India’s Vistara is promising to turn its two of its aircraft into mini sporting stadiums with the introduction of onboard Live TV ahead of the cricket T20 World Cup in Australia.
Vistara doesn’t want India’s cricket fans to miss a moment of the T20 World Cup, starting in Australia this month.
The Live TV service has launched on Vistara’s two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, which are mainly deployed on long-haul routes to the UK and Europe.
The new service is a first for an Indian airline and will initially offer two sports channels and three news channels.
India’s nation of cricket lovers are expected to follow every ball of their team’s T20 matches Down Under – and a lucky few Vistara passengers will not miss out if they are flying one of the routes selected for Live TV.
The ICC T20 World Cup starts on 16 October and will include a clash between India and Pakistan on 23 October.
The eco-friendly credentials of destinations are being scrutinised ever more closely by travellers seeking to make an informed decision on where to take their next trips.
The Spanish Tourist Office UK has accepted the challenge of delivering timely and accurate information by posting a Sustainability Hub on its newsroom platform.
The hub includes details of sustainability initiatives being pursued across the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands.
A sustainable tourism tax, introduced in 2016, has funded the completion of 16 cultural and conservation projects, including the construction of the new headquarters of the Balearic Islands’ symphonic orchestra in Palma.
The tax has also helped with the restoration of the San Diego convent in Menorca, which houses a new Menorcan Gastronomy Centre.
BookSmart24 has revealed an app for environmentally conscious travellers to find the lowest CO2 route to their desired destination
BookSmart24 puts the avoidance of CO2 and other harmful emissions in the foreground of travel search but says sustainable travel does not have to be more expensive.
BookSmart24’s SmartChoice app provides the consumer with information on the environmental impact of his or her journey. The platform calculates and compares prices, travel duration, and the individual CO2 impact of each route based on proprietary algorithms.
SmartChoice prioritises and recommends the routes with the lowest carbon footprint while ensuring that fares and trip durations remain within an average value expected for the route in question.
SmartChoice is also keeping pace with the fast-changing mobility industry by taking into account additional parameters such as biofuels or the sustainability of airports or train stations.
For now, BookSmart24 offers its services for air routes but will soon include a focus on high-speed trains around and provide consumers with combined offers from train and flight connections.
The basic structure for a global high-speed train GDS has been installed on the platform. In a further step, urban multi-mobility concepts (public transport, car sharing etc) will be integrated into the platform to offer sustainable door-to-door travel worldwide.
Travellers to Europe will soon be able to pack a single cable for charging all their devices, following a ruling by European lawmakers to standardise on USB-C charging by the end of 2024.
Smartphones, readers, cameras, portable speakers, headphones and tablets, including the Apple iPhone and iPad, would have to use a USB-C charger from 2024, while laptop manufacturers would have until 2026 to make the change.
Apple won’t get away with selling an iPhone with a Lightning-to-USB-C adaptor under the new EU laws, meaning they company may need to produce a separate line of ‘made for Europe’ iPhones with USB-C ports
EU commissioner for competition Margrethe Vestager celebrated the new rule on Twitter, citing the “waste and inconvenience” of having multiple chargers.
Construction work has started on a garage of the future at London’s Gatwick Airport. It will cater exclusively for electric vehicles.
The new London Gatwick Electric Forecourt claims to be the first in the world to be hosted at an international airport serving passengers, staff, taxis and local communities. Once completed, 36 electric vehicles can be charged simultaneously, with high power chargers that can deliver up to 350kW, capable of adding 100 miles of range in less than 10 minutes.
Cathay group is enhancing its customers’ digital experience with the launch of an advanced conversational artificial intelligence (AI) in partnership with Fano Labs, a Hong Kong-based language AI company.
The new conversational AI will improve the efficiency and productivity of the airline’s AI chatbots, enabling them to provide more accurate responses to customers’ queries.
Cathay says it has seen a shift in customer behaviours with the end of Covid restrictions, turning from traditional hotlines to digital channels such as WhatsApp and WeChat for more instant responses.
Cathay and Fano Labs’ Conversational AI Training Excellence platform reduces the time needed to train chatbots by 50%. A regular 4-6 week learning cycle will be shortened to 1-2 weeks.
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