Skift Take

Forget American Airlines: Is the speed fast enough for consumers who always want it faster?

What to Know Now

In this week’s chapter of the soap opera between the nation’s largest air carrier and Gogo, American just dropped its lawsuit against the internet provider.

But Gogo may not be out of the woods yet. Provisions yet remain for American to choose a different internet provider for some 200 of its aircraft, a contract that Gogo sorely needs. While Gogo’s friendmaking and the reveal of new satellite bandwidth may have bought it some time, the clock is still ticking.

Business travelers, meanwhile, will only see the benefit. Whether American goes with a new service provider or they motivate Gogo to find more bandwidth, internet speeds are going to pick up. We only have to wait…. just a bit longer.

Social Quote of the Day

Flights before 6 am should be outlawed.

– @RobertAnnis | Rob Annis, cycling/outdoor travel writer

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Airlines

Ryanair CEO Interview: The European Union Has Problems, But the UK Should Stay: Speaking to Skift during a press conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday, the outspoken CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, shared insights on everything that’s wrong within European Airspace, how to fix it, the importance of protecting Europe’s mandate to allow the free movement of goods and people, and why UK voters should vote ‘Yes’ on the Brexit Referendum, keeping the UK an active member of the European Union. Read more at Skift

How the U.S. Will Decide Which Airlines Get to Fly to Cuba: It’s been more than 50 years since commercial flights from the U.S. could legally land in Cuba, and now domestic airlines have under two weeks to explain to federal regulators why they deserve to have a few of just 110 daily roundtrip flights to the island. Read more at Skift

The 5 Airline Websites Best Designed for Up Selling Flyers: The aviation industry consultancy Ideaworks has released a new report rating the airlines which most effectively use their websites to up-sell customers on a la carte ancillary extras. Read more at Skift
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Airports

Dubai Airport Expands to Accommodate 15 Million More Passengers: The world’s busiest airport for international travel is growing again. Read more at Skift

Hilton Wants to Change Your Mind About Airport Hotels: For the past five decades, the majority of airport hotels around the world have always had a sense of despair and desperation about them. Read more at Skift

Düsseldorf Airport’s Innovation Hub Wants a Bit of Startup Magic: Düsseldorf Airport has launched a startup contest to promote innovation. The DUS High Flyer Start-Up Awards will award a pioneering start-up €50,000, office Space, and public recognition which could help their businesses take off. Read more at Skift

>A passenger walks through a terminal during a strike at Frankfurt airport

Tech

Survey: Business Travelers Are All Over the Place When it Comes to Booking: The good news for companies in three major European markets: About 60 percent of business travelers use traditional, approved methods to book their work trips. Read more at Skift

You Can Now Get Morgan Freeman’s Voice for Your GPS: Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman, who has played God twice, can now help us regular people get out of traffic. Read more at Travel + Leisure

Qantas Announces Free Domestic In-Flight High-Speed Wi-Fi Starting Next Year: Qantas has announced its selection of ViaSat Ka-band connections to offer customers free high-speed connectivity staring next year. Read more at Skift

Uber’s Stealth Rival Juno Is Wooing Drivers First: With more than 100 employees in three countries and a fleet of drivers ready to go, Talmon Marco plans to take on Uber in much the same way his previous companies Viber confronted Skype and IMesh battled Napster. Read more at Skift

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Hotels

Donald Trump’s Hotel Mini-Empire Reveals Branding in Crisis: In Panama, his condominium owners are trying to fire him. In Canada and Turkey, his business partners want to cut him loose. In Scotland and Ireland he claims to be making millions but so far is losing money. Read more at Skift

New Ritz-Carlton Hotels Website Focuses on Style Over Substance: The Ritz-Carlton hotel group is officially launching its new website today with a somewhat surprising decision to forego experiential travel content. Read more at Skift

Ranking Hotel Elite Program Breakfast Benefits: The most coveted hotel elite perk is upgrades, especially to suites. But perhaps the second most coveted hotel elite status perk is breakfast. Read more at View from the Wing

InterContinental Is in a Good Position to Be Acquired if It Doesn’t Acquire: Investors in InterContinental Hotels just got the honeymoon suite. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

Or favorite Hawaiian Kyle Ellison has a new story out on foot golf. Read it here (in PDF).

TIPS AND COMMENTS

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

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Photo credit: Gogo CEO Michael Small (R) speaking at the Skift Global Forum. Skift

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