Travel Industry Archive

Carnival Corp. addresses piracy concerns – Carnival Corp. said it is working with the U.S. military and British Ministry of Defence to protect passengers and crew from pirate attacks. Piracy became a growing concern since Somali pirates took an American freighter captain hostage off Africa’s coast earlier this month. In 2005, a cruise ship sailing under...

More...

A couple weeks ago, I talked in-depth about Virgin America’s status as a US-owned carrier. At the time, I said, “There are probably bigger fish to fry right now than dealing with a relatively tiny upstart airline and its ownership. If it’s in a gray area as it appears to be now, then the incentive to devote time to this is probably fairly low. . . .” I may have to take...

More...

The Obama administration announced unlimited travel to Cuba for Cuban-Americans and will allow transfers of money to relatives in the small island nation. While trade embargoes are still untouched, this humanitarian step may be more political than it seems. It’s considered to be a preemptive strike against Latin American countries who would plead Cuba’s case at the Summit of the...

More...

Starwood’s $4 billion Sheraton overhaul — Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide said it would spend $4 billion to overhaul its Sheraton brand. The initiative to upgrade its hotels began in 2007, when the company designated $2 billion for new hotels, $1.3 billion for renovations and $400 million for other changes. Starwood plans to open 20 Sheratons this year, with nine in North...

More...

For the last few years, Air Canada has been a true pioneer in making the booking process better. Under CEO Montie Brewer, it was the first airline to create fare categories, each of which contained a certain set of benefits and frills. You could also add or subtract different pieces at the time of booking. Now, Brewer is out, but my guess is that it’s the other side of the house that...

More...

As predicted, Boeing this week announced a 29-percent cut in production of its 777 widebody jets for next year. Starting next June, Boeing will cut back the pace of 777 deliveries, from seven to five a month. The company also says it has scrapped plans to pick up the pace of production on its 767 and 747-8 models. It’s been producing about one a month of each so far this year. The...

More...

Possible investors end talks with MGM Mirage — Colony Capital LLC and Crown Ltd. ended investment talks with MGM Mirage, closing the door on a joint investment with the struggling company. The casino operator had been talking with Colony to gain up to $750 million in loans to help refinance its $13.5 billion debt and save its financially troubled CityCenter project. Sources say that...

More...

If you thought February results were bad, take a look at March.  With a couple of notable exceptions toward the top of the list, most airlines saw large drops in load factor.  But this is only half the story.  As noted before, the airlines that reported revenue estimates reported severe drop offs.  So, the heavy discounting helped fill planes more than they would have at previous fare...

More...

Hotelicopter, despite the April Fool’s prank, is a real search engine/hotel aggregator competing for the discriminating budget traveler against Kayak (and as if to prove its relevance – it even has a presence on Facebook!) So far, the Web site received a lot of press on tech blogs. A perusal of their Web site shows hotels broken down by city or airport code. I immediately...

More...

Recently, Allegiant has added some interesting flights from the Pacific Northwest. Most airlines haven’t bothered taking them on, but Alaska seems to be willing to fight them now that they’re building up around their neighborhood. Starting in June, Alaska will go head-to-head with Allegiant on the Bellingham - Las Vegas route with three weekly flights. This will be interesting to...

More...