Coinciding with the Berlin Fashion Week, the Spanish footwear brand opened a space of over 200m² in Mitte in July.

With over 300 stores in 50 countries and a versatile retail concept in keeping with its brand image, based on diversity and innovation, Camper continues to surprise in one of the most vital, creative and cosmopolitan capitals in the world.

In the framework of Berlin Fashion Week, it inaugurated its first showroom in this city. With over 200m² and located in the heart of Mitte, the central district in Berlin, close to the store in Rosenthaler Strasse 38, and the Casa Camper Hotel opened in 2009, it joins the spaces for professionals in the industry that the firm already had in Düsseldorf and Munich.

Camper entered Germany in January 2001 and today it is its fourth European market, behind Spain, France and Italy. In the GASP area, comprising Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland, Camper has 14 own stores in Berlin, Krakóew, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich, Warsaw, Vienna and Zurich, plus 350 points of sale.

Camper’s priority markets in 2014 are China and the United States, but Europe is still important, thanks to the repositioning of the brand and the new collection that will be in stores from August/September 2014 under the new creative direction of Romain Kremer.

Barcelona – El Prat closed July with a new record. For the first time ever over 4 million passengers, namely 4,027,585, passed through its facilities in one month. The previous record is to be found in August 2013 when 3, 9 million users were reached.

This figure represents an annual increase of 4,9%, while the cumulative growth for the whole year stands at plus 6,4%, at 21,261,217 passengers.

EU passengers are the ones that grew most in the last month with an increase of 8,8% followed by users of international flights from countries outside the European Union who rose 2,6%, with the increase of intercontinental passengers standing out at 8,9%. Meanwhile, domestic passengers recorded negative figures during July with a drop of 0, 6%.

Operations also recorded positive figures in July, continuing the trend of recent months. Over the last month, 29.191 take – off and landing movements were carried out, 4% more than in 2013. These figures are close to those achieved in July 2008 when there were 29.733; in fact, on 22th 1,018 operations were recorded, a figure which had not been reached since that same year. On a cumulative bases, 163,295 operations have been performed, which means an increase of 2, 6%.

Finally, 9,061,624 kg of air cargo was transported, representing an increase of 9% compared to 2013. There was notable growth of 12, 6% on non-EU International flights and 7, 7% on EU flights. So far this year 59.418,410 kg of cargo has been transported, up 4, 1%.

Source: aerobarcelona.com; 2014-08-22

Posted by flytobarcelona.org

Barcelona Air Route Development Committee
promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights

Barcelona-El Prat Airport was the most widely used by low cost airlines in the first seven months of the year in Spain, with 4.5 million passengers, an increase of 17.5% over the previous year, according to data released on Monday by the General Department of Knowledge and Tourism Studies under the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism.

Barcelona is followed by Malaga airport with 2.3 million passengers, up 10.9%; Alicante airport, with more than 2 million passengers and a rise of 6.6%; Palma de Mallorca airport, which received 1.9 million travellers, up 6.7%, and Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport, with 293,716 passengers, an increase of 21.8%.

By region, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Balearics lead the ranking of entries in low cost airlines in the first seven months of the year: Catalonia leads the list, with 28.5% of entries and 5.2 million passengers, up 10%.

Nationally, low cost airlines transported 18.3 million passengers in the first seven months of the year, representing an increase of 10% over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, traditional companies moved more than 20.3 million travellers through July, up 2.5% on the same period in 2013.

Thus, low cost airlines accounted for 47.5% of air traffic from January to July, as opposed to traditional companies  which accounted for 52.5% of travellers.

In July, low cost companies increased their passengers by 9.7%, up to 3.9 million passengers – 49.5% of the total air traffic for the month, which rose 4.8% to 8 million travellers – compared to the more than 4 million people who chose traditional companies, an 0.5% increase.

Among the low-cost airlines (CBC), Ryanair, EasyJet and Vueling were the ones to carry the greatest volume of international passengers, about 66 percent altogether, covering 33% of total international air traffic received in Spain.

Thai Air Asia is planning more rapid expansion in 2014 despite the challenging market conditions in Thailand. The carrier aims to grow passenger traffic by 27% in 2014 to 13.3 million as eight A320s are added to its fleet for a total of 43 aircraft.

Thai Air Asia plans to continue growing in both the domestic and international markets with a combination of new routes and additional frequencies. The domestic expansion comes amid increasing competition while the international market expansion comes despite sagging demand due to the civil unrest in Bangkok.

Among all the existing Air Asia short-haul affiliates, Thai Air Asia is pursuing the fastest growth in 2014 and is alone in opting against slowing down fleet expansion. The decision to continue with rapid expansion is strategic as Air Asia seeks to maintain its leading position in Thailand’s low-cost sector as competition increases.

The Port of Barcelona transported a total of 4.5 million tonnes (+15%) of goods during the month of July, which makes it the fifth best month in freight traffic in the history of the Catalan infrastructure.

The accumulated traffic in this segment of cargo during the first 7 months of the year was 26.5 million tonnes, i.e., 8% more than in the same period last year.

As regards container traffic, the enclave channelled a total of 173,508 TEUs (one TEU equals one 20-foot container) during the month of July, a figure that represents an increase of 13% over the same month last year. The accumulated traffic in this category also grew significantly (+ 8%) with 1,060,883 TEUs handled.

