AIR

United Snack Boxes Offer More Choice for Travelers
March 22, 2005--  United's new onboard snack box collection has proven so popular on Ted flights that the company is expanding them to other United flights beginning April 3, 2005.  More...

Ted^sm Dishes out Low Fares for Chicago Midway
March 21, 2005-- Customers may love Chicago deep dish pizza, but they don't need deep pockets to fly Ted^sm, United Airlines' low-fare service, between Chicago Midway and Denver and Washington Dulles.  More...

United Airlines Takes Aim at Rival Carrier
March 17, 2005-- United Airlines jabs rival American Airlines over its decision to add more seats to its planes, thus cutting legroom, in a campaign from Publicis Groupe's Fallon that breaks next week.  More...

United’s Summer Service Brings Customers Out Into the Sun
March 17, 2005-- Beginning June 7, 2005, United, Ted and United Express will offer customers new service and additional summer frequencies from its hubs to warm weather destinations throughout Mexico, the Caribbean, the Hawaiian Islands and the mainland.*  More...

US Airways Expands St. Louis Schedule For College Basketball Finals
March 18, 2005 -- US Airways will expand its St. Louis flight schedule March 31, and April 1, 4, and 5, 2005, to accommodate thousands of basketball fans expected to attend the 2005 NCAA® championship games. More...

US Airways Expands European and West Coast Flying for Summer 2005
March 18, 2005-- US Airways will begin new nonstop daily seasonal flights to Barcelona and Venice and resume seasonal flights to Glasgow, Dublin and Shannon in May 2005, with its new summer schedule.  More...

US Airways Expands St. Louis Schedule for College Baketball Finals
March 18, 2005-- US Airways will expand its St. Louis flight schedule March 31, and April 1, 4, and 5, 2005, to accommodate thousands of basketball fans expected to attend the 2005 NCAA® championship games.  More...

Continental Airlines Announces Launch Date for Start of Service to China
March 18, 2005-- Continental Airlines has received final approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to begin service to Beijing, China from Newark Liberty International Airport.

Daily nonstop service will begin June 15 and will be operated by a 283-seat Boeing 777-200ER. More...

America West Announces New Service Between Las Vegas and Monterey, Calif.
Route Is the First Nonstop Service Between Las Vegas and Monterey
March 21, 2005 -- America West Airlines announces new service between its Las Vegas hub and Monterey, Calif., which will begin on June 17, 2005. With this new service, the airline will operate 154 daily departures and serve 62 nonstop destinations from Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, more than any other carrier. More...

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American Airlines Changes International Free Baggage Weight Allowance
Effective March 1, 2005, the domestic free checked baggage weight allowance of 50lbs was expanded to all American Airlines destinations, including Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Mexico, Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. All bags weighing between 51lbs and 70lbs are subject to a $25 USD overweight fee. The change in policy does not apply to customers ticketed prior to March 1, 2005.

Bags checked to/from Japan will initially be exempt from the new maximum bag weight of 50lbs/23kgs pending approval from the Japanese government. The maximum free bag weight for checked bags to/from Japan will continue to be 70lbs/32kgs until further notice.

For travel within the 50 United States and between the 50 United States and Canada, checked baggage weighing over 50 lbs but not more than 70 lbs will be charged at the rate of $25 per piece.

For travel within the 50 United States and between the 50 United States and Canada, checked baggage weighing over 70lbs/32kgs but not more than 100 lbs will be charged at the rate of $50 per piece.

For tickets issued on/after March 1, 2005, for travel to all American Airlines destinations, (including international) checked baggage weighing over 50 lbs but not more than 70 lbs will be charged at the rate of $25 per piece. Any such bags will also be identified with a special tag to alert handlers.

Current excess fees (which vary by country) will continue to apply for international bags weighing over 70 lbs. Bags over 70 lbs are not accepted to Europe and Asia. More...

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AmericanConnection to Add Twice Daily Flights From St. Louis to Little Rock 
Starting May 1,  AmericanConnection will add two new daily round-trip flights between Lambert St. Louis International Airport and Little Rock National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

"We are very pleased to be adding these new flights, which will be operated by AmericanConnection carrier Trans States Airlines, Inc.," said Loretta Kuss, American's Regional Manager-Passenger Sales for St. Louis.

"The new flights will give St. Louis passengers the opportunity to leave St. Louis and attend a meeting in Little Rock before returning home the same day.  Conversely, Little Rock passengers will have the opportunity to leave Little Rock and make easy connections through our St. Louis hub to various cities in the Midwest and East, including Washington, D.C.; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Columbus, Ohio."  More...

