Gray Dawes Celebrates 85th Anniversary
Gray Dawes is celebrating its 85th anniversary in April.
Originally a shipping and insurance business, Gray Dawes was founded in 1865 by Scottish entrepreneur Archibald Gray and partner Edwin Sandys Dawes and was established as a travel agency in 1927 following a service agreement with Imperial Airways, the airline that eventually became British Airways.
To mark this very special occasion Gray Dawes is holding a company conference in April, the theme of which will focus on this important milestone.
Posted on 24/04/2012
Gray Dawes to rebrand as Gray Dawes Travel and Expense
Gray Dawes Travel has today announced its rebrand as Gray Dawes Travel and Expense. This pioneering move reflects the expansion of the company’s service offering to its clients to incorporate expense management in addition to corporate travel.
Gray Dawes is the first travel management company in the UK to respond to client needs by providing a completely integrated end-to-end solution for booking business trips, claiming all travel and non travel related expenses and measuring the ‘total cost of trip’.
The expense management is totally mobile - available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry platforms. This enables travellers to fill in their expenses wherever and whenever they choose, whilst giving supervisors the power to approve or reject expense claims on the go.
The rebrand coincides with the signing of the company’s first global travel and expense management contract and the decision to join the KDS preferred partner programme to sell and implement full end-to-end solutions for the corporate traveller.
Posted on 07/03/2012
Gray Dawes announces industry first with integration of Hotelzon and Trainline technology
Gray Dawes is delighted to announce the integration of both Hotelzon and Trainline technology into its online travel and expense management system, gdbookonline. This is a ‘first’ for a UK based travel management company.
With the integration of Hotelzon and Trainline technology, users of gdbookonline now have direct online access to both Trainline rail and Hotelzon hotel accommodation content in the same travel and expense management system, together with flight and car hire data. As a result, each element of a trip, (rail, hotel, flight and car hire), is detailed in one single itinerary – simplifying the booking process for both bookers and travellers.
Posted on 23/01/2012
Qatar Airways to axe flights on Mancheter-Doha route
Qatar Airways has decided to axe a number of flights on its Manchester to Doha route.
The airline will make the cuts from March 26 when it will operate ten flights a week on this route compare to the current 14 flights.
Posted on 12/01/2012
Arik Air to fly Abuja-London
Arik Air has announced it will recommence daily flights between Abuja and London Heathrow on the 12 December, following the cancellation of the route at the end of the summer.
Flights will depart Abuja at 1135, arriving at Heathrow at 1705, with the return leg leaving Heathrow at 2145, landing back in Abuja at 0510.
Posted on 06/12/2011
Air China to fly Beijing - Gatwick
Air China has announced it will operate direct flights between Beijing and London Gatwick from 2 May 2012. The flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Services will depart Beijing at 0135, returning from London Gatwick at 1315. The flights will operate in addition to Air China's Heathrow service.
Posted on 06/12/2011
Virgin to fly Heathrow - Vancouver
Virgin Atlantic has announced the launch of a new route between London Heathrow and Vancouver. The new service will commence on 24th May 2012 and will operate four times a week on a Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
In addition to the new service to Vancouver, Virgin Atlantic has also is also announced the launch of a second service to San Francisco which will operate three times a week.
These two new services strengthen the airline’s network in the North American market, which already includes the nine long-haul destinations of Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York , Orlando, San Francisco and Washington.
Posted on 07/11/2011
Air Asia X Switch to Gatwick
Malaysian low-cost carrier Air Asia X has completed its switch from London Stansted to Gatwick Airport.
Flights have commenced from Gatwick South Terminal to Kuala Lumpur and will operate three times a week during November, before increasing to five times a week from 2 December and reaching six flights from 14 December.
Posted on 01/11/2011
BA to reinstate Gatwick - Nice
British Airways is to re-commence flights between Gatwick and Nice next year, with a three times-daily service from Gatwick's North Terminal.
The reinstated route commences on 25 March 2012 and will depart Gatwick at 07:40, 13:05 and 19:20, arriving in to Nice at 10:40, 16:05 and 22:20 respectively.
Posted on 01/11/2011
Business Travel to remain outside Flight Plus
The Department for Transport has confirmed that business travel is to be excluded from the ATOL Scheme - Flight Plus
Following negotiations with the industry, new wording has been placed in draft legislation to ensure that business travel is excluded from the Flight Plus part of the regulations.
The original proposal would have left travel management companies requiring ATOL protection, even though their clients mostly pay them after travel has taken place.
In discussions with the CAA and Department for Transport, ABTA argued for confirmation that business travel should sit outside the ATOL scheme, and proposed alternative wording in the regulations.
Posted on 01/11/2011
Gray Dawes shortlisted for award
Great news! - Gray Dawes has been shortlisted for an award at the Business Travel Awards 2012. Category 'Best Business Travel Management Company' (Fewer than 250,000 UK transactions annually)
Posted on 27/10/2011
East Midlands installs new ticket machines
East Midlands trains has installed 30 self-service ticket collection machines at major stations across its rail network.
The new machines are for ticket collections only, with the aim of reducing queues at full service ticket machines for those not needing to make a purchase. Passengers who have booked online can then insert the credit or debit card used to make the purchase to collect their tickets.
The machines have been installed at major stations including Sheffield, Chesterfield, Nottingham, Derby and Loughborough, with Leicester and Lincoln set to follow by the end of November. There are also plans to install four machines at London St Pancras.
Posted on 21/10/2011
BA Executive Club launches Bronze tier
BA's Executive club has launched a new bronze tier level which will sit between blue and silver tier status. BA members will qualify after taking just 25 flights or earning 300 tier points.
Benefits to the traveller of the new Bronze status include business class check-in, seat selection from seven days in advance, a dedicated telephone number in the UK and the us, a 25 per cent tier bonus and a bronze tier luggage tag.
BA has also implemented a change to earning requirements. tier points will no longer be reset once a status has been achieved. This means that a traveller attaining Bronze status will only have to accrue a further 300 points to attain Silver status.
Posted on 21/10/2011
Norwegian adds Manchester-Oslo route
Norwegian has announced it will fly three-times weekly between Manchester and Oslo Gardemoen airports starting the 31 October 2011. This will add to the existing routes to Scandinavia from London and Edinburgh.
Flights will depart Manchester on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1020, arriving in Oslo at 1330, with the return flights leaving Norway at 0840 and landing at 0950.
Posted on 20/10/2011
