Malaysia Airlines takes off with WhatsApp

MALAYSIA Airlines (MH) has launched their official presence on WhatsApp, enabling customers to receive their flight booking confirmation and flight status directly through the popular messaging app. Malaysia Airlines is the first airline in Malaysia and the fifth in the world to integrate with the WhatsApp Business solution. 

This follows the launch of three other digital solutions, MHguardian, MHfeedback and MHchat back in April 2018 and in line with their digitalization strategy. Malaysia Airlines will continue to look at products and services that enhance the customer experience by allowing our guests to receive important updates such as gate, check-in,boarding or schedule notifications via the messaging app. This new platform is offered in addition to the airline’s traditional methods of communication of email and SMS.
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Monarch Airlines ceases trading with immediate effect

MONARCH Airlines, the largest ever airline to enter administration, has ceased trading with immediate effect, leaving 110,000 customers overseas and in the region of 300,000 future bookings cancelled.

The Government has asked CAA to charter more than 30 aircraft to bring back to the UK #Monarch #Airlines customers currently overseas and has warned Monarch customers in the UK and yet to travel: don't go to the airport. There will be no more Monarch flights.

Advice for Monarch customers abroad is that everyone due to fly in the next fortnight will be brought back to the UK at no cost to them. There is no need to cut short your stay but all affected customers should check new website monarch.caa.co.uk for more information.

All future Monarch Airlines bookings, including flights and holidays, have now been cancelled following a decision by the company's board to cease trading.

Due to the unprecedented number of UK consumers currently overseas who are affected by this airline administration, the CAA and Government are securing a fleet of more than 30 aircraft, flying to more than 30 airports, to bring 110,000 people back to the UK at no cost to them. This is the equivalent of operating, at very short notice, one of the UK's largest airlines.

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Picture Credit: LIAM J McMANUS - Manchester Airport Photostream G-OZBY via photopin

State of the Art Holiday Bookings at Lakeside

A NEW state of the art Thomson store opened at the end of September providing a new, improved and exciting holiday booking experience at Lakeside. The new Holiday Design Store boasts a touch screen interactive map which offers in-depth information on exotic destinations and videos of resorts and hotels, plus dedicated booking booths with screens to bring holidays to life in the booking process.

It is also home to an Advice Bar with a dedicated self-service computer for customers to access reviews, excursions and visa information, or even book their own holiday – with staff on hand to answer questions, provide expert knowledge and offer a personalised holiday planning service.

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20% discounts on cross-Channel travel

PASSENGERS booking a trip to the Channel Islands or France can save 20% if they confirm their purchase before January 23.

The offer is available for people booking to travel on the fast ferry sailings from Poole, as well as on conventional sailings from Portsmouth. Bookings can now be made for travel up to December 2016.

Justin Amey, head of Marketing at Condor Ferries, said: ‘We know that the cost of an annual holiday with family or friends can quickly mount up, so we’re delighted to be able to offer a 20% saving on early bookings.

‘It might seem like a long time away, but Easter and even the summer holidays will soon be upon us, and by booking now we hope to save our passengers some money on their break – especially important just after the festive season.’

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Paris bookings halve as travel sales shrink by 15%

TRAVEL agents suffered a 50% drop in passenger bookings to #Paris amid a ‘dramatic’ fall in flight bookings in the week following the massacre in the French capital on November 13. 

Latest leisure travel market data from GfK also revealed that total bookings for all destinations in the week to last Saturday were 15% down year-on-year. Mid-haul destinations suffered the sharpest fall, with 26% fewer holidays booked. Egypt and Tunisia accounted for most of the decline.

Industry data analyst ForwardKeys reported airline bookings to Paris down 27% at the start of this week, while cancellations rose 21% year on year in the week to November 21.

ForwardKeys chief executive Oliver Jago said: ‘There were last-minute cancellations of immediate travel plans, predominantly among business travellers. New bookings have also dropped dramatically.’

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Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/101437384@N06/19273309543">The Louvre, Museum sunset in Paris  (2 of 1)</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">(license)

Flight booking data reveals impact of Tunisia terrorist attack

THE full extent of the slump in flight bookings and cancellations to #Tunisia after two major terrorist attacks this year is revealed in data published by ForwardKeys, which monitors #travel patterns by analyzing 14 million reservation transactions each day. 

The analysis shows that weekly international bookings fell by 44.7% compared with the same period in 2014 following the museum attack in Tunis on March 18. Bookings fell by 42.2% after the beach massacre near Sousse on June 26, which killed 38 tourists including 30 British holidaymakers. 

The attacks prompted a fall in bookings across a range of countries. The most marked slumps were seen in Switzerland, which recorded more cancellations than bookings.

ForwardKeys co-founder and chief executive Olivier Jager, said: ‘Our data shows that international bookings to Tunisia have been under-performing since mid-2014. Obviously the two terrorist attacks in the first half of 2015 have made the situation considerably worse.’

Major operators cancelled programmes to Tunisia for the rest of this year and summer 2016 after the British Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office warned against all but essential travel to Tunisia in the wake of the Sousse attack.

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Picture Credit: "Skopje Airport Check-in" by Janicka - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Skopje_Airport_Check-in.jpg#/media/File:Skopje_Airport_Check-in.jpg