Swiss offers luxury trip free
Swiss International Air Lines has launched a comprehensive offer for first and business class passengers on its thrice-weekly service between Muscat and Zurich.

Passengers travelling before April 30 will be entered in a draw to win Swiss flights, a week’s stay at the luxurious Grand Hotel Regina in Grindelwald and first class rail passes, valid for the duration of the stay. First class passengers will be entered to win first class tickets, while business class passengers will receive business tickets.
The airline is currently preparing its entry to become the eighth member of the Oneworld alliance later this year. Customers can only benefit from this partnership, in that the airline will be able to offer them more destinations, more convenient connection times and seamless access to comprehensive frequent flyer programmes.
 
Alitalia in deal with Sabre
A third member of the SkyTeam alliance, Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane SPA, has signed a deal with Sabre Airline Solutions for its state-of-the-art AirPrice system.
Used by seven of the worlds top 12 airlines, the new system will help Alitalia maximise its revenues through the tactical and strategic analysis and management of fares.
The AirPrice system will help pricing analysts examine relative market data, including competitors’ changes, to make rapid pricing decisions and maximise Alitalia’s revenues by up to one per cent.
 
Muscat-Bahrain five times a week
Oman Air is to introduce five weekly Muscat-Bahrain flights, according to Mohammed bin Mubarak al Shikely, senior manager marketing, Oman Air.
Other routes being studied for 2004 are Salalah-Sanaa or Salalah-Riyan (both destinations are in Yemen), Muscat-Dubai-Tehran (Iran), Muscat-Damascus-Muscat (Syria), Muscat-Delhi-Muscat and Muscat-Hyderabad-Muscat. These are still in the planning stage, subject to traffic rights, addition of one more aircraft and economic feasibility.

Lufthansa Dine to Fly offer
Lufthansa is once again running its ‘Dine to Fly’ offer in cooperation with the JW Marriott Hotel, Dubai. The promotion offers a 50 percent discount on economy class tickets when dining in any JW Marriott restaurant. The receipt needs to be kept and presented to Lufthansa to avail of the discount. The destinations being offered in the promotion are all those within the UK and France. The promotion will run for 100 days starting in March.
 
Jetting to awards
India’s “most preferred airline” Jet Airways added yet another feather to its cap when it was recognised thrice at the maiden edition of the Business Traveller Awards for offering the Best Business Class, Best Economy Class and Best Service (Airport & Inflight) in the country.
The three distinguished honours were received by Jet Airways’ executive director, Saroj K Datta at a ceremony in Mumbai. The event was organised as part of the first-ever international travel and tourism exhibition World Travel India 2004, that attracted some of the leading names of the industry.
The feBusiness Traveller Awards are based on popular choice and presented in the various travel categories. Winners are selected after an extensive nationwide poll conducted among readers of the Indian financial daily The Financial Express and business travel magazine the Business Traveller.
 
Ebiz centre fo Saudi Arabian
Saudi Arabian Airlines has launched its eBusiness centre using IBM’s WebSphere technology to allow the development, deployment and hosting of the airline’s e-business solutions, while providing integration with existing core enterprise systems and applications.
This is the first in a series of implementations aimed at supporting the airline’s e-business policies and augmenting its capabilities to leverage internet technologies.