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Clarasight, a data management specialist for corporate travel, has secured $11.5 million in a Series A round led by AlleyCorp. The funding will support product development and expansion across North America and Europe. The platform integrates data from TMCs, expense tools, card programs, and HR systems into an AI-ready model, replacing manual processes and catching out-of-policy spend.
Berlin-based startup Nox Mobility raised €2 million in pre-seed funding to develop a private-cabin overnight rail model in Europe. The round was led by IBB Ventures, with participation from investor Tommaso Lucca and HomeToGo co-founder Patrick Andrae. Funds will grow the team, build a full-scale mock-up, and prepare for first routes launching in 2027. The company notes European night trains declined from ~1,200 per week in 2001 to 450 in 2019. Its model offers private rooms instead of shared compartments, targeting leisure and business travelers; business travelers already account for 30% of night train users in France.
Airbnb has partnered with Welcome Pickups to offer private car transfers as part of its Services. The service is available in more than 125 cities across Asia, Europe, and Latin America, allowing guests to pre-book a car in the Airbnb app between their listing and point of arrival or departure. It follows a trial earlier this year. Airbnb's chief business officer Dave Stephenson said this is just the start of expanding the offering.
Eterniti, a luxury rental and property management group focused on villas and ski chalets, has raised €30 million from Amethyst III, a fund under Limestone Capital, bringing total funding to €50 million. The funds will be used for selective expansion, operational improvements, and technology enhancements. The company manages 800 rentals across 25 locations in the U.S., Europe, and the Caribbean, operating three brands: Bo House, Verbier Exclusive, and Emerald Stay.
Uber is partnering with autonomous driving company Pony.ai and Verne to launch a commercial robotaxi service in Europe, starting with Zagreb, Croatia. On-road testing has begun, and Uber is investing in Verne to support expansion. The partnership aims to scale autonomous ride-hailing, with plans to grow the fleet to thousands over the next few years. This move is part of Uber's broader strategy to become a major facilitator of autonomous vehicle trips, following recent partnerships with Rivian, Zoox, and others.
Spend management platform Ramp has acquired guest travel startup Juno, planning to operate it independently while supporting its own travel offerings. Juno, founded by Pana's founders, launched last year and raised $6 million. Juno will retain its brand and team, and continue partnerships with TMCs like Altour, Direct Travel, and BCD Travel. Ramp plans to expand into Europe.
Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer Nathan Blecharczyk said at ITB Berlin that Airbnb is actively pursuing its hotels vertical, starting with cities like New York and San Francisco, adding hotel-specific features like room type selection. He discussed AI use in customer support and future personal travel agents, and expressed confidence against disintermediation due to strong supply-side relationships. He also noted 60% of Airbnb's business in Europe is outside cities and announced a $1 million fund with the German Tourism Association to promote non-urban travel.
Ground transport platforms like BlaBlaCar, Rome2Rio, Travelier, and Flix are competing for the A-to-B journey through expansion, acquisitions, and AI. Fragmentation creates opportunities, and new EU regulations will boost multimodal digital booking. AI agents may reshape competition, but trust and data accuracy become crucial.
European vacation rental company Holidu has acquired German portal Bestfewo.de for an undisclosed amount. Bestfewo will operate independently but integrate into Holidu's software. This is Holidu's 13th acquisition, expanding its host base in Germany and leveraging AI for fast integration.
European low-cost carrier Volotea has chosen to adopt Navitaire Stratos, an Amadeus company, to accelerate its retailing transformation. The cloud-native, AI-powered dynamic retailing portfolio simplifies and personalizes the travel experience with tailored offers, an easy-to-use shopping cart, and expanded self-service options, while enabling more efficient operations and revenue growth.
OAG released Megahubs 2025 in its tenth anniversary year. London Heathrow (LHR) ranked the world's top Megahub for a third consecutive year, with international destinations growing 24% over the past decade. Istanbul (IST) surged from 8th to 2nd with a 25% increase in potential connections, where Turkish Airlines operates 79% of flights. Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) completed an all-European top three. Kuala Lumpur (KUL) took joint fourth, the highest-ranked Asian airport and leader in low-cost connectivity, with AirAsia accounting for 36% of flights.
OAG's report "Middle East Skies: A New Era of Competition, Capacity and Growth" shows the Middle East aviation market expanded 5% since 2019, the second-fastest growing region globally behind South Asia at 12%. Low-cost carriers now account for 29% of Middle East capacity, more than doubling from 13% in 2014. flynas posted 63% capacity growth in 2024 versus 2019, the region's fastest-growing airline, followed by flydubai at 56%. Emirates and Qatar Airways both ranked among the 2024 top 20 global airlines by capacity.
OAG released Megahubs 2024, ranking the top 50 most internationally connected airports. London Heathrow (LHR) remained the world's #1, with Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and Tokyo Haneda (HND) at #2 and #3. Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) ranked #4, Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) #7, New York JFK #6, and Istanbul (IST) #8. The ranking is based on flight data from the busiest day for global aviation between September 2023 and August 2024, which was August 2, 2024.
OAG released its 2024 busiest routes rankings based on its Global Airline Schedules Data. Hong Kong (HKG) to Taipei (TPE) became the world's busiest international route with 6.8 million seats and 48% year-on-year capacity growth, rising from third place last year. Cairo-Jeddah ranked second with 5.5 million seats and 68% growth over five years, while Dubai-Riyadh ranked sixth with 4.3 million seats. Asia Pacific accounted for seven of the top ten international routes and nine of the top ten domestic routes.
