Starwood To Open First St Regis in India

Starwood Hotels and Resorts has announced it will open it first St Regis property in India later this year.

The St Regis Mumbai will occupy the building currently home to the Palladium Hotel in the city's Lower Parel neighbourhood.

Due to open in the third quarter after an "extensive" rebrand, the 38-storey hotel will contain 386 guestrooms, including 60 suites.

Facilities will include an all-day dining restaurant, four specialty restaurants, a club lounge, three bars, a swimming pool and a fitness centre.

There will be over 5,200 sqm of meeting and event space including a 4,200 sqm ballroomn.

Jim Petrus, global brand leader at St Regis, said: "Starwood is maintaining strong growth momentum in the region and the arrival of St Regis in Mumbai reinforces our commitment to growing our luxury portfolio in this important market."

St Regis Mumbai is owned by Pallazzio Hotels & Leisure.

Starwood currently operates 43 hotels in India, with an additional 37 in the pipeline.

Earlier this year, the group announced plans to open more than 40 new properties across Europe in the next five years, including four St Regis hotels in 2015.

Sheraton Pulls Out In Langkawi

Sheraton Langkawi Beach Resort will discontinue its affiliation with Starwood Hotels & Resorts when its management agreement ends on June 1. The property will be renamed Century Four Points Resort, and be managed and operated by Century Four Points Resort, said its acting general manager - group of hotels, Peter Athan. Owned by Mashyur Mutiara, the resort has been linked to Starwood Hotels & Resorts since it took on the Sheraton name in 1991. Athan said that he would stay on with the property and there would be no changes to top and middle management staff going forward, while all confirmed bookings will be honoured. Describing the property, Yap Sook Ling, managing director of Asian Overland Services Tours & Travel, said: “It is a lovely property. The set-up and layout is very nice and we don’t have issues with the service. However, the rooms need to be renovated.” Another inbound travel consultant, Ally Bhoonee, executive director of World Avenues, agreed that the hotel needs a facelift if it were to maintain its five-star rank and compete in the international marketplace. He said: “It will also make it easier for travel consultants to market the hotel if it is up to the standard of a five-star hotel.” But asked if there were any plans to renovate the hotel, Athan replied: “Not at the moment.”

Regal Opens Second Airport Hotel

The 297-room Regal Airport Hotel Xian joins the brand's Regal Airport Hotel Hong Kong.

The new property, which had a soft opening at the end of 2014, is the only hotel to be connected to Xian Xianyang International airport via a covered "link bridge" that leads to Terminal 3.

Superior room

Room categories range from Superior and Deluxe, both of which are 40 sqm, to 25 indulgent suites, including a 428 sqm Presidential Suite.

Facilities include six restautants, three ballrooms, including the 720 sqm Grand Ballroom that can accommodate 1,200 people, 20 meeting rooms, Executive Club lounges, a spa, fitness centre and indoor swimming pool.

Belinda Yeung, executive director and COO of Regal Hotels International, said: "These are exciting times for Regal as we look to expand our portfolio from this, our 14th opening, to a multi-brand portfolio of 24 properties by 2016, and I am delighted to be able to welcome guests to our second airport hotel.

"Judging by the incredible feedback we have already received since the property enjoyed its soft opening at the end of last year we fully expect it to follow in the footsteps of our multi-award winning Regal Airport Hotel in Hong Kong."

Malaysia Airlines Sees 40% Increase in London

Malaysia Airlines has seen a 40 per cent increase in business class passengers flying its London Heathrow to Kuala Lumpur route this year.

The upturn in corporate traffic was measured between January 1 and August 31 and compared to the same period last year.

The news comes despite the disappearance of flight MH370 over the Indian Ocean in March and the tragic shootdown of MH17 over Ukraine four months later.

Weng Chi Lee, MAS' UK & Ireland area manager, said: "The corporate travel market never took a dip. That was very reassuring. We saw our business class passenger loads [on the London to Kuala Lumpur route]... increase 40 per cent, year-on-year."

He added: "We've got a good product — it's a double-daily A380 with first, business and economy class. We continue to refresh our products all the time. The corporate travellers are receptive to what we have and they find that it's a good way to go out to Asia."

Although business class travel is up by 40 per cent, the airline's overall traffic between LHR and Kuala Lumpur has decreased by 5 per cent from 85 to 80 per cent.

Two weeks ago, MAS became a step closer to becoming a nationalised private company after minority shareholders voted to approve Khazanah Nasional, the investment holding arm of the Malaysian government, becoming the sole shareholder.

Once approved by the High Court of Malaya, Khazanah will implement a 12-point, five-year business plan setting out strategies to rehabilitate the airline. The first move will be a reduction in staff from 20,000 to an estimated 14,000.

Despite the cutback in personnel, which is expected to mainly affect back-office staff, MAS currently has no plans to axe any of its routes.

Lee said: "The double-daily A380 operation between Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur is assured, it's staying... And it's not just the UK, the entire European as well as our worldwide network are staying the same for the time being."

Taj Dubai To Open In March 2015

Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces is set to launch its second Dubai property in March.

The Indian group will open Taj Dubai in the emirate's Downtown district, close to the Burj Khalifa. It already operates the Taj Palace hotel in Deira.

The 296-room property will have seven food and drink outlets, including Indian and Peruvian restaurants, as well as a spa and a members-only business club called Chambers.

The group is due to open a property under its Vivanta by Taj brand in Dwarka, south-west Delhi, in January. Located 20 minutes' drive from Delhi Indira Gandhi International airport, it will have 250 guestrooms as well as dining, spa and meeting facilities.

A 283-room property is scheduled to open at Mumbai International airport's Terminal 1C in April.

Taj now provides free wifi to in-house guests across all of its 125 hotels.

tajhotels.com