Travel Industry Archive

Last month, I wrote about the all new, federal funding-free Branson Airport that’s popping up on hills in the Ozarks. Yesterday, the airport announced that it now has its first tenant. AirTran will fly to the airport once daily from Atlanta. I must say that I’m only a little surprised at this one. I really thought that Frontier and some of their new Q400 turboprops would end up...

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As news reports chronicle Depression chic and declining air travel, it can be easy to think people aren’t traveling anywhere and wallowing in despair. Then you see the ads for budget bus service for as little as $1, or 100,000 seats free. While air travel is down, the bargain bus battle is heating up. The biggest battle is between three companies, all primarily in the Midwest and East...

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I had the chance to sit down (or, uh, actually stand up) with Virgin America CEO David Cush yesterday, and we spoke about a variety of topics. (Full transcript at The Cranky Flier.) One thing stood out as being very positive for the airline, and that’s the performance of Main Cabin Select. This could be an opportunity for other airlines that they’re missing out on. Main Cabin...

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Southwest cuts 32 flights – Southwest Airlines announced plans to cut 32 flights next summer in hopes of maximizing profit. Chief executive Gary Kelly said the airline was cutting unproductive flights while focusing on profitable new cities like Denver. Nineteen flights will be added, but the airline added only one new route, Denver to Tucson, and relaunched Nashville to Seattle and...

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About two months ago, I wrote about Lufthansa’s efforts to develop its own social network. I said, “What Lufthansa should be doing is trying to create applications within existing networks that students might find useful.” I received an email from Frank Bornemann, Lufthansa’s Marketing Manager Greater China saying “We have heard you loud and clear.”...

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I know I usually write about the airline world, but I saw this article and just had to write about it. Apparently, a new “zero star” hotel has been opened outside Zurich, Switzerland. My guess is that it’s going to be a big hit. These days with the economy hurting, going downscale seems to be cool. The hotel, called the Null Stern (that’s, Zero Star in German), is...

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Wyndham Worldwide Corp. announced plans to lay off 4,000 employees, or 13 percent of its global workforce, and drop its expected timeshare sales to $1.2 billion from a projected $2 billion for 2008. It was all part of the company’s plan to “eliminate its reliance on asset-backed securities,” which basically means they can’t get loans. And for companies in...

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Plenty of people have speculated on the fate of Northwest’s narrowbody Airbus fleet now that the historically all-Boeing/Douglas Delta has taken over, but few have really looked at how this new Airbus fleet fills some of its holes. They’ve already started to flex this muscle a little by putting a Northwest A319 on the previously Delta 737-800 LAX-Tampa route. Delta has had a...

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Extended Stay could turn over company to lenders — Debt-burdened Extended Stay Hotels could end up handing over the hotel chain to its lenders. The company was highly-leveraged when it was sold to Lightstone Group, which bought the $8 billion hotel group with $7 billion in financing. With economic and credit conditions providing few options to the beleaguered company, Extended Stay went...

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Pinnacle Airlines recently put out a press release patting themselves on the back for their on-time performance. Normally I gloss over self-promotion like that, but this time it reminded me that they were embroiled in a fight with Delta over their on-time performance in the past. I thought I’d see how they were doing. Sure enough, they’re doing far better. It’s easy enough...

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