British Airlines is seeking ways to benefit from the transit flights business via Istanbul, a model that is boosting the growth of domestic Turkish Airlines
British Airlines is offering tickets for 65 pounds for Turkish passengers to UK to mark its 65th year in Turkey, says Gavin Halliday.
The increasing number of transit airway passengers via Turkey, a key element in the rapid growth of national carrier Turkish Airlines, has also whet the appetite of British Airways, which is seeking a larger share in the market.
Istanbul has become an important connecting hub in its region, a top executive of British Airways said during an Oct. 14 meeting in Istanbul.
“Not only has the number of people visiting Turkey increased, the number of transit passengers has reached a great number in recent years,” said Gavin Halliday, general manager for the company’s Europe and Africa operations, during a press conference.
The official data of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) verifies Halliday’s statements. The total number of the transit passengers arriving Istanbul reached 18 million last year, and the city ranks top in hosting transit passengers on the Asia-Europe corridor.
Frankfurt came second with 11 million passengers in the same period, followed by Cairo with 8 million, according to the data.
At the meeting to mark British Airways’ 65th year in Turkey, Halliday said, “The international routes and the passengers preferences are a change we aim to serve with the best quality for them.”
Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport, one of the two in the city, ranked as the eighth busiest airport in the world, reaching 31.14 million travelers by the end of last year. It followed London Heathrow, Paris Charles De Gaulle, Frankfurt, Spain’s Barajas, Amsterdam, Leonardo Da Vinci and Munich airports, according to Turkey’s General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ).
The total number of international passengers arriving to Turkey has reached 47 million, breaking another record by 13.4 percent as of the end of September this year compared with the first nine months of 2010, according to DHMI.
Turkish Airlines, which benefits most from transit traffic in the region, expects to handle 35 million passengers in 2011, according to Chief Executive Temel Kotil.
Cheap tickets
To celebrate the 65th anniversary, British Airways is offering a discount price of 65 pounds for Turkish passengers to London if they buy tickets between Oct. 17 and 23. Passengers will be able to use the ticket between October 2011 and March 31, 2012.
Operating 21 weekly roundtrip flights between Istanbul and London, British Airways carried approximately 64,000 passengers on the route as of the end of last year.
Halliday said the company was ready to invest nearly 5 billion pounds next year to modernize aircraft, upgrade technology and interior decor, and increase entertainment and catering services.
via UK airline sees profit in flights over Turkish sky – Hurriyet Daily News.
Adam Werritty: Liam Fox’s friend ‘bankrolled by corporate intelligence firm and Israel lobbyist’
Adam Werritty, the Defence Secretary’s unofficial “adviser”, was funded by a corporate intelligence company and the chairman of an Israeli lobbying organisation, documents have disclosed.
By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor
Mr Werritty is reported to have paid for travel around the world from a company that received funds from G3 Good Governance Group and Tamares Real Estate, an investment company owned by Poju Zabloudowicz, the chairman of Bicom.
Jon Moulton, a venture capitalist, is also said to have provided money to Pargav Ltd, the firm which is alleged to have bankrolled Mr Werritty.
Over the past few days, speculation has mounted as to how Mr Werritty was able to join Liam Fox on more than 20 overseas trips including official visits, conferences and holidays.
It has now emerged that six different people and companies each paid up to £35,000 to Pargav since last year.
Mr Werritty is said to have withdrawn more than £140,000 from Pargav’s bank account to fund his travel around the world to meet up with Dr Fox, The Times reported.
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The disclosure is likely to put Dr Fox under growing pressure as those previously close to the pair become increasingly alarmed at Mr Werritty’s activities.
Mr Zabloudowicz is the head of Bicom, a prominent organisation which promotes Israeli-British relations. His companies have also donated money to the Conservative Party and he is a supporter of David Cameron.
Last night, he confirmed donating £3,000 to Pargav.
A spokesman said: “For many years, Poju Zabludowicz has helped fund not-for-profit organisations, not individuals, due to his passion for the promotion of peace and understanding between peoples in the United States, Europe and the Middle East.”
