Skift Business Traveler: A Sad Week For Air Travel

What to Know Now

Details are slowly starting to emerge from the MH 17 disaster a week back as Russian separatists begin to ease their grip on the crash site. Most notably, the group returned the black boxes back to Amsterdam for analysis; they’re now in the hands of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in England.

As expected, the crash site has been tampered with. Let’s hope that the black boxes yield some significant conclusions.

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Top Story

There were two more commercial airline incidents this week in what’s already been a terrible month for air travel. The first involved a TransAsia Airways ATR-72 that crashed during landing on a small island off the Taiwan coast. 48 of the people onboard were killed.

As of this morning, the second incident involves an Air Algerie flight missing over north Africa. According to BBC News, the aircraft contacted Nigerian airspace to request alternate routing due to inclement weather. The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the plane crashed in Mali.

SOCIAL QUOTE OF THE DAY

 If reports that #AH5017 came down in NE Mali are correct then it may have flown through remnants of deep convective system near #Gao

– @simon_rp84  | Simon Proud Researcher @MIT. Exploring how to use satellite data for aviation safety

Airlines

How Far Will U.S. Flyers Go for In-Flight Wi-Fi? To persuade airlines that it is high-time to provide high-flying high-speed Wi-Fi, AT&T partner Honeywell continues its tradition of presenting statistics proving how desperate passengers are for this service and just what they’re willing to do to get it. Read more at Skift

Boeing’s New 777X Designs Intensify the Race for Space on Airlines: Boeing revealed its design plans for the 777X aircraft during the Farnborough Airshow in England last week. It includes a number of key passenger experiences enhancements and a space-age interior decor. Read more at Skift

U.S. Airlines Fly Over War Zones Despite Potential Risks: Yesterday America’s airline regulator ordered the country’s airlines to temporarily suspend flights to Israel—but some had already started doing so, perhaps jumpy after last week’s downing of Malaysia Airlines flight 17 over Ukraine. It shows just how murky the rules are about flying over conflict zones, and raises the question: Where else are civilian air travelers unknowingly traipsing across war zones? Read more at Skift

Airports

The 12 U.S. Airports With the Fastest Wi-Fi Connections: Passengers flying to and from Detroit Metropolitan Airport will find the fastest Wi-Fi at any U.S. airport, according to a Wefi report. Read more at Skift

FAA Lifts Ban on Flights to Israel’s Main Airport by U.S. Airlines: Flights by U.S. carriers in and out of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International airport were to be allowed to resume at about 11:45 p.m. New York time, the Federal Aviation Administration said tonight in a statement. The agency had ordered U.S. airlines yesterday to avoid the airport, citing the hazard from rockets fired by Palestinian militants. Read more at Skift

Family Asked To Leave Southwest Flight After Tweet: Duff Watson says he was asked to de-board a flight from Denver to Minneapolis with his two kids on Sunday after an agent didn’t like a tweet he wrote about her service. Read more at CBS Minnesota

Tech

Foursquare Releases New Logo Before Splitting Its Product in Half:  Foursquare announced in May that it would end the local check-in as we know it and split into two products, a local discovery service named Foursquare and a check-in service named Swarm. Read more at Skift

The U.S. Hotels and Beaches With the Fastest Wi-Fi Connections: Red Roof Inn guests will find the fastest Wi-Fi speeds out of any hotel chain in the country, according to a wefi report released yesterday. Read more at Skift

HotelTonight Adds Rooms in 80 New European Markets: HotelTonight is broadening its European footprint with the announcement that it has added 80 new markets. It will also launch in three new Mexican states on Monday. Read more at Skift

Hotels

Donald Trump Breaks Ground on Pennsylvania Ave. Hotel: Mr. Trump, joined by family members and local politicians, broke ground Wednesday on a $200 million hotel that will transform the Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol. Read more at the Wall St. Journal

Hotel Guests Ditch Room Service for Food Delivery Apps: Hotel guests increasingly prefer to order their eats from takeout restaurants rather than from room service, according to data from Chicago-based online food-ordering service GrubHub Inc. Read more at Skift

Interview: The Three Women Behind Las Vegas’ First Boutique Hotel: Positioned as the first standalone boutique hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, The Cromwell opened in May next to the new High Roller observation wheel and LINQ shopping, dining and entertainment district, all owned by Caesars Entertainment. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

Following a much-chided story on Yahoo Travel about “overrated destinations,” travel writer Mike Sowden provides his tounge-in-cheek take on why every destination is pretty much terrible. Get it? Get it?

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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