Business Traveller Asia-Pacific Edition October 2019

Welcome to the October 2019 issue of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific. Last month, we held our annual awards ceremony at an exclusive presentation luncheon in the Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong. A huge thank you to all who attended and to our readers who placed their votes. You can read the full results of these prestigious awards on page 66. In this issue, we take a special look at Australia and have assigned two on-the-ground writers in Sydney (page 56) and Melbourne (page 62) to give us the lowdown on these cities’ MICE, food and beverage, and sightseeing highlights. Of course, we’ve also got two destination features. You may remember our contributor Crystal Reid went to Chongqing for our May 2019 issue. This time, she goes to another city in China’s southwest – Chengdu…

4 HOURS IN HANOI We take you on an afternoon tour of the Vietnamese capital’s coffee shops, historic hotels, speakeasies, and more (page 42) BUILDING THE FUTURE The Bauhaus school of architecture emerged more than a century ago, but is still influential today (page 38) IN THE CLUB Business Traveller’s editorial director takes a flight in British Airways’ much-anticipated new business class seat (page 74) ACROSS THE WATER Our guide on how to use the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge to travel between these Greater Bay Area cities (page 82)…

DEREK PICOT Veteran hotelier Derek has worked in senior positions on five continents, most recently as regional vice president for Jumeirah’s hotels and resorts in Europe. He now consults for hotel owners and luxury developers, advising on design and trends in hospitality. In his regular column he reflects on the increasing use of robots in hotels; see page 71. JENNI REID Jenni is Business Traveller UK’s editorial assistant, and has written news and features looking at hotel accessibility, biofuels, the future of flying and biometrics. She has worked as a journalist in London and Phnom Penh. In this issue (page 52), she meets the design team behind Japanese airline ANA’s new business class seat product. GRAHAM BOYNTON A journalist for 40 years, Graham was editor of Business Traveller in the 1980s before being recruited to…

ULTRA LONG-HAUL RESEARCH FLIGHTS QANTAS plans to operate three research flights to test ways to improve the health and wellbeing of passengers and crew on ultra long-haul flights. The flights form part of Qantas’s “Project Sunrise”, the airline’s goal to operate regular, non-stop commercial flights from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to London and New York. The research flights are scheduled to operate in October, November and December, using its new Boeing 787-9 aircraft scheduled for delivery during the same period. As a result, the planned delivery flights from Seattle to Australia will be re-routed, and the research flights will be operated with the new aircraft. Instead of flying empty from Seattle to Australia, the aircraft will simulate two Project Sunrise routes – London and New York to Sydney. The two non-stop flights will…

ASCENT VISTARA started daily Airbus A320neo flights from Bangkok to Delhi, its third international destination, at the end of August. AIR ASIA X will launch a new non-stop service between Kuala Lumpur and Tokyo Narita Airport from November 20 this year. The flight will use an Airbus A330, including 12 Premium Flatbed seats laid out in a 2-2-2 configuration. SINGAPORE AIRLINES launched Airbus A350-900 flights to Seattle in September. Covering 12,891km in 15 hours 50 minutes, this is now the longest non-stop flight to Seattle. UNITED will begin operating new non-stop routes between Chicago, Los Angeles, New York Newark and Washington DC and Tokyo Haneda International Airport from March 28, 2020. DESCENT CATHAY PACIFIC will suspend its Dublin route from November. This means that Ireland will lose all three direct links to Asia now that Hainan…

How many flights do you typically take per year? I’m on track to have approximately 150 flights this year. As CEO of an emerging enterprise software company, I travel extensively to meet with potential/current clients and attend many industry conferences. Any unusual equipment you fly with? Since I often meet with clients to showcase our software, I typically fly with several computers, a mini-projector, monitors and other devices, which makes my carry-on extremely heavy. Any flights in your life that stand out? Two flights really stand out. First was taking a bush plane to a remote part of the Serengeti in Tanzania for a safari. The plane had no air conditioning and the inside was well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which made everyone sick and miserable. Second, was taking a chartered flight on Antarctic Airways…