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NAVAN UNVEILED AS NEW FACE OF TRIPACTIONS Travel management company TripActions has rebranded under the new name of Navan. The tech-first TMC said that the rebranding to Navan was the “next stage of the company evolution” and would unify its travel, corporate card and expense platforms into a single application. The TMC said it would also be enhancing its virtual travel assistant, Ava, using APIs from AI and deployment company OpenAI, including ChatGPT, which helps deliver personalised recommendations and boosts traveller engagement.
WESTERN EUROPE SET FOR ‘SHARP RECOVERY’ IN BUSINESS TRAVEL SPENDING
Lufthansa has been piloting green fares through a “test run” in its Scandinavian markets since August 2022 and they have now been introduced for flights throughout Europe and North Africa. The green fares will be available across the group’s airlines, including Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Swiss and Air Dolomiti, on flights within Europe and to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in North Africa. The fares, which can be booked in both economy and business class, are available through the airlines’ direct and NDC-based booking platforms. Corporate clients also receive a carbon mitigation certificate for the reduced emissions achieved by using SAF. Business travel in “emerging” Europe, which includes countries in central and eastern Europe, rose by 53 per cent to reach $30.8 billion last year. Europe remains the third largest region in the world for business travel spending with 20 per cent of the total, although this share is seven per cent lower than in 2019. Six countries – Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands – accounted for 65 per cent of corporate travel spend in the region last year. Data also illustrates how the gap in spending between Europe’s largest two markets, Germany and the UK, grew over the past decade. In 2013, Germany’s travel spending was 23 per cent higher than in the UK, but this gap increased to a 31 per cent differential in 2017 and rose further to 33 per cent in 2022.
LUFTHANSA EXPANDS ‘GREEN FARES’ ACROSS EUROPEAN SERVICES Aviation giant Lufthansa Group is introducing its new ‘green fares’ across its short-haul flights after successfully testing the initiative in the Scandinavian market last year. The fares include “full compensation” for carbon emissions within the ticket price. This is achieved through a combination of using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to mitigate for 20 per cent of the CO2 produced by the flight, alongside contributions to climate protection projects for the other 80 per cent. Business travel in western Europe is expected to see one of the “sharpest recoveries” in the world and return to pre-Covid spending levels in 2026, according to research by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA). Europe was the only region to see spending on corporate travel decline in both 2020 and 2021 as the Covid-19 crisis hit the sector hard. But the GBTA’s Business Travel Index (BTI) Outlook said that the continent was now “making up for lost ground” and is expected to be the fastest- growing business travel market in 2023 with spending forecast to rise by 25.3 per cent. In Western Europe, business travel spending in 2022 was up by 23 per cent year-on-year to reach $194 billion, which represented 58 per cent of the region’s pre-Covid annual expenditure.
GRAY DAWES LAUNCHES INTO THE US MARKET
Gray Dawes Travel is launching operations in North America following the announcement of two key appointments – and has hinted an acquisition in North America is imminent. The UK-based TMC has selected Michel Botbol as chairman of the board (North America), while Carolann Martini will take on the role of chief customer officer. The move follows Gray Dawes’ recent entry into the Australian market with the acquisition of MP Travel. Suzanne Horner, Gray Dawes Group’s CEO, said: “It represents the next step in our global growth plan and closes the circle on our service delivery strategy. With a shared technology platform across the Gray Dawes operation, clients will enjoy a seamless service as we follow the sun from the UK to Australia to America.”
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businesstravelnewseurope.com | SPRING 2023
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