This growth was driven by the momentum of foreign trade, especially import containers, which increased by 24% in July, to 43,137 TEUs and a cumulative amount of 257,381 TEUs (+ 13%). Notably, the increase in imports has consolidated in the last three months with an average growth of 19%. As for exports, they continue to represent the most outstanding container volume, with 333,759 TEUs (+ 1%).

By country, the first recipient of exports transported through the Catalan infrastructure was China, which increased the volume of containers received from Barcelona by 25%.

Other markets where the Port intensified the export of containerized goods are the United States (8.2%), Morocco (10.4%), Mexico (+ 4%), Saudi Arabia (+ 5%) and South Africa (9%).

Moreover, the most dynamic countries of origin in terms of imports arriving at the facility are China (+ 19%), Algeria (+ 32%), Turkey (+18%), Vietnam (+19%), Saudi Arabia (+12%) and South Korea (+ 71%).

Source: puertosynavieras.es; 2014-08-23

Posted by flytobarcelona.org

Barcelona Air Route Development Committee
promotes Barcelona Airport intercontinental flights

Comdifil the textile business group continues its internationalization process. The company owner of Shana is soon to open a subsidiary in the United States. The latest launch of Comdifil group is called Double Agent which a look aimed at young audiences, will open its doors in the city of Los Angeles.

With this opening in the United States, the chain will strengthen is Californian style brand. The fashion firm will introduce the production of its image campaigns to American city.

In addition to its shop in Los Angeles, Double Agent scheduled to open in Rome, Paris and London throughout the year with the idea of gaining positioning and so be able to carry out franchises in these cities.

Last year the new chain closed the year with a turnover amounting to 130 million euros, an increase of 30%. For 2014, the prevision is for of the company to reach 200 million euros.

The first chain in this group, Shana, already has 300 shops including department stores, franchises and single-brand outlets. Earlier this year, they made a deal with the Chinese group Yueda to enter the Asian market.

The Comdifil Group is the holding company for the chains Shana and Double Agent, and Condipunt, the company that manages the supply found in countries like Portugal, Morocco, Bangladesh and China.

Four major Spanish ports (Bay of Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona and Las Palmas) appear in the Top 120 in the world and confirm the strategic position played by Spain in the context of global shipping. Of the 11,401,834 containers moved by these four ports, close to 7 million, 61%, were in transit, which means that the Spanish port-logistics supply continues to be important in the major shipping routes.

The 11.4 million containers moved by the Bay of Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona and Las Palmas represent 82% of the total moved by all Spanish ports (13.9 million), and 2.1% of the 529.4 million TEUs moved in 120 major ports worldwide. Only three of the 52 countries listed in the ranking, China and the USA with 15 ports each, and Japan with 6 ports, have managed to rank more enclaves than Spain, which with its four ports ranks fourth by number of ports. According to the number of containers moved, the sum of the Spanish ports puts us in 11^th place in the world and third in Europe behind Germany and the Netherlands. Spain is the EU country with most ports, ahead of Germany, Italy and the UK which have 3.

Zitro, the Barcelona firm that manufactures, develops and controls electronic bingo machines, is already present in 17 countries. According to the data, the company employs over 1,000 people and achieves an annual turnover of 76 million euros. So far it has produced around 20,000 machines which are already installed in casinos and arcades in Latin America, Europe and also the Philippines. It now has a clear commitment: to enter the U.S market and double its turnover.

Since its inception in 2007, Zitro has invested 11 million euros. Ortiz is confident that Spain is a potential market, “we can say that Spain leads the field of animation and specifically, this sector, vide bingo”.

With cutting-edge technology, Zitro works with the latest 3D animation tools and has recently incorporated a new recording studio to comprehensively produce, the music and voices of each of the games that are produced, also adapting them to the countries where those games will be present making each and every one of their games a short animated film 100% their own production.

AC Hotels by Marriott is the brand created by the collaboration of the Spanish hotel group AC Hotels, chaired by Antonio Catalán, and the U.S group Marriott International, Inc. It has recently signed contracts for 22 new openings in the United States as well as seven others in Paris, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico and Panama.

Statics show that the Hispanic population is the fastest growing in the U.S market and so says Bobby Finvard, Miami real estate entrepreneur who is handling the development of the hotel in this city, “the fastest growing population in the United States is Hispanic, and a lot of products are being launched to serve this community.”

The company is present almost all over the world, its president Antonio Catalán explains that there are “more than 3.600 hotels in over 72 countries because it is practically inconceivable to have a city without an AC an because we want to continue offering, for a long time, the highest quality and the same level of innovative, unique details in each of our hotels. Quality, innovation and design. Avant-garde, technology and freedom”

This ship usually carries out itineraries around the Caribbean with a crew of 2,394 members and more than 6,000 passengers.

The citizens of Barcelona, ​​Malaga and Vigo are in luck, since, during the month of September, Royal Caribbean International plans to dock in these ports with the Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship, along with the Allure of the Seas, which from May 2015 will be based in Barcelona for its Mediterranean routes.

As regards its technical features, it weighs more than 225,282 tonnes; is 361.8 metres in length; it took STX Europe a little less than a year to build it in Finland; and is usually moored in the port of Nassau, from where it explores the Caribbean at a speed of 22.6 knots.