American Airlines First Class Seat Additions On Track Modifications to be Finished on Two-Thirds of Targeted Fleets by April's End
American Airlines is on track to complete two-thirds of its planned MD80 fleet modifications by the end of April, including increasing the number of First Class seats from 14 to 16. The rest of the targeted fleet will be converted by early June, in time for the busy summer season.  The modifications will give American at least 16 First Class seats on its narrowbody aircraft, which is 78 percent of its entire fleet of aircraft.  American's narrowbody Boeing 757 fleet of 143 aircraft has 22 First Class seats.  More...

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American Airlines to Begin Non-Stop Service Between Miami and Bermuda
American's non-stop flight from Miami to Bermuda begins Wednesday, March 2, and service from Bermuda to Miami will start on Thursday, March 3.  Initially, there will be two weekly flights in each direction on Boeing 737 aircraft. Starting June 10, 2005, there will be five weekly flights in each direction.  More...

Delta to Begin New Non-stop Atlanta-Moscow Service
March 23, 2005-- Customers will now have more access to Russia thanks to Delta Air Lines’ new, non-stop service from Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport to Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport starting June 1.  Delta is the only U.S. carrier that operates service to Russia, where it has operated since 1991, and currently flies nonstop to Moscow daily from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). More...

AirTran Airways Named Best Low-Fare Airline By Entrepreneur Magazine
March 23, 2005-- AirTran Airways, a subsidiary of AirTran Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: AAI), in the April 2005 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, is named as the Best Low-Fare Airline.  This is the
fifth time that AirTran Airways has received this distinction from the prestigious business publication.  More...

Swiss agrees to takeover by Lufthansa
March 23, 2005--Lufthansa will pay as much as $392 million to take over and integrate Swiss into the Lufthansa Group under a deal signed by both airlines March 22.

The acquisition is scheduled to occur in phases, with a complete takeover not expected until 2006 or 2007. But, pending European Commission clearance, Lufthansa would own as much as 49% of Swiss by the third quarter of this year and would begin integrating the two airlines’ schedules this winter.

Under the terms of the deal, Swiss would maintain a separate brand identity, its long-haul fleet and its Switzerland base, including an intercontinental hub in Zurich "to be developed on an equitable basis with the Lufthansa hubs in Frankfurt and Munich."

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CAR/RAIL

Amtrak Announces One More Reason to Travel by Train This Spring
March 9, 2005-- Along with low fares, popular destinations and the enjoyment of rail travel, Amtrak is highlighting a special added extra as it kicks off its spring advertising campaign: $25 savings on lodging booked through hotels.com.  More...

Avis Continues Local Market Expansion with Thirty-Five New Western Locations
Mar 22, 2005-- Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. today announced the opening of thirty-five new car rental facilities as part of its commitment to expand into local markets nationwide. Avis has opened more than sixty-five local rental facilities throughout the United States since July 2004, for a total of more than ninety locations over the past year. Avis plans to open an additional 100 locations each year for the next three years.  More...

Avis Continues Local Market Expansion With Twelve New Locations in the Midwest
March 22, 2005-- Avis Rent A Car System, Inc. today announced the opening of twelve new car rental facilities as part of its commitment to expand into local markets nationwide. Avis has opened more than sixty-five local rental facilities throughout the United States since July 2004, for a total of more than ninety locations over the past year. Avis plans to open an additional 100 locations each year for the next three years.  More...

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HOTELS

Marriott puts new bedding plans in motion
March 22, 2005-- Ever think about what it takes to make a bed? Steve Samson has. In fact, that’s pretty much all he’s thought about for the past five years. He has spent more time at Bed, Bath and Beyond than the most fanatical home decorator, turning Samson into something of a professor of pillows and a doctor of duvets.

He also probably knows more about the flat sheets used to cover mattresses than anyone at Marriott International, where Samson is Marriott’s director of room operations.

In designing a new approach to beds and bedding, getting the bottom sheet to stay put was “one of our biggest issues,” Samson said.

Marriott’s consumer research shows that “people are sick and tired of waking up in the middle of the night to find they are sleeping on the bare mattress because the flat sheet doesn’t stay on,” he said.

That was just one of the dozens of challenges Samson and his team faced in creating the new bedding that rests at the center of the $190 million initiative launched last month by the chain.

Another was designing a product that satisfied varied constituencies: the guests, the hotel owners and the housekeeping staff who makes the beds each day.

At the same time, there was the competition. And anyone paying attention has noticed that there is an all-out bedding war taking place within the hotel industry.

The core product

After Westin Hotels rolled out its Heavenly Bed five years ago, practically every hotel chain has followed with its own variation on the theme.

It’s as if the entire hotel industry awakened to the realization that its core product is a good night’s sleep.

Now, as one of the last major chains to launch a major bedding initiative, Marriott has had the benefit of learning from its competitors.

“If you look at what our competitors are doing, they are using a lot of synthetic [material] on top,” Samson said. “They may use a duvet cover. I know the Heavenly Bed has a polyester cover with a synthetic fill inside of it. They have a down blanket that is triple-sheeted, but again you have to look at the layers and try to make the bed easier to make. I’m in operations, so I have to satisfy all of my constituents.”

