Skift Business Traveler: Is Air Travel Safe From Ebola?

What to Know Now

News broke yesterday afternoon that the first case of ebola found in the United States was carried in through a passenger flying on United through Washington Dulles. Agencies across the country have been quick to assess the threat, and most have reacted with the same measured tone: neither passengers on those flights nor business travelers at large are at risk.

That hasn’t stopped hand wringing among the traveling public or the stock market. Airlines (and the market at large) have been down sharply and several with whom the passenger came into contact are now under quarantine.

At large though, airline travel remains safe. Airports across Africa are scanning intensively for anyone running a fever, reminding passengers that only actively sick people can transmit the disease. Airports in the U.S. are also now on high alert. Unless the sickness spreads further, it’s business travel as usual.

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Social Quote of the Day

The upside of Ebola patient flying @united is that this will force them to properly clean the plane.

– @JonahNRO | Jonah Goldberg, NRO Layabout, Fellow @AEI, LAT & USAT columnist, Fox All-Star

Airlines

Lufthansa Partners With German Online Food Retailer to Deliver Airline Food On The Ground: Some airlines now bring celebrity chefs into the kitchen to prepare in-flight meals and offer a tasteful array of new snack options, although these food items don’t always get eaten or finished. Read more at Skift

Virgin Australia’s New Business Class Challenges Regional Rivals: Virgin Australia today announced their brand new business product which will start being rolled out early next year for both domestic and international routes on their wide body fleet. The familiar reverse herringbone seats are seemingly the current trend in business class travel, which offer increased privacy and more space, all aisle access whilst also providing passengers with window seats that actually look out of the window. Read more at Skift

The World’s Longest Airline Route is Now Between Sydney and Dallas: Qantas is putting the world’s biggest passenger plane on the world’s longest airline route. Read more at Skift

Europe’s Low-Cost Carriers Take Full Advantage of Legacy Airlines’ Labor Woes: Air France and Deutsche Lufthansa AG may find that the main beneficiaries of the worst strikes in their histories are the low-cost competitors they seek to repel. Read more at Skift

Airports

Lufthansa Chief Asks for Patience as Its Longest Strike in History Drags Out:
Deutsche Lufthansa AG Chief Executive Officer Carsten Spohr asked customers for patience as he grapples with the longest strike in the airline’s history, saying the future of all employees is at stake as he seeks to find a compromise with pilots demanding to preserve benefits. Read more at Skift

Frontier to expand in Philly, Miami; grow at O’Hare: Frontier Airlines is announcing multiple new routes Tuesday, detailing plans to begin service to both Miami and Philadelphia while also saying it would expand its schedule at Chicago O’Hare. Read more at USA Today

Tech

How Travel Brands Can Use Geo-Fencing and Wearables to Personalize a Trip:
This type of location-based data usage is not only relevant to the marketing of products, services or experiences to travelers, but to enriching the overall traveling experience. Read more at Skift

A Google Glass App for Flight Attendants on Private Jets: Although it’s now possible to see a rare airline passenger with Google Glass milling around the boarding gate, flight attendants and pilots have yet to don the at-times controversial eyewear. Read more at Skift

Technology and In-Flight Entertainment Make Flyers Happy: Technology is playing a major role in improving the air travel experience. Read more at Skift

Hotels

New Free Report: The Changing Business of Extended-Stay Hotels: It’s the hotel segment that boasts the greatest profit margins, leading-edge revenue per available room, and long-term guest relationships. The extended-stay segment might be considered a unique animal, but its performance begs to be considered the king of the jungle. Read more at Skift

Hotel Hatches a Plan to Get Into Peer-to-Peer Apartment Rentals: The relationship between hotels and a growing peer-to-peer rental market has been wrought with confusion, fear and distrust from the start, making it seem unlikely that a positive relationship could ever come from the two parties. Read more at Skift

Marriott Planning Up to 50 New Hotels in Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt: Marriott International Inc. may build 40 to 50 hotels in Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt each by 2020 to benefit from a surge of travelers, said Alex Kyriakidis, the chain’s president for the Middle East and Africa. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

American Airlines’ Skyball charity event is later this month in Dallas. Go take a look, it’s for a good cause.

Tips and Comments

Can be sent to [email protected] and @grantkmartin. We publish the Business Newsletter twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

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