firefly andMASwings, to expand within the country and regionally.

Of the 36 aircraft ordered at an estimated price of RM3 billion, Firefly will take on 20 new aircraft while16 will be inducted into the fleet of its sister company, MASwings.

MAS group chief executive officer and managing director Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said ATR would deliver three planes on second quarter of 2013, five in 2014 and six in 2015 The rest will be delivered in the following years.

The new aircraft will cater to the growing demand for Firefly’s services and support MASwings’ network expansion plan in Sabah and Sarawak, as well as within the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) region.

Currently Firefly operates 12 ATR 72-500, while MASwings operates 10 similar aircraft.

Funding for the new aircraft acquisition would be funded internally, within the MAS group, said Ahmad Jauhari.

Firefly CEO Ignatius Ong expects the new aircraft to fuel growth for both Firefly and MASwings in the next three years and provide more travel options to their customers.

Currently Firefly’s average load factor is 70%, but its services to business destinations such as Penang, Kota Baru and Singapore, are always full during peak hours. The new aircraft would be utilised to grow the airline’s network and increased frequency on existing routes and mount new service, he added.

MASwings CEO Datuk Captain Mohd Nawawi Awang said the new ATR planes would replace six of the older ATR models.The additional planes would enable the airline to extend its reach to more places in Sabah and Sarawak.

“The new aircraft for MASwings fleet will be timely to provide more feeder traffic into the hubs of Kuching and Kota Kinabalu for onward connectivity to the jet destinations served by Malaysia Airlines,” he added.

MASwings’ current load factor averaged 64%.  – Corinne Wan

• Photo above: Shaking on the agreement are MAS’ Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, (right), Filippo Bagnato, ATR CEO (left). Others present (L-R) ATR’s Jacques Desbarats, MASwings’ Mohd Nawawi Awang, Firefly’s Ignatius Ong

RCI unveils Chinese language website for its members

Vacation exchange company, RCI, recently launched a fully transactional website in simplified Chinese available to its exchange members.

Gordon Gurnik, RCI president, said the Chinese version of RCI.com was to better serve its Chinese members, making the vacation exchange process even easier.

Members to the website are able to view the resort directory, search and book exchange vacations, manage their accounts, book Extra Vacation GetawaysSM, as well as renew and upgrade their memberships.

The enhanced functionality on the site also includes the ability to view recommendations based on past searches, save favourites, and view special offers through the Exchange Search Filter. Members who book their exchange vacation online can also save on exchange fees.

“With the high adoption of internet usage in China, we understood that making RCI.com available in simplified Chinese would potentially bring great value to our Chinese members,” said Adrian Lee, RCE Asia managing director.

RCI.com is available I3 languages that include English, Spanish, Italian, Greek, French, Portuguese, Dutch and simplified Chinese.