On a yearly basis permitted fare hikes are calculated with increases limited to one per cent higher than the Retail Index Price. The figure for last year was five per cent which gave rail operators leeway to increase fares by six per cent. However following the economic downturn this year’s RPI figures stood at -1.4 per cent which has ensured operators have to lower their fares by 0.4 per cent in 2010.

This cap is applicable to all UK regulated rail fares except for West Yorkshire and South Eastern PTE franchises. These franchises have been permitted to increase prices by three per cent as funding for ongoing investment in services.

The Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis commented on the news by saying:

“This is good news. For the first time in a generation passengers across the country will see their fares fall. Drops in fares should encourage more people to travel by train, which is good for the economy and the environment.”

The CEO of Qantas, Alan Joyce, is quoted to have said that despite the credit crunch:

“the diversity of the Qantas Group’s operations had contributed to it being one of the few airline operators worldwide to produce a full-year profit”

He went on to say that the 2008/09 financial year was a year of two contrasting halves for the airline with the initial half being largely favourable with high demand and a good operating environment. However commenting about the latter end of the year Joyce said:

“During the second half, the environment deteriorated, with domestic and international competitor capacity continuing to grow and demand in key markets softening quickly as the global slowdown hit. This was compounded by one-off events during the year, including protracted industrial action, H1N1 influenza and the costs associated with introducing the new Qantas A380.”

The profits had slumped to AUS$181 million from the previous year’s AUS $1,408 million. Demand for both business travel and domestic flights were to blame.

De Botton was commissioned by the airline to write about a week of life at Heathrow airport for a book using characters based on business travellers, domestic passengers and staff within the story.

De Botton is carrying out his research for the book sat at a desk in T5 and during his stay will have access to all areas of the airport. The book will be entitled A Week At The Airport: A Heathrow Diary and will be published this September when 10,000 copies will be handed out free to Heathrow passengers.

De Botton has featured travel in his work before when in 2003 The Art of Travel was published which was a look at the philosophy of travel. When commenting on his latest book de Botton said:

“I have always found airports mesmerising. If you wanted to take a Martian to a single place that best captures everything that is distinctive and particular to modern civilisation, in its highs and lows, you would undoubtedly take them to the airport. This is where you can see in action all the big themes that we otherwise know just as abstractions: the power of technology, globalisation, the environmental debate, consumerism, the frenzy of the modern workplace and the dreams of travel.”

This follows BMI’s initiative to improve benefits and services fr their customer traveling in business class whether for pleasure or work. Last month BMI opened its international lounge at Number One Heathrow which aims to provide a quintessentially British atmosphere for passengers to relax, work, refresh and dine in.

Dining will be available in the lounge every day from 8.30pm and is a great benefit to those passengers flying to Moscow and Tel Aviv at night. Meals on the menu include hot soup prepared fresh on BMI’s AGA, macaroni cheese, a variety of salads and hot bagels with salt beef.

To round off the perfect meal choose from a selection of exclusive Mark Hix ice creams. The BMI also have their own pub, The Local, which is open to serve champagne, Pimms, rosé wine and a selections of whiskies and brandies.

That amounts to roughly £373 for every business traveller in the UK.

The figures were revealed in a survey by Barclaycard that showed 32% of business men and women who were questioned said they didn’t claim back all of their travel expenses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the survey also revealed that men were far lazier in claiming back their travel expenses than women.

Perhaps even more worrying is that if the employees were more careful about claiming back their travel expenses, the half a billion lost last year could have crippled many businesses in this recession.

The MD of Barclaycard, Neil Radley, stated:

Anyone who regularly travels on business knows keeping track of all expenses can be tricky, especially when your top priority is your performance. Managing incidental and often small costs can drop to the bottom of the list of priorities. Barclaycard has found that the most sensible action companies can take is to help their employees to centralise their costs and to give them the facility to create automatic records by using company credit cards responsibly to keep better track of their expenses.

Keith Millard, the station manager for Virgin, added:

Since last December we have had a high quality train service, using state-of-the-art tilting Pendolino trains from Liverpool to London, and now we have a high quality station facility to complement the trains.

We are confident that the improved facilities at the station will encourage more environmentally-conscious motorists to ditch the car and take the train.

First Class customers using the Liverpool to London route are also able to take advantage of a completely refurbished lounge at Euston station, which opened at the end of April.

Virgin’s new first class lounge in Liverpool adds to their compliment of luxury lounges for business travellers which already exist in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives conducted research of different travel buyers and found that many intending to stick to economy travel even after the recession ends, with Paul Robin, the founder of Business Travel Market, adding:

It would appear that some of the travel restrictions that were forced on many business travellers have proved workable and will be here to stay.

The recession hit us fast and travel buyers responded quickly to fine tune their travel management policies and budgets. The survey that we conducted in conjunction with ACTE implies that the changes have worked to reduce costs, business has continued and when we return to financial stability those changes that have worked well will remain in place.

According to the figures, over 50% of businesses have reduced their travel budgets by downgrading the flights they book.

If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch you’ll be able to download the travel guides direct from Apple’s website. The travel guides offering information on the top ten destinations for travel. They are:

• New York
• London
• Las Vegas
• Los Angeles
• Barcelona
• Cancun
• Dubai
• Paris
• Rome
• Bangkok

The guides feature information such as travel guides, maps, tourist attractions and currency rates information.

DK Publishing’s Tom Hall stated:

We are delighted to be launching DK’s Top 10 guides for iPhone and iPod touch users.

The series is hugely successful in print, and the clear, structured format of its content lends itself perfectly to digital platforms in this manner.

52% of businessmen and women said they’d make the same number of trips in the next 12 months and 22% believe they’ll make more journeys in the next year.

26% of those polled said they expected to cut back on their travel in the next 12 months.

Kevin Maguire of the NBTA stated:

While the majority of business travellers understand the need to be prudent around costs, the most important issue for them when booking travel is convenience.

That’s why it is so vital that travel managers work with their communications colleagues to inform employees how travel changes are designed to meet both goals – cutting costs while offering convenience.

American Express is hoping to save $175 million through cutting employment figures and saving $500 million on marketing.

Kenneth Chenault is the CEO of Amex, he added:

While we have remained solidly profitable at a time when some parts of the card industry were incurring substantial losses, we continue to be very cautious about the economic outlook and are therefore moving forward with additional reengineering efforts to help further reduce our operating costs. We believe these efforts will put us in a better position to remain profitable and free up some additional resources that will be reinvested in the business to make sure we can take competitive advantage of opportunities as the economy begins to rebound.