G3, a company that specialises in international security and risk management, has previous links with Dr Fox in connection with his attempts to help with the reconstruction of Sri Lanka. The firm is thought to have donated £15,000 to Pargav.
Earlier this week, The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Mr Werritty had being working out of the offices of Michael Hintze, a hedge fund tycoon and donor to the Conservative Party. Oliver Hylton, an adviser to Mr Hintze is the sole director of Pargav.
Mr Hylton and Mr Hintze are now apparently attempting to distance themselves from Mr Werritty and are thought to believe they asked more questions of Dr Fox’s friend and best man.
Last night, Mr Hylton told The Times: “He [Mr Werritty] came into my office and said I want to set up a new company. It sounds ridiculously niave, in hindsight, but I agreed. I signed the documents and nothing more.
“I saw Adam as an adviser [to Dr Fox] of some sort. Anything he did was for the good of Liam Fox and supporting his office. Adam is a good and honest man.”
Asked about Pargav, a spokesman for the Defence Secretary said: “Adam Werritty does not work for the Defence Secretary as an official or unofficial adviser.”
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has resigned after controversy surrounding his relationship with his friend Adam Werritty
Mr Fox said he had “mistakenly allowed” his personal and professional responsibilities to become “blurred”
David Cameron said he was very sorry for Mr Fox’s departure but “understood his reasons”
Philip Hammond has been appointed defence secretary with Justine Greening replacing him as transport secretary
Labour says Mr Fox had not upheld the standards expected of ministers and his departure was “inevitable”
Mr Fox said he had allowed his personal interests and government business to become blurred
Defence Secretary Liam Fox has resigned after a week of pressure over his working relationship with friend and self-styled adviser Adam Werritty.
Mr Fox was being investigated amid claims he broke the ministerial code.
In a letter to David Cameron, Mr Fox said he had “mistakenly allowed” personal and professional responsibilities to be “blurred”.
Mr Cameron said he was very sorry for Mr Fox’s departure. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond will replace Mr Fox.
Labour said Mr Fox had not upheld the standards expected of ministers and his departure was “inevitable”.
Business cards
The defence secretary has been under pressure since it emerged that Mr Werritty, a lobbyist, had met him on 18 foreign trips despite having no official role.
Mr Werritty, a former flatmate of Mr Fox and the best man at his wedding, handed out business cards suggesting he was an adviser to Mr Fox and was present at meetings Mr Fox had with military figures, diplomats and defence contractors.
“I now have to hold myself to my own standard”
Liam Fox
Fox resignation letters in full
Who is Adam Werritty?
Questions were also raised about who paid for Mr Werritty’s business activities and whether he had personally benefited from his frequent access to the defence secretary.
No 10 sources said that the prime minister had been willing to give Mr Fox time to stay in his job – at least until the details of a report by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell into his conduct was published early next week.
Mr Fox will be replaced by Transport Secretary Mr Hammond. In a mini-reshuffle caused by Mr Fox’s departure, Treasury minister Justine Greening will replace Mr Hammond – becoming the fifth woman in the Cabinet.
In his resignation letter, Mr Fox said he had “mistakenly allowed the distinction between my personal interest and my government activities to become blurred”.
National interest
“The consequences of this have become clearer in recent days,” he added. “I am very sorry for this.
“I have also repeatedly said that the national interest must always come before personal interest.
“I now have to hold myself to my own standard. I have therefore decided, with great sadness, to resign from my post as secretary of state for defence.”
Responding to Mr Fox’s resignation, Mr Cameron said: “I understand your reasons for deciding to resign as defence secretary, although I am very sorry to see you go.
“We have worked closely for these last six years, and you have been a key member of my team throughout that time.”
He said Mr Fox, MP for North Somerset, had “done a superb job in the 17 months since the election, and as shadow defence secretary before that” and had overseen changes that would allow the armed forces to “meet the challenges of the modern era”.
The BBC’s political editor Nick Robinson said the prime minister had given Mr Fox time to defend himself but the defence secretary had struggled to stem the tide of questions about his dealings with Mr Werritty.
