First charter airline to go paperless
Story posted on 10 Apr 2013 in Innovation, Mainstream
TUIfly is the first charter airline in the world to offer customers with a smartphone, iPod Touch or Blackberry the option to receive their boarding pass digitally. This means customers can go paperless when boarding their flight, making the check-in and boarding process easier and more convenient. Customers can choose between an electronic or printable boarding pass, with the electronic version hosted on a smartphone app that’s presented at the gate and scanned before boarding. TUIfly, our charter airline in the German market and one of the largest airlines in Germany, is offering the new service throughout most of its route network. More on TUIfly
Leading the way on carbon reduction
Story posted on 14 Mar 2013 in Sustainability
TUI Travel has been ranked 45th out of 2,097 companies in the UK Carbon Reduction Commitment Performance League Table. We’ve improved by nearly 300 places taking us into the top 2% overall and we’re the highest placed of the travel and tourism businesses and airlines listed. Our climb in the rankings is thanks to initiatives such as automatic meter readers in our UK shops, new energy management systems and greater scrutiny of energy usage. These initiatives are helping us achieve our commitment to reduce carbon emissions from our UK shops by 15% by 2014. In the last 2 years, TUI UK has saved 1,300 tonnes of carbon, saving the business more than £200k. More information
Travelife honours TUI Nederland
Story posted on 30 Jan 2013 in Sustainability
TUI Nederland has once again proven its green credentials by being the first major travel company to take the Travelife award for Tour operators and Travel agents. Mr Taleb Rifai, General Secretary UNWTO, presented the award in Amsterdam on 9 Jan 2013. TUI Nederland has demonstrated its long-term commitment to sustainability and is a leader in this area, having met more than 150 criteria on office management, product range, international business partners and customer information. Across TUI Travel, we encourage our hotels to achieve certifications such as Travelife to help us reach our goal to deliver 10 million fairer and greener holidays by 2015. More information.
Supporting local farmers
Story posted on 30 Nov 2012 in Sustainability
TUI UK & I is supporting farmers in Turkey through the Taste of Fethiye project, which creates links between tourist hotels and local farmers. With its first full season of production completed, more than 570 tonnes of high quality, competitively priced and sustainably produced fresh fruit and vegetables have been produced by 22 Taste of Fethiye farmers across five villages, including tomatoes, watermelons, cauliflowers and peppers. A great example of sustainability in practice, the project benefits holidaymakers, farmers, hotels and tour operators. Click here to read more.
Living the Dream
Story posted on 29 Oct 2012 in Innovation, Product development
Thomson Airways has revealed its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner will be named ‘Living the Dream’ after it crowd-sourced suggestions via Twitter earlier this year. Nicola Thomson from Glasgow named the revolutionary new aircraft as part of the #nameourplane competition. The judges were moved by the story behind Nicola’s entry, which she dedicated to a year of celebrations for Great Britain and her own personal triumph recovering from neuro surgery. As well as naming the Dreamliner, Nicola will also get to fly on the new state-of-the-art aircraft when Thomson becomes the first UK airline to fly the plane from May next year. Find out more about the Dreamliner here.
TUIfly tops the rankings
Story posted on 19 Oct 2012 in Sustainability
TUIfly is leading the way in fuel efficiency according to the 2012 Airline Index published by atmosfair. Rated the most fuel-efficient charter airline worldwide for short haul and long haul flights, TUIfly came top of the list of 125 airlines thanks to its commitment to reducing environmental impact and investing in modern, fuel-efficient aircraft. Thomson Airways also scored well, coming second to TUIfly for the most efficient airline for short haul flights. This achievement helps towards our Sustainable Holidays Plan goal to operate Europe’s most fuel-efficient airlines and save more than 20,000 tonnes of carbon from our ground operations. Find out more here.
Quark’s quest for the Polar Big 5
Story posted on 21 Sep 2012 in Innovation
Quark Expeditions, the leader in polar adventures, has launched a worldwide competition to name the ‘Polar Big 5’with the lucky winner getting a trip for two to Antarctica! In the spirit of the African Safari Big 5, Quark has asked travellers across the globe to vote for the animals that should be recognised as a top wildlife highlight in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Go to competition website PolarBig5.com to vote and watch campaign videos for all nine animal contenders including the king penguin, reindeer, albatross, walrus, humpback whale, musk ox, polar bear, elephant seal and leopard seal. Competition closes 30 November 2012.
Green ideas from across the globe
Story posted on 29 Aug 2012 in Sustainability
Our recent Green Ideas Factory competition gave TUI colleagues the chance to get creative about sustainability and submit their ideas on how we can be more ‘green’ whilst improving our business. 120 ideas came in from 18 countries with nearly 1,500 colleagues voting for their favourite concepts. 10 finalists developed their ideas with the help of mentors from TUI and Forum for the Future, a sustainable development think tank. The two overall competition winner ideas focused on replacing airside cars with electric vehicles at airports and creating a central system to collect and investigate new sustainability ideas for our airlines.
TUI Belgium invests in Jetairport
Story posted on 18 Jun 2012 in Mainstream, Growth
TUI Belgium is investing in a new business complex at Brussels Airport. Due to be completed in autumn 2013, the new ‘Jetairport,’ will stand next to the airport terminal and have office space for 800 employees and a hangar for aircraft maintenance. The complex will be able to accommodate three aircraft at once including the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which Jetair will be the first Belgian airline to take delivery of in autumn 2013. TUI Belgium employees from across the travel agent, tour operator and airline divisions, currently working in six different offices, will be based at the complex allowing them to work more closely together to offer customers the best travel experience possible.
Peter Long opens Hosteltur conference
Story posted on 17 May 2012 in Growth
Peter Long presented the key note speech opening the 8th Foro Turístico Hosteltur 2012 conference in May. Addressing some of the key travel industry partners in Spain under the session title of ‘survival of the fittest’, Peter presented the main success factors of TUI Travel’s growth including leveraging scale, building leading brands, and focusing on the customer experience and the online market. He recognised the growth of Hotelbeds, formed in Spain and with its head office in Palma de Mallorca, and confirmed that the differentiation strategy is working following the release of the Thomson Summer 2013 programme which went on sale with in excess of 90% exclusive product two years ahead of schedule.