Skift Travel News Blog

One of the hottest areas for hotel companies is the open sea. Accor, the Paris-based hotel giant, hopes to launch a yacht-style cruise line Orient Express Silenseas by 2026, according to a report in Bloomberg News on Wednesday.

Adding to the multi-modal mindset, the 722-foot-long vessel will be branded after a famous railway brand, Orient Express.

Bloomberg reports that the ship will ply the waters of the Mediterranean and Caribbean and host about 120 passengers.

The move follows a multi-year effort by Ritz Carlton to create a yacht-like cruise line, as well as Virgin Voyages‘ semi-elite approach to cruising.

Private passenger rail operator Brightline carried a record 1.23 million passengers last year, the railroad’s first full year of operations since 2019. The number, which the railroad released in a monthly financial disclosure on Wednesday, represents a nearly 22 percent increase in ridership from three years earlier before the Covid-19 pandemic.

On the financial side of the ledger, Brightline’s annual revenues increased nearly 49 percent to $32 million in 2022 compared to three years earlier.

The 2022 numbers bode well for Brightline, which is the only private intercity rail operator in the U.S. The railroad is in the process of extending its Florida line to Orlando, which is expected to open for passengers later this year. Construction of the extension to the Orlando airport was 90 percent complete at the end of December. A future extension to Tampa is planned with Universal Orlando recently committing funds to construction of a critical 11-mile segment across Orlando.

Brightline recently released the first renderings of its new station at the Orlando airport. The facility is directly connected to the airport’s new Terminal C that opened last September.

Ridership on Brightline’s South Florida rail line between Miami and West Palm Beach got a year-end boost with the opening of two new stations — in Aventura and Boca Raton — in late December. The two stations added 17,682 riders to Brightline trains in just the last 10 days of the year.

The company is also developing a new high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California, known as Brightline West, that could begin construction this year.

Flights across the U.S. have been grounded due to a computer glitch with the Federal Aviation Administration’s systems, according to reports.

The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which alerts pilots of potential hazards.

“The FAA is working to restore its Notice to Air Missions System,” it posted on Twitter earlier. “We are performing final validation checks and reloading the system now. Operations across the National Airspace System are affected. We will provide frequent updates as we make progress.”

A total of 21,464 flights are scheduled to depart airports in the U.S. today, according to data from Cirium, with nearly 2.9 million seats available on these departures.

American Airlines has the most departures from US airports today (4,819), followed by Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines.

The FAA in a later notice said it had ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures until 9 a.m. Eastern Time to “allow the agency to validate the integrity of flight and safety information.”

Shortly before 9 a. m. it lifted the ground stop, posting on social media: “Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted. We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem.”

United Airlines told customers that they may continue to see some delays and cancellations as it works to restore its schedule, and that they should check its app or website.

The airline also activated a travel waiver for any customers who needs to change their plans, including offering refunds for customers who no longer want to travel.

The U.S. Travel Association said the “catastrophic system failure” caused 3,000 flight delays and several hundred cancellations across the country, and called for significant upgrades to be made.

“Americans deserve an end-to-end travel experience that is seamless and secure,” said president and CEO Geoff Freeman in a statement. “And our nation’s economy depends on a best-in-class air travel system. We call on federal policymakers to modernize our vital air travel infrastructure to ensure our systems are able to meet demand safely and efficiently.”

Airlines for America said it was working with the FAA and awaiting further information regarding when these issues will be resolved. It has urged travelers to download their airline’s app, visit the carrier’s website and ensure their contact information is accurate on travel records.

This breaking news story is being updated throughout the day

As announced in mid-2022, Accor is now in the process of reorganizing its operational structure into two divisions, the hotel group stated Tuesday.

Deputy Group CEO Jean-Jacques Morin heads the executive committee and serves as CEO of the Premium, Midscale and Economy division, taking in brands such as ibis, Novotel, Mercure, Swissôtel, Mövenpick, and Pullman. Accor structured the unit around four regions: the Americas; Europe and North Africa; Middle East, Africa, Turkey & Asia Pacific, and Greater China.

Group Chairman and CEO Sébastien Bazin leads the Luxury and Lifestyle division, serving as the division’s CEO. This division includes Raffles & Orient Express; Fairmont; Sofitel MGallery & Emblems, and Ennismore.

“Accor’s new organization is now being implemented progressively throughout the first quarter of the year depending on local legislations, particularly regarding the obligations to consult staff representatives,” the company stated. “The new structure will allow the Group to accelerate growth and better address market developments, deliver the highest possible levels of service for all its stakeholders, facilitating accurate and effective fulfilment of guest needs and expectations, and providing clarity and performance to its partners.”

The reorganization brings to the fore the possibility of divestitures, Skift reported in July.

The restructuring of Accor’s operations was originally pegged to take place October 1, 2022.

Top-level leadership changes at Tour operator TUI continue as the German-headquartered firm confirmed the appointed a new Chief Information Officer, Pieter Jordaan. 

Jordaan, a South African, has been with the company for eight years and has worked on the modernization of TUI’s IT infrastructure and cloud strategy. 

Jordaan’s role became effective January 1. He will report directly to new Chief Executive Officer Sebastian Ebel who assumed responsibility on October 1 after being named to the role in June. Ebel was named after previous chief executive Friedrich Joussen announced his departure after two decades at TUI, stating the time was right for leadership change at the company.

Cendyn, a software company that offers customer relationship management, digital marketing, and operations tools to hotels, has hired a new chief executive. 

The company said Monday that Jack Blaha has taken the role for the Florida-based company. He replaces Tim Sullivan, who had started as CEO in June 2020, a year after the company gained new ownership.