No 10 had come to the conclusion on Thursday that Mr Fox’s position was becoming untenable, he added, and Mr Fox had reluctantly reached the same view.
‘Inevitable’
Mr Fox apologised to MPs earlier this week about how his interaction with Mr Werritty was perceived but he maintained there had been no impropriety.
Labour said Mr Fox had “fallen foul of the standards expected of ministers and broken the rules”.
“The facts have caught up with Liam Fox and he had to resign,” shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said. “It was inconceivable that once a minister had been seen to break their own code of conduct on so many occasions that he could survive.”
And ex-Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said recent events had undermined Mr Fox’s authority and morale at his department.
Philip Hammond takes over at the Ministry of Defence
Philip Hammond takes over at the Ministry of Defence
“Mr Fox has bowed to the inevitable,” he said. “It had become impossible for him to draw a line under the story.”
But Conservative MPs rallied behind Mr Fox, saying he had made a major contribution in his time at the Ministry of Defence and some suggesting he could, one day, return to government.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former defence secretary, said Mr Fox had done an “extremely good” job and his departure was “very, very distressing” as it would lead to further upheaval at the MoD.
Conservative backbencher Peter Bone told the BBC Mr Fox had made errors but they did not constitute a “hanging offence”.
“He said he made mistakes and with hindsight he wouldn’t have done it but I didn’t think that was enough to require him to resign,” he said.
“But when the story, every news item, isn’t about what’s happening in Afghanistan and what’s happening in Libya but who said what to who then he put his country first and resigned.”
ANALYSIS
Jonathan Beale, Defence correspondent, BBC News
Liam Fox was far from universally popular with either military or Ministry of Defence civil servants.
He arrived at the MoD with energy and vigour, unafraid to ruffle feathers and determined to sort out what he called the Labour legacy of the “car crash” of the MoD’s finances.
He said he had to fill a black hole of more than £38bn. That meant brutal cuts to iconic military kit – scrapping the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the Harrier jump jets and the new Nimrod spy planes.
He ordered a series of painful redundancies for all three services but few doubt that, without him, cuts could have been even more severe.
Friends of Liam Fox said he loved the job. He wanted to leave a legacy of a military machine that was fit for the next decade. He also pushed ahead with reforms that he hoped would end the overspends and late delivery on military kit.
Despite warnings from military chiefs that they were overstretched Liam Fox managed to maintain Britain’s commitment to Afghanistan and to begin the fight on a second front – Libya.
Helping bring about an end to the Gaddafi regime looks like his most obvious achievement. The rest remains unfinished business.
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The British government is reluctant to launch an investigation into a multi-million pounds bribery scandal involving a British defence firm and the Saudi royal family.
Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has revealed that a British defence firm deposited millions of pounds into a bank account in Switzerland belonging to one of the members of the Saudi royal family.
The deposit was made to ensure that British Ministry of Defence would grant a two-billion pounds contract to GPT, a British wing of EADS, the biggest aerospace defence company in Europe.
Under the contract, GPT was responsible for modernizing communications and cyberwarfare equipment of the Saudi royal palaces and National Guard, which helped the Bahraini regime to suppress the protesters in May.
In 2008, a whistleblower told senior staff at EADS about the bribery scandal saying the deposits “may be illegal… I am flagging up to you a possible illegal transaction and seeking your guidance.”
Furthermore, another whistleblower briefed SFO on the scandal telling them that 11.5 million pounds have been deposited into a Swiss bank account.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, who was informed about the scandal by SFO, is to decide whether to open an investigation into the alleged bribes made by GPT.
Nevertheless, he may decide to refrain from launching an inquiry for the sake of the British firm’s interests.
In a similar case in 2007, the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, decided to drop corruption charges against the arms company BAE after then-Prime Minister Tony Blair exerted pressure on him.
BAE had also bribed the then head of Saudi air force, Prince Turki-bin-Nasser, in order to secure a 40 billion pounds contract to sell jets to the Saudis.