Samson believes he has.

“I looked at hundreds of different sheets, looking at what was the right price point. But luxury and comfort were really the prevailing concepts we were looking at,” he said.

To tuck or not to tuck?

“I also wanted to make a bed that would not only be easy for the customer to get in and out of but better for our housekeepers to make.

That’s why I launched the ‘no-tuck’ concept where every sheet is appropriately sized to drape over the bed and not have to be tucked into the sides of the bed.”

The new bedding also includes a removable duvet cover, which is laundered after every stay.

Marriott did plenty of consumer testing of the bedding.

“All of these products were tested in the hotels. We did sleep tests where customers actually slept in the beds, then they filled out an evaluation,” Samson said. “We set them up in rooms with double beds. We looked for multiple-night stays where they could sleep in one bed one night and evaluate it, and then sleep in the other one and evaluate it.”

With the testing done and the constituents satisfied, the bedding is now ready.

“We expect to roll them out en masse in May or June,” Samson said.

Hotels in major markets, particularly those that are newly built or renovated, will be among the first to receive the new bedding.

A million pillows

By the end of the year, Marriott plans to have upgraded some 628,000 beds across all of its eight hotel brands. Chairman and CEO J.W. Marriott calls it an “unprecedented” move.

The project takes massive amounts of coordination between Marriott’s hotels and the suppliers producing the bedding.

Marriott is taking bedding orders from hotel franchisees, which have to be prioritized so that newbuilds and renovated properties move to the top of the list.

The devil, as always, is in the details.

The schedule calls for three sets of sheets per room (one in the laundry, one on the bed and one in transit, Samson explained) to be shipped first, followed by pillowcases, then other elements such as the duvet covers, all of which are typically laundered at the hotel before they are used.

Then there are the new pillows, which come five in a box. A 300-room hotel will need about 1,500 pillows.

A company with 2,600 hotels needs, well, a lot.  

And taking a cue from Westin and other chains, Marriott intends to sell its bedding products to consumers.

The upgraded bedding is just one aspect of a wide-ranging Marriott initiative referred to internally as the “New Look and Feel of Marriott”.

But with the new bedding on its way to Marriott hotels, Samson’s work is done.

In fact, he could use a good nap. “I think I’ve aged at least 20 years,” he joked.

Hotel Availability To Continue To Tighten
March 21, 2005--At a time when many buyers already are having trouble finding the hotel room coverage in key cities midweek, the availability outlook is expected to tighten further through the remainder of 2005 and into 2006, according to a forecast released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Speaking at Corporate Travel World in New York, Bjorn Hanson, head of PwC's hospitality and leisure practice, attributed the situation to increasing occupancy rates, which have allowed hotels to raise daily rates significantly.  More...

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OTHER INDUSTRY RELATED NEWS

FAA Proposes Extending O'Hare Flight Restrictions By Three Years
March 23, 2005-- The Federal Aviation Administration yesterday extended through October a flight reduction program at Chicago O'Hare International Airport and also proposed a new federal rule that would seek to ease congestion through 2008. One of the world's busier airports and a hub for both American and United airlines, O'Hare has been plagued by excessive flight delays which often spread across much of the domestic network.  More...

US airline ticket taxes: High . . . but not that high
March 24, 2005 -- The tax burden on US airlines and passengers continues to rise, but not to the level regularly cited by airlines themselves as well as industry trade groups, according to the Ticket Tax Project, a joint effort of MIT's Global Airline Industry Program and Daniel Webster College. More...

Cendant Survey: Travelers Seek Advanced Booking Tech
March 21, 2005--American business travelers value integrated, online travel services, and are looking for increasingly sophisticated tools that go well beyond simple self-booking, according to a Harris Interactive survey released today by Cendant-owned agencies Orbitz for Business and Travelport.  More... 

Air Fare Hike Appears To Be Sticking -- For Now
March 23, 2005-- The third fare increase by U.S. airlines in a month appeared to be sticking Wednesday. That was after the last major holdout, United Airlines, fell in line by raising many domestic fares by $10 per round trip. Airlines say they must increase prices to cover the rising cost of jet fuel.  More...

Mineta says LCCs are reshaping airline industry
March 18, 2005-- FAA continues to be "cautiously optimistic" in its aviation forecast released yesterday, noting that the number of passengers carried by US airlines rose to 688 million in 2004 from 642 million in 2003.The agency is projecting that the demand for capacity will make "a complete return by the end of the year." By 2015, some 1 billion passengers will take to the skies in the US, it predicted.  More...

Washington Dulles International Adds New South African Service
March 17, 2005 -- The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has announced that South African Airways will start new service to South Africa beginning on July 2nd of this year. More...

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