TokyoTomo Travel Guide

Austrian Airlines started a daily service from Narita to Vienna from April 15, operating an additional flight on Thursday with a code-sharing with All Nippon Airways. Aircraft to be put into service is Boeing B777-200. Speaking at a reception held on the occasion of its daily operation, Ayako Ito, the airline’s Supervisor, Advertising & Marketing, said that the additional frequency has brought Austrian Airlines a 16 percent weekly capacity increase compared to the last winter schedule, adding that the airline has set its sales priority at using up the increased seat capacity. The inaugural flight on April 15 departed Narita for Vienna with a nearly full-passenger load. Major travel agencies including JTB, Kinki Nippon Tourist and HIS have meanwhile started selling package tours taking advantage of the increased capacity.

The airline’s Narita/Vienna route provides same day connections to 63 cities in Europe and the Middle East. Christina Debbah, Vice President Global & Distribution at Austrian Airlines mentioned that the airline operates many connecting flights in Central Europe and elsewhere, extolling its excellent connectivity. The airline flies also to 38 cities which are not directly served from Japan. With less than two-hour flying time from Vienna, Austrian Airlines enjoys a growing demand for transit traffic to those cities. Commenting on the daily flight operation from Narita, Ito said that the customers are now able to book the airline’s Narita/Vienna flight without referring to the day of the week in the calendar. With the enhanced passenger convenience, Austrian Airlines expects even further expansion of travel demand including transit traffic, added Ito.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.

Huis Ten Bosch Co., Ltd. filed with the Tokyo District Court on February 22 the “Revision to the proposed Corporate Reorganization Plan (Draft)” as per the basic agreement with HIS. Under the revised reorganization plan, it is stated that all of the present Huis Ten Bosch executives are all to step down in favor of the successors on the effective date on which the revised reorganization plan receives an approval from the Tokyo District Court and, thereby, Hideo Sawada, Chairman of HIS is to assume his duties as the new president of Huis Ten Bosch Co., Ltd. Two board members and a company auditor to be brought in with President Sawada will be appointed by the reorganization trustee subject to approval by the Tokyo District Court.

Under the reorganization plan, Huis Ten Bosch, a company under reorganization, is to acquire all of its 500,010 issued shares free of charge from Nomura Principal Finance Co., Ltd. which owns the said shares, and all of thus acquired shares will be cancelled on the effective date on which the new shares are to be issued. Subsequently, Huis Ten Bosch will issue 60,000 new shares worth three billion yen, intending to allocate them to four companies in business circles in Kyushu.

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During a press conference held on February 12 about the management support for Huis Ten Bosch Co., Ltd (HTB), Hideo Sawada, Chairman of HIS said, “I have indeed agonized over the financial support for HTB, but I have finally decided to take the challenge to go ahead with it,” showing enthusiasm that he would like to rehabilitate Huis Ten Bosch as one of the best touristic cities in Asia, not just as a theme park.

The business performance of Huis Ten Bosch (HTB) has been in the red for the last three years. The process for the turnaround is not going to be an easy one, but Sawada expects its domestic travel and the inbound travel business to bring HIS a synergy effect. HIS intends to make use of Huis Ten Bosch as tool to attract visitors from Asia including China and Korea.

Meanwhile, HIS made it a precondition for its management assistance to HTB that the local governments and local business circles would provide HIS a yearly contribution in the amount of 900 million yen over the period of next 10 years. The letter of understanding states that unless the said funding and other issues are fully executed by them, HIS would withdraw from the management assistance to HTB. The total amount of financial support by HIS to Huis Ten Bosch Co., Ltd is expected to be two billion yen which will be payable between the end of March and the beginning of April this year.

Source: Travel Vision

Travel Vision Inc. provides information on the travel industry in Japan via "Daily Travel Vision", a Japanese-language e-mail newsletter, and the "Travel Vision" website. There are nearly 110,000 people working in the Japanese travel industry, and Travel Vision is proud to be bringing travel news to more than 30,000 people through Daily Travel Vision.