Skift Business Traveler: Transcontinental Flights Could Come to New York’s LaGuardia

What to Know Now

One of the biggest headaches of flying into New York City from the west coast is having to deal with either Newark or JFK. Both are crazy far from Manhattan and lack the real convenience of LaGuardia — but since 1984 there has been a perimeter rule in effect preventing transcontinental flights from landing at the smaller airport.

This year, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, an organization that’s as notable for its political cronyism is it is its abysmal planning, says it is thinking of dropping that rule, allowing flights from west coast cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco to finally approach LaGuardia. The folks over at Airways News further speculate on whether the relaxed rules could ever apply to D.C.’s Reagan, though there’s less momentum behind that effort, and there are more political concerns, too.

Neither deal is anywhere close to complete (and D.C.’s is little more than a pipedream) but a tired business traveler can hope.

Social Quote of the Day

The LGA perimeter rule is one of those things done just to mess with travelers, like the Port Authority or no subway access. Fun, eh?

@FakeUnitedJeff

Airlines

Plane Tracking Pilot Program to Begin in Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia: Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia will lead a trial of an enhanced method of tracking aircraft over remote oceans to allow planes to be more easily found should they vanish like Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Australia’s transport minister said Sunday. Read more at Skift

United Tells Its Pilots About Four ‘Major Safety Events’: United Airlines, the world’s second-largest carrier, sent its pilots a memo last month warning of “major safety events and near misses.” Read more at Skift

Revenue-Based Frequent Flyer Programs are Good for Flyers: When you commodify the relationship, and you turn the frequent flyer program into a straight rebate there’s little advantage to choosing one program or another. Read more at View from the Wing

A Few Easy Ways to Make the Friendly Skies More Friendly: There’s one simple thing that the airlines haven’t yet figured out, despite many of them being fairly astute on how to manage themselves in a world where they don’t control the narrative. Read more at Skift

Airports

Does JetBlue or Delta Win With New Long-Haul Rules From New York’s LaGuardia? Delta Air Lines Inc. would be the clear winner if a 30-year-old rule restricting direct flights to the West Coast from New York’s LaGuardia airport is lifted. JetBlue Airways Corp. may have the most to lose, aviation consultants said. Read more at Skift

New App Makes Clearing Customs and Border Control in Miami a Breeze: Miami International Airport (MIA) has announced that qualifying passengers traveling through the airport can now use the Mobile Passport app, for iOS and Android devices, which speeds up the process of clearing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Read more at Skift

United and Port Authority Subpoenaed Over ‘Chairman’s Flight’: For 18 months, a 50-seat regional jet left United Airlines’ Newark hub each Thursday night bound for Columbia, South Carolina. On Monday mornings, United Express flew back to Newark. Read more at Skift

Tech

Uber Reveals Data Breach That Affected 50,000 Drivers in 2014: Uber Technologies Inc. said an unauthorized third party accessed the company’s database last year and may have taken data on about 50,000 drivers. Read more at Skift

9 Top Hotel CEOs Talk About Guests’ Insatiable Demands for Wi-Fi: If there’s a subject nearly every traveler can agree on, it’s that hotel Wi-Fi should be as fast and as cheap (read: free) as possible. Read more at Skift

Gogo Wi-Fi Gets More Expensive But Free In-Flight Internet Models Emerge: Gogo Inc., like other in-flight Wi-Fi providers, faces capacity constraints — too many passengers trying to get online with too-little bandwidth — so it has a coping solution: raise rates to discourage usage. Read more at Skift

Hotels

5 Top Hotel CEOs Talk About the Unprecedented Rate of Change in Hospitality: Change is good, unless you’re a hotelier trying to make sense of rapidly changing consumer habits. Read more at Skift

Marriott Announces Disastrous 2015 Award Category Changes: Unsurprisingly, the changes are once again a slap in the face to all travelers. Of the hotels, 36% are changing categories — 25% are moving down in category, while an absurd 75% are moving up in category. Read more at Frugal Travel Guy

Your Turn

Mobile World Congress has just kicked off in Barcelona. For live updates, follow Brad Molen on Twitter.

TIPS AND COMMENTS

Can be sent to gm[at]skift[dot]com or to @grantkmartin

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