Skift Business Traveler: United Says It’s on the Road to Recovery

What to Know Now

At the close of Monday’s Business Traveler (and a Bloomberg article to boot) we left with the question of when United’s operations are going to finally improve. Turns out, the airline has an answer: SOON. According to United’s operations team, July on-time performance is already markedly better than than June, a month marred by bad weather across numerous United hubs.

Among the telling data shared by the airline:

• United’s arrival delay performance was about 20 points higher over the busy July 3-5 holiday weekend than where they closed the month of June
• Despite system load factors ranging from the low-to-mid-90s across the U.S. and the low-to-mid-80s internationally, they achieved a significantly improved arrival delay performance over the July Fourth weekend. Their mainline arrival delay performace was above 70 percent each day of the holiday weekend, at 74.5, 77.0 and 72.0 percent.

Whether the earlier router outage will push the month’s on-time performance down the tubes compared to June is another question. But for now, hopefully United’s bad luck is behind them.

Social Quote of the Day

‏It is totally unbecoming & immature for reporters to tweet about travel problems EXCEPT WHEN THEY INVOLVE @AmericanAir DO NOT FLY THEM EVER

– @MarkHalperin | Mark Halperin, Managing Editor, Bloomberg Politics

Airlines

Wow Air’s $99 Fare Sale Is a Lesson in Low-Cost Pricing and Pitfalls: Wow Air, Iceland’s second biggest carrier, announced new routes from the U.S. to Paris and Amsterdam last week, launching an unprecedented fare sale in stride. Read more at Skift

Airlines Look to Beacons to Improve Their Internet of Things Infrastructure: Aviation technology firm SITA reports in its latest Airline IT Trends Survey that 44% of airlines will leverage beacon technology to improve their services and connections with customers by 2018. Read more at Skift

Airlines Turning to Biofuels to Avoid Harsh Emissions Penalties: The number of global fliers is expected to more than double in the next two decades. In order to carry all those extra passengers, airlines are turning to a technology very few can make work on a large scale: converting trash into fuel. Read more at Skift

Airports

Survey: Millennial Flyers Are More Willing to Pay for Premium Conveniences: Millennials are more willing to pay for premium conveniences when traveling by air, says OAG’s FlightView, a real-time flight and day-of-travel information solutions provider which offers consumers flight update apps for iOS and Android devices. Read more at Skift

Heathrow Expansion Would Be an Easy Win in Parliament, Says Key Leader: A vote on expanding London Heathrow airport would win the backing of about 600 of Britain’s 650 lawmakers, a senior member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party said. Read more at Skift

Workers at Two New York Airports Vote to Strike Today: More than 1,000 security officers, baggage handlers and wheelchair attendants at New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airports voted unanimously to authorize a strike starting Wednesday night. Read more at Skift

Tech

How Uber and Airbnb Are Winning Over Business Travelers in 9 Charts: The formerly-sharing-economy—now more accurately called the rental economy—is now in full disruption mode, not just at the edges. Read more at Skift

How the Multi-Screen Traveler Searches Across Devices: Nearly half the travelers that airlines, hotels, destinations and other organizations seek are multi-screen consumers, and multi-device mobile usage stands to further increase with the growth of wearables within the mainstream commercial market. Read more at Skift

The Rise of the Mobile Channel: Changing Booking Patterns and Business Models: In the past few years, mobile has emerged as a key channel within the travel industry and it is gradually heading towards holding a dominant position in terms of both travel bookings and customer service. Read more at Skift

Hilton Gets Aggressive Telling Travelers the Lowest Price Is Only on Hilton.com: Hotels are hellbent on getting travelers to book directly on their own websites and through company call centers and that’s very much in play in Hilton Worldwide’s latest TV commercial, “Play Hooky.” Read more at Skift

Hotels

Airbnb Makes a Big Corporate Travel Push Through New Travel Management Tools: Marc McCabe has become a familiar name among people working in human resources departments around Silicon Valley. Read more at Skift

It’s Beginning: Onefinestay Pilot With Hyatt Highlights Sharing Economy Collaboration To Come: There’s a split developing among major hotels chains that are open to learning from and collaborating with sharing-economy lodging companies and those that want to dismiss them out of competitive and legal concerns at all costs. Read more at Skift

Brooklyn Hotel Building Boom Continues Despite Demand Concerns: About half a mile northwest of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, a 202-room EVEN hotel is rising next to a Holiday Inn that opens in October. Two blocks over, a tower for Marriott International Inc.’s Autograph Collection is under way. Read more at Skift

Residence Inn Wants to Make Millennial Business Travelers Less Lonely: In an effort to modernize its extended-stay guest experience for Millennial business travelers, Residence Inn by Marriott launched a new evening social program in June called The Residence Inn Mix. Read more at Skift

Your Turn

Skift Business Traveler’s de facto video team (and Reddit’s creative director of video) is currently out at RAGBRAI cycling across the entire state of Iowa. A dispatch from their journey is here.

Tips and Comments

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

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