Business Briefs - June 19, 2008

BA Club World awarded best in business class category

British Airways Club World was recently awarded the best business class service at the annual industry-recognised OAG Awards ceremony held in London. During the same award ceremony, British Airways was also decorated with the best transatlantic airline award for the second consecutive year.

"Our customers continue to choose British Airways as their preferred business class carrier. We are delighted to have retained the best transatlantic airline title for the second year running and succeeded in adding the prestigious best business class award to our portfolio of awards. This is a great credit to our new Club World cabin launched in November 2006 and a testament to the commitment and hard work of all BA staff," said James Stagno Navarra, BA manager Malta.

Besides winning two OAG Awards, British Airways was also shortlisted for another four OAG awards: best airline based in western Europe, best Europe - Asia/Australasia airline, best economy class and best international first class.

Widely regarded as the industry's pre-eminent event, the OAG Industry Awards recognise the most highly regarded and innovative airlines and airports, based on the votes of frequent business travelers from around the globe.

Alpine Holdings Ltd board appointment

Warren Zahra has just been appointed to the board of Alpine Holdings Ltd. Mr Zahra, 42, has been working in the travel industry since he was 20 years old when he had joined the then UK based tour operating company of the Alpine Group - Maltatours (UK) Ltd. Over this time he worked his way up in the sales division of the leisure side of the business first as executive in charge of groups and finally to the post of general manager.

Mr Zahra relocated to Malta in 1994 and commenced work with Alpine Travel as incoming groups co-coordinator working through most of the company's departments. He was appointed executive director of Alpine Travel Ltd in 2001 and has been responsible for expanding the operations and eventually negotiating the take-over of Sterling Travel & Tourism and merging the two companies together.

Another milestone for VFM

Valletta Fund Management Limited (VFM) announced an important development earlier this month when shareholders of the La Valette Mediterranean Rim Fund resolved to migrate the Mediterranean Rim Fund to the Vilhena Funds SICAV plc which is UCITS certified. Thereby making it possible for this fund to be promoted across Europe, as from July 1.

Peter Perotti, general manager of VFM said: "We believe this to be a very important step and we are confident that the Vilhena Mediterranean Rim Fund can be actively promoted across Europe in view of its unique positioning in terms of its investment objective and geographical allocation. Moreover, the past performance of the fund since its launch has been extremely encouraging with an annualised return from launch to May 31 of 11.53 per cent."

The migration of the Mediterranean Rim Fund to the Vilhena Funds SICAV plc will not change the investment objective, investment policies, currency and underlying investments of the Mediterranean Rim Fund.

Show your card in Malta

The annual Show Your Card Conference of ARC Europe was held in Malta last week. Delegates from 27 members of this organisation attended the two-day conference which was hosted by RMF Ltd and ARC Europe.

"Show Your Card" is a discount card that can be used in hundreds of outlets throughout Europe. This year RMF Malta affiliated with ARC Europe for the Show Your Card scheme whereby RMF members are able to benefit from discounts that this scheme offers both locally, in Europe and throughout the world at no additional cost.