Accel-KKR, a technology-focused private equity firm based in Silicon Valley, became the majority owner of Cendyn in June 2019 through an undisclosed investment. 

Cendyn acquired Rainmaker, a hotel revenue management service, shortly after with that financial support. It acquired NextGuest, a long-time rival, in February 2021. Cendyn also in the last year merged with Pegasus, a central reservation system that had merged in 2019 with Travel Tripper with backing from Accel-KKR

And Cendyn acquired DigitalHotelier last year to expand its distribution and eCommerce capabilities. 

In addition to those business deals over the past couple of years, Cendyn said it has expanded in India and Asia Pacific. Cendyn said it has tens of thousands of customers in 143 countries

Blaha has previously worked for tech companies including Khoros, Lone Wolf Technologies, PeopleAdmin, and Aptean.

Cendyn said that Blaha will lead plans for continued strategic growth as hotels, resorts, and casinos invest in integrated technology and digitization.

A planned passenger rail link between Orlando and Tampa got a big boost Thursday. Universal Orlando Resort has pledged $125 million in funding towards construction of an 11-mile rail corridor that is a critical link in private passenger rail operator Brightline’s plan to extend train service to Tampa.

The funding will come from the creation of a new special development district — the Shingle Creek Transit Utility Community Development District — that will issue bonds to support construction of the rail line through Orlando and a new station at the Orange County Convention Center, Universal said Thursday. The line, dubbed the “Sunshine Corridor” locally, would carry both Brightline trains through Orlando and local SunRail commuter trains between Orlando International Airport and a new South International Drive station near Disney’s parks.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday that the entire 11 mile rail line could cost as much as $1 billion, and that project leaders intend to seek funding from the federal government under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The line could open to passengers by the end of the decade.

In addition to the construction funds, Universal and other local businesses have committed to covering the operations and maintenance expenses of the planned Orange County Convention Center station, and guarantee at least $13 million in annual ticket sales to and from the station.

Brightline aims to begin rail service to Orlando from Miami later this year. Trains will stop a station connected to the airport’s new Terminal C that opened in September.

Brightline, which operates passenger trains between Miami and West Palm Beach in South Florida, opened two new stations — Aventura and Boca Raton — in December. The company carried 18 percent more passengers in November than it did in 2019 with revenues up 39 percent year-over-three-years to $3.4 million.

The relationship between the owners and operators of hotels has traditionally been fraught because the two sides often have goals and philosophies that don’t fully overlap. The pandemic forced operators to align closely with operators in a battle to survive the plunge in demand. Working closely together, ties between the two sides warmed up. The post-pandemic boom in demand has boosted moods, too.

Yet as time goes on, the relationship between owners and operators faces the old strains once again.

Many operators, for example, are eager to return to pre-pandemic employment levels. They’ve been exhausted by rounds of layoffs and having had reduced staff to cope with a surge in demand. Yet operators — keeping their eye on operating margins as inflation rises — want to hold the line on budgets. At many properties, 85 percent is the new 100 percent when it comes to staffing.

As Skift’s senior hospitality editor, I recently chatted about this evolving relationship with Robin Trimingham, host of The Innovative Hotelier Podcast by Hotels Magazine. We talked about how economic uncertainty, pressure on independent hotels from global brands, and technology changes are stressing owner-operator relationships. We also talked optimistically about how a new cooperation model could enable hotel companies to thrive.

Southwest Airlines has put an initial number to the losses incurred during its holiday meltdown: a $725-825 million hit to its pre-tax income in the fourth quarter. That number includes both $400-425 million in lost revenue and added costs, for example reimbursing people for alternative travel costs.

As a result of the meltdown that the Dallas-based airline said Friday resulted in the cancellation of 16,700 flights over the Christmas and New Year holidays, Southwest now expects a net loss in the final quarter of 2022. That’s an about-face from the forecast CEO Bob Jordan provided in October, when he said the carrier expected “to generate strong profits and margins in fourth quarter.”

Southwest is expected to face additional costs from the meltdown in coming quarters. Many vouchers and points given to travelers affected by the cancellations will not be recorded as costs until they are redeemed. In addition, the airline continues to process reimbursements as they are submitted.

Jordan said Thursday that Southwest continues to process “tens of thousands of refunds and reimbursements a day.” It has also offered all affected travelers 25,000 Rapid Rewards points each, which are equal to roughly a $300 value.

Despite the carrier’s moves to reimburse and apologize to passengers, Congressional leaders are beginning to push for stronger consumer protections as a result of the incident. A group of 26 House Democrats sent a letter Thursday to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg calling on him to improve passenger protections and set standards for airlines to “maintain a reasonable level of operational capabilities” during severe weather.

And U.S. Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell said Wednesday that the committee will hold hearings on Southwest’s meltdown.

The Congressional response comes amid a growing view that the Southwest holiday meltdown could spur additional regulation on the airline industry.

U.S. hotel construction spending rose 30 percent year-over-year in November, suggesting a sustained rebound is in place based on developers’ confidence.

In November, private U.S. non-residential lodging construction rose to $19.8 billion, adjusted for seasonality but not price changes, according to the U.S. Census bureau’s release of overall monthly construction pending.

The numbers could represent a rebound in hotel construction after supply-chain constraints and labor woes plagued projects in 2021.

But it was unclear if the spending may be a lagging indicator when it comes to the impact of rising interest rates on future hotel deals. Demand to close deals may have dropped for some of future projects that are having trouble getting financing as inflation fears disrupt financial markets. The projects underway may have been approved before the interest rate hikes.