Page 86 - 373067 LP258570 Travel Magazine A4 88pp Issue 59 Feb23 PROOF.pdf

NEWS
MICHELIN STAR CHEF RAYMOND BLANC TO SET SAIL ON A SCENIC RIVER CRUISE
Raymond Blanc OBE will join guests of Scenic Luxury Cruises & Tours on a culinary-themed river cruise exploring the heart of France’s wine country this Autumn.
Guests sailing onboard this special eight-day Flavours of Bordeaux cruise, will join Raymond for an interactive cookery demonstration and tasting, before learning his kitchen secrets during an exclusive Q&A session. This will be followed by a complimentary book signing and a dinner selected by Raymond himself.
Other culinary delights will include tastings of Cognac at the Rémy Martin estate, an exclusive Cheese of France tasting experience, discovering vineyards of Sauternes to taste the Grand Cru Classé vintages of Château Lafaurie Peyraguey and travelling through the scenic Médoc wine route, savouring the region’s finest at a local estate.
Departing round trip from Bordeaux on 10th October 2023, the river cruise will call at Saint-Émilion, Libourne, Blaye, Médoc and Cadillac. Prices start at £2,995 per person on board Scenic Diamond.
GLOBAL CAPACITY TRENDS TO WATCH IN 2023
As the aviation industry continues on its path to recovering capacity levels, Cirium has examined capacity trends to watch in 2023, which are evident from published flight schedules for this year’s
first quarter.
The insights are based on schedule data sourced from Diio by Cirium, the airline planning system, on 2nd January, 2023, with schedules subject to change.
Looking at the UK, London Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport before the pandemic, is getting closer to full recovery in terms of flight activity. Q1 seat counts currently show a decline of around 5% from Q1, 2019.
All of western Europe’s major hub airports are still less busy now than they were four years ago. Paris De Gaulle’s seats are down 13%, Amsterdam’s decline is 17% and Frankfurt 23%.
The largest western European airport market that’s busier now than in 2019 is Lisbon. Other notable airports with an increase include Dublin, Paris Orly, Athens and Malaga.
For the opening quarter of 2023, US airlines are scheduled to fly 3% more domestic seats than they did in Q1, 2019, operating 10% fewer flights.
East Asia has seen a significant loss of long-haul flying. By looking at routes longer than 3,000 miles, the number of flights from East Asian airports this quarter is down 41% when compared to Q1, 2019. This figure is partly influenced by China, with long-haul flights from Japan still down sharply when compared to pre-pandemic levels as well (down 29%).
Turkey’s largest airline market is enjoying an airline boom, with the city’s main airport up 11% in seat capacity this quarter vs. Q1, 2019, with the market benefitting from the growth of Turkish Airlines and Pegasus Airlines.
86
FEBRUARY 2023