The IT powering the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics has passed a major milestone with the formal opening of the Technology Operations Centre (TOC) at the Games’ headquarters in Canary Wharf.
The TOC will provide central monitoring and control for all the IT systems and telecoms supporting the Games, with 450 staff from the London Organising Committee’s IT team and key partners working around the clock, with up to 180 workers overseeing operations at any time.
The TOC is the “key control centre to make sure everything is going as we wish,” according to London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton.
The centre has been tested during the London Prepares series of sporting event designed to make sure all the venues and supporting technology are working as planned. During 79 days of competition so far, testing covered the set-up and take-down of 180 servers, 1,160 PCs and laptops, 190 network and security devices and more than 400 printers and copiers.
“Basically, things are performing as expected. We are where we need to be,” said London 2012 CIO Gerry Pennell.
A total of 200,000 hours of testing will be completed by summer 2012, with two “technical rehearsals” coming up in March and May to simulate “hundreds of scenarios,” said Pennell, including challenges such as cyber security and physical attacks on IT equipment.
During the Games, the TOC will oversee critical applications such as the Commentator Information System and the organisers’ intranet, as well as monitoring 900 servers, 1,000 network and security devices and 9,500 PCs. In total over 5,000 technology staff – including 2,500 volunteers – will be involved in the Olympics IT.
“The TOC is the decision-making centre for technology during the Games,” said Michele Hyron, chief integrator for London 2012 at Atos, worldwide IT partners for the Olympics. Other IT suppliers involved include BT, Cisco, Acer and Samsung.
Deighton added, Technology often goes unnoticed and yet is absolutely critical to our success in 2012. The Games cannot happen without technology.”
One of the new challenges for the London 2012 Games will be the amount of data generated from the results systems – 30% more than in the Beijing Olympics – providing real-time information to fans, commentators and broadcasters around the world.
“There are a number of familiar things from previous Games, but a number have moved along,” said Pennell, including “significantly enhanced” access to information from the public.
In anticipation of huge demand from event visitors using mobile devices, Pennell is working with BT and mobile network operators to ensure sufficient network capacity, including plans for an open Wi-Fi service for the Olympic Park in Stratford.
“We have worked very closely with BT and the mobile network operators to make sure there is enough infrastructure to provide a good level of [mobile] service during the Games,” said Pennell.
“But there will always be moments in any sporting event when demand is so huge that not everybody can get access.”
The IT team is also working on mobile apps for delivering event results and spectator information for fans at venues.
Anyone who’s holidayed in Turkey will know that a hammam — a large steam room used in the Middle East for communal cleansing and scrubbing of the skin — is a sure-fire way to give your body a boost.
And, thankfully, I didn’t have to board a stressful easyJet flight to indulge myself.
The elegant Bentley Hotel in London’s Chelsea is home to the Le Kalon Spa, with an authentic hammam constructed of grey marble imported from Istanbul.
Turkish delight: A hammam is a large steam room used in the Middle East for communal cleansing and scrubbing of the skin
I have booked it for a full, private skin MoT. I’m going to steam my skin, have an all-over exfoliation, a body mask and, finally, a massage — all in a balmy 38c temperature.
Marble benches flank the walls and deep basins of cold water are on hand. These benches conduct heat and lying on one feels gloriously warming. My pores open up and my skin starts to breathe. My muscles are warmed up and are ready to be pummelled.
Just as I’m getting comfortable, a therapist emerges through the steam and gets to work exfoliating my body using La Sultane De Saba’s black olive soap and a Turkish Delight body scrub.
If I get too warm, I give my therapist the nod and am soaked with bowls of cold water . . . It’s a perfect quick fix.
Once I’m sufficiently clean, there’s a honey-and-rose moisturising mask followed by a 30-minute relaxing massage. Again, I am drenched in cold water if I get too warm.
An hour later, I leave the spa feeling super soft, squeaky clean and totally relaxed. I will return.
The Combination Hammam lasts 60 minutes and costs £115. The Bentley London hotel, thebentley-hotel.com
via Treatment of the week: Get a Turkisk hammam without leaving the country | Mail Online.
