Top Stories
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SkyTeam targets meetings planners with flight booking tool
TransportAirline alliance SkyTeam has launched a new online booking tool to help event and meeting organisers. The alliance, which has 19 airlines as members, has introduced a dedicated portal on its website which can be used by delegates to book discounted air travel to events. Skyteam’s Global Meetings product is free to use and is [...]
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United 787 Dreamliner to resume schedule May 20
TransportUnited Airlines will restart Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” flights on May 20, putting the aircraft on hub-to-hub routes out of Houston Bush Intercontinental. United spokeswoman Christen David confirmed the news to Today in the Sky, saying the Dreamliner flights became visible in United’s reservation system with a May 4 schedule update. Until that update, United’s resumption of [...]
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Skift Q&A: Why the business of global travel is under reported
DigitalJournalist Elizabeth Becker’s new title Overbooked: The Global Business of Travel and Tourism is the book that Skift wished it wrote (if travel information brands wrote books, that is). Unlike few others, Becker’s title approaches travel as the business behemoth it is, and dives into the nuts and bolts of tourism while simultaneously stripping away the pretenses. [...]
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Midsize airports hit with large-scale flight cuts
TransportAirline mergers, a deep recession and surging fuel prices have led to sharp cuts in airline service around the country. Hardest hit: medium-size airports. In California, Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana, LA/Ontario International Airport and other mid-size airports lost an average of 26.2 percent of their flights from 2007 [...]
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Virgin America IPO on agenda in a year or two, CEO says
TransportVirgin America said it’s close to turning around its financial losses and could be ready for an initial public offering as early as next year. The airline reported another annual loss on Monday, but it’s aiming for a profit in the second half of the year after reworking debt it owes to Sir Richard Branson’s [...]
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U.S. meetings and convention cities: Who gets bragging rights?
DestinationsThe Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority plans to borrow and spend $2.5 billion to develop the Las Vegas Global Business District, an overhauled convention center facility that will include a World Trade Center and multimodal transportation hub. The project will be the first major expansion for the 54-year-old, 3.2-million-square-foot Las Vegas Convention Center in [...]
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The FCC just set off a high-stakes battle between in-flight Wi-Fi providers
TransportSatellite-based Wi-Fi services such as Row44 and Panasonic Avionics, which power on-board wireless networks for Southwest and United, respectively, have a clear competitive advantage over air-to-ground networks because the satellite systems offer much greater capacity for travelers trying to stream video or access bulky emails. But the Federal Communication Commission’s decision last week to begin [...]
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Dublin Airport now using biometric gates to quickly process passengers
TransportThis pilot program is for Dublin Airport passengers, some of whom are navigating automatic border control gates to get through immigration control as quick as 7.5 seconds, authorities say. The new program, which processes up to 1,000 passengers per day, is powered by SITA’s iBorders biometric gates. In Dublin, the system uses facial recognition and [...]
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Tulsa Airport’s nonstop flight plight is a familiar one for small cities
TransportTulsa business travelers are tired of missing out on nonstop flights to Los Angeles, Kansas City and Orlando, according to a survey that’s part of the Tulsa Regional Air Service Initiative, a recently launched effort by Tulsa International Airport. Airlines already have nonstop flights from Tulsa International to seven of the top 10 most sought-after [...]
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U.S. hotels have given up on extra fees, raising room rates instead
OriginalHotels are not airlines. OK, you know that. But, after making lots of noise in recent years about focusing on building additional ancillary fee revenue streams — just as the airlines are charging for bag fees etc — and exhibiting symptoms of a syndrome that Freud might have labeled “fee envy,” many hotels in the U.S. are [...]