Perk (formerly TravelPerk) launched Perk Events, an AI-powered module automating the full team event planning lifecycle, from venue selection to travel, attendee management, and communication, supporting events from 9 to 5,000 people. Perk's research found 71% of employees have helped plan team events, with 50% doing so outside their core responsibilities; top pain points were venue sourcing, budget approvals, and travel coordination (39%, 39%, 37%). Forrester Consulting research commissioned by Perk shows 57% of companies have minimally or non-automated event processes.
Airports Council International (ACI) World announced that Jost Lammers, CEO of Munich Airport, has been elected Chair of the World Governing Board for the 2026-2027 term, succeeding Candace McGraw. Lammers brings over 25 years of global aviation experience, having served as ACI EUROPE President and led Munich Airport.
Navitaire, an Amadeus company, announced that TUI Airline, one of Europe's leading leisure airline groups, will be a launch customer for Navitaire Stratos, its next-generation retailing portfolio built for low-cost and hybrid airlines. Stratos covers product, offer, cart, order and traveler management, is aligned with IATA Offer and Order standards, and is built on a flexible, cloud-native technology stack with an open architecture and AI capabilities. New functionality includes a modern shopping cart that lets travelers search offers, save selections and return later to complete orders with up-to-date pricing, plus personalized recommendations and access to third-party services such as car…
Ji Chengzhou, Chief Product Officer of Ctrip Corporate Travel, spoke at the Boao CEO Innovation Business Forum in Boao, Hainan, sharing the company's global expansion and AI-driven digital management practices. Ctrip Corporate Travel's outbound strategy stems from the growing internationalization needs of Chinese enterprises; it has established localized service capabilities in more than 30 countries, providing one-stop travel management support covering itinerary, settlement and compliance for Chinese companies going global. Ji said going global is not simply replicating the domestic model but requires deep understanding of local markets. Noting the relatively low level of technology integ…
At its 2025 Annual Safety Conference in Copenhagen, EASA said the biggest risk to European aviation safety is complacency arising from the industry's strong safety performance in recent years. The conference cited near-miss examples including runway incursions, erroneous altimeter settings and lithium battery fires onboard. Participants unanimously supported rule simplification and smart regulation, and EASA has launched a stakeholder survey, stressing the essential role of member states in the process.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Norway's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA Norway) signed a cooperation agreement at the Zero Emission Regional Aviation Conference 2025 (ZERAC25), driving innovation, research and learning through Norway's International Test Arena. The Test Arena, set up by CAA Norway and infrastructure and airspace provider Avinor, connects industry, research and regulators. The partners will work on real-world demonstration of cutting-edge solutions such as electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft, coordinating joint activities on technology testing, knowledge development, regulatory gaps and professional training, aiming to fast-track the transition to zero…
Saudi low-cost carrier flyadeal signed a new global distribution agreement with Amadeus, which becomes the carrier's preferred provider, distributing content to travel sellers worldwide through the Amadeus travel platform. flyadeal will begin with the domestic Saudi market and phase its content rollout to the trade in more countries over the next few months; once complete, its full content will be viewable and bookable on the Amadeus platform. flyadeal currently operates over 200 daily scheduled services from bases in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam to more than 30 year-round and seasonal destinations across Saudi Arabia, the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and South Asia with a fleet of 42 Air…
Amadeus announced the appointment of Rongrong (Vvivi) Hu as Global Head and Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, effective 1 January 2026. Hu will report directly to Amadeus President and CEO Luis Maroto and join the company's Executive Committee. She previously held roles at eBay including Chief Strategy Officer for Greater China and Senior Director of Innovation, M&A and Business Development for EMEA, and worked at McKinsey and CITIC Capital; more recently she has been a venture investor and board member. She succeeds the retiring Wolfgang Krips, who joined Amadeus in 2013 and has served as Corporate Strategy Chief since 2019, and will officially retire in early 2026.
Amadeus and business travel and spend management platform TravelPerk have extended their distribution agreement to include NDC content. TravelPerk will continue sourcing a wide range of content from Amadeus, including air, hotel, mobility and transfer services, plus automation and servicing solutions, giving its customers broader, richer content and greater choice. TravelPerk says its NDC capabilities now extend to 25 airlines and that it has more than 10,000 customers globally.
Italian carrier Aeroitalia is extending its collaboration with Navitaire, an Amadeus company, planning to deploy a suite of solutions to simplify operations and enhance customer experience. Central to this is continued use of New Skies, a reservation and retail platform for low-cost and hybrid carriers whose single-order architecture manages both offer and order across the customer journey, supporting personalised promotions, dynamic offers, seamless check-in, real-time disruption management and omnichannel distribution. Aeroitalia also plans to adopt Navitaire Dynamic Pricing, Navitaire Loyalty and the SkyLedger revenue accounting system. Launched in 2022, Aeroitalia operates 15 aircraft o…
Amadeus and Lufthansa, both partners in the EU Digital Identity Wallet Consortium Large Scale pilot project, successfully tested the EUDI Wallet this summer for online check-in and in-person airport scenarios including check-in, bag-drop and boarding. Available to citizens in 2026 and provided by Member States, the EUDI Wallet securely stores identity documents such as passports and national ID cards, payment methods and biometric profiles. Amadeus has enhanced its Travel Ready solution to provide infrastructure enabling third-party wallets to operate with the travel industry, and plans to test digital travel credential use cases such as airport security and border control later in 2025.