Business Traveller

Welcome to the July / August edition of Business Traveller. It is the time of the year when in days of old (pre-March 2020) business travel tailed off and holiday travel increased. We would advise that it was the time to avoid going through airports as you’d find families clogging the corridors and children underfoot or being pushed round on luggage trolleys while a tannoy pleaded with parents to desist. Oh, happy days. Airports and airlines haven’t reached 2019 levels, yet they are cancelling flights weeks in advance or sometimes on the day, and it’s a mess. There isn’t room here to summarise the travel situation or the reasons for it, though you can find and contribute to several educated conversations about it on our Forum at businesstraveller.com. Suffice to say…

PAUL J DEVRIES Paul has been following the latest developments in the hotel industry for the past decade, and was previously contributing editor at Hotel Chatter. He has covered hotel news for Business Traveller in cities around the world. This month he lines up the exciting new properties and upcoming openings in Athens; see page 44. SUNSHINE FLINT Sunshine is based in New York and writes about destinations, hotels, design and culture for many US and UK publications including Conde Nast Traveler, Architectural Digest, AFAR, The Times and the Independent. On page 26, she takes the pulse of the city that never sleeps, from hybrid workers to new luxury hotel openings. RICHARD TAMS Richard is a London-based airline consultant who has worked in markets in Europe, North America and Asia. He now runs his own…

KLM LAUNCHES PREMIUM COMFORT SEAT DUTCH CARRIER KLM has launched its long-awaited premium economy product, going by the name of Premium Comfort. The airline said that the Collins Aerospace seat would offer a 38-inch pitch, 8-inch recline and 13.3-inch IFE screen. Customers will also receive an upgraded catering service, as well as preferential check-in and boarding privileges. The cabin will be installed on KLM’s fleet of B777-200, B777-300, B787-9 and B787-10 aircraft, but not on the carrier’s A330s which are set to be phased out. There will be between 21 and 28 seats in the Premium Comfort cabin, depending on aircraft type, with the first routes featuring the new seat operating to North America. KLM added: “It is anticipated that passengers will be able to book Premium Comfort to a growing range of destinations from…

RICARDO POMPHILE is co-director of Open House Buenos Aires and a practising architect. WHAT IS OPEN HOUSE? The Open House programme is one of the largest live architecture exhibitions, which takes place in cities around the world. It’s free of charge to the general public. This year marks our tenth edition in Buenos Aires. It’s going to be a big celebration, and we are trying to reach 200 sites located in almost every neighbourhood of the city. WHAT ATTRACTED YOU TO ARCHITECTURE? It was a familiar thing. My father is an architect, and I was surrounded by construction sites throughout my childhood. I was also always curious about everything that has to do with›design, graphics, etc. In my view, architecture is the mother of all designs. FAVOURITE BUILDING IN BUENOS AIRES? It’s a hard call. Buenos…

28% of business travellers say their organisation is encouraging travel for face-to-face meetings 26% say international travel is important for their job 25% missed travelling for work during the pandemic 24% view travel as one of the best parts of the job 24% have a backlog of trips due to Covid 22% are travelling more than pre-Covid 20% refuse to travel to regions with high Covid rates 16% don’t want to travel for work as much as pre-Covid Source: Opinium survey of 500 UK business travellers who travel internationally for business at least once a year, commissioned by World Travel Protection…

READ: Imagine a City: A Pilot Sees the World, Mark Vanhoenacker This nostalgic memoir by commercial airline pilot Vanhoenacker explores the cities he has visited over the past two decades. Find yourself transported from the road signs of Los Angeles to the old gates of Jeddah. Vanhoenacker currently flies the B787 Dreamliner from London to cities around the world. £16.99; Chatto and Windus. LISTEN: Legacy of Speed Author (and running fan) Malcolm Gladwell explores the relationship between activism and sports in this new six-part series produced by Pushkin Industries. The podcast tells the stories of sprinters Tommie Smith, Lee Evans and John Carlos, and discovers the impact of their protest at the 1968 Olympic Games. WATCH: House of the Dragon Game of Thrones fans will finally get to explore the story of the Targaryen civil…