Travel Update-Weekly Edition

August 9th, 2007

Airline News

Aer Lingus - Aer Lingus is to re-establish a key UK trunk route between Belfast and Heathrow by setting up a base in Northern Ireland. The Irish airline is to run 12 flights a week between Belfast International Airport and the London hub from January 14 in a codeshare with British Airways. Aer Lingus is transferring take off and landing slots at Heathrow from a route to Shannon to allow for the launch of Belfast flights. Other destinations to be served include Amsterdam with 14 flights a week from December 10. Barcelona will have five flights a week and Geneva two a week from the same date. Rome, Budapest, Malaga and Faro will be added to the network on February 25. Belfast is the carrier's first base outside the Republic of Ireland and was chosen after an "extensive evaluation of opportunities throughout Europe".

Air Jamaica - Air Jamaica is to implement a shuttle service between Kingston and Montego Bay, using a small 125-seater Airbus A319 craft, in a reorganization of its intra-island movement of travelers. The new service will fly five to six round trips per day between the cities.

All Nippon Airways - Japan's All Nippon Airways has announced a new service between Tokyo and Mumbai catering exclusively to well-heeled business travelers. A Boeing-737 with 36 business class seats will fly six times a week to and from Tokyo Narita airport and Mumbai from September 1 - with no room for economy class passengers in the rear. ANA does not currently offer any flights to India. Passengers get a standard business-class seat with a 61-inch pitch, as well as a portable media player with HDD for music, movies and videos to keep them entertained during the nine hour-plus flight. From October 28 until next March 29 the service will make a stop in the southwestern city of Nagasaki on the outbound flight to Mumbai.

bmi - bmi regional services between Amsterdam and Aberdeen will be suspended on Sept. 2. Reaccommodation procedures and policies have been established. Travel and Transport will be contacting any travelers affected by this for rescheduling.

EasyJet - EasyJet is to follow other budget airlines by imposing a charge for checking in all bags. The airline will charge Ł2 for luggage checked in online in advance or Ł5 at the airport. This replaces a previous policy where the first hold bag was free but subsequent bags were charged at Ł5 per item. The new policy came into force on Friday for bookings taken for travel after October 1. The Ł2 per bag charge will be for up to the maximum total hold baggage weight per passenger of 20kg, a level which is unchanged. The new hold baggage arrangement allows passengers to carry-on a bag policy up to 55cm x 40cm x 20cm with no weight restriction.

Frontier Airlines - Beginning Dec. 15, Frontier Airlines will add nonstop service between San Diego and Mazatlan, Mexico. The carrier will fly one round-trip flight every Saturday.

Frontier Airlines has announced two new routes to Mexico, saying it will fly to Puerto Vallarta from both Sacramento and San Jose, CA. As for these new routes from Sacramento and San Jose, Frontier plans to fly those routes with a combination of Airbus A319 and 76-seat Embraer E170 jets.

Lufthansa Airlines - Lufthansa is in talks with T-Mobile to offer broadband Internet access on its cross-Atlantic routes. Lufthansa will test the connectivity on transatlantic flights in 2008. The connection will allow for surfing the Internet and sending and checking e-mail via laptop or PDA. In keeping with the requirements set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration, the carrier would not allow for cell phone usage onboard.

Northwest Airlines - Northwest is suspending its Detroit to Brussels service in an effort to increase its pilot reserve hours. Northwest apologizes for any inconvenience this change in service has caused its customers. Customers traveling between Detroit and Brussels will continue to be able to reach their destination by connecting through the NWA/KLM hub at Amsterdam. Northwest does not foresee a need to cancel additional international routes operated with its 757 aircraft, including its nonstop Hartford-Amsterdam and Detroit-Dusseldorf service. KLM-operated routes and Northwest routes operated with wide body aircraft, including the A330 and 747-400 are not impacted by this action Northwest/KLM Reservations are proactively contacting and rebooking customers impacted by this scheduling change. Travelers affected by this route cancellation will be contacted by Travel and Transport or Northwest Airlines for reaccommodation.

United Airlines - United will offer nonstop, Saturday-only service between Chicago and Cozumel, Mexico for the 2007/08 winter season. This new service will be operated with TED A320 aircraft from Dec. 15, 2007 through April 19, 2008.

Airport/Destination News

Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport - Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport is turning to large buses to help alleviate the problem of arriving planes having to wait for an open gate. It is spending $2.5 million to buy four buses that will be used to transport arriving passengers stuck in planes waiting for an available gate. With the new plan, airlines can choose to have waiting planes taxi to another part of the airport where passengers can leave the plane by stairs. A bus will shuttle them to the terminal. Local officials approved the project in July, and the buses will start roaming the tarmac later this month.

Chicago Airports - Chicago O'Hare and Midway airports plan to install 11 videophones for the deaf or hard of hearing. Through a live sign-language translator, users can request airport services and receive tourist information. They can also call friends and relatives who have videophones. The first kiosk will be installed later this month at O'Hare in Terminal 3 near gate K-1. Eight more kiosks will be installed at O'Hare in the upper and lower levels of the terminals and at the shuttle center. Midway will have two kiosks.

Los Angeles, CA. - For as little as $1, Los Angeles travelers can now go to San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Megabus.com, an intercity express bus company, began daily service to and from Los Angeles earlier this month and passengers can begin booking travel today via the internet. $1 tickets are always available for a limited number of seats on every megabus.com route, so passengers are encouraged to book early. After all $1 tickets have sold, customers will pay competitive fares. Booking for megabus.com travel is done solely via the Internet at www.megabus.com. The Web site provides information such as arrival and departure times.

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport - Passengers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International can obtain real-time airport parking availability information by logging onto www.mspairport.com/msp/parking/realtime.aspx. They can also send a text message to 444555 to schedule a return message about parking. They can also call 877-FLY-PARK.

Miscellaneous

State Dept Travel Warnings and Public announcements - For the full announcements or further detail on Travel Warnings and Public Announcements, please see http://travel.state.gov/travel

Bangladesh - On August 3, the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka issued the following Warden Message: "Demolition activity has started on the Rangs Bhaban building near Farmgate in Dhaka. Due to safety concerns, The U.S. Embassy recommends that American citizens avoid the area. The Embassy further recommends that if going to the Bashundhara Mall, or transiting through the Farmgate area, American citizens use Tejgaon Sonargaon Road instead of Mohakhali Farmgate Road. "U.S. Embassy reminds that English language news is available on the following channels at the following times: ATN - 18:00 Banglavision - 2105 BTV - 2200, BTV - 2330 (also broadcast by all local Satellite stations: ATN, Channel I, NTV, RTV, Banglavision Channel 1, Boishaki)."

India - On August 3, the U.S. Consulate General in Mumbai issued the following Warden Message: "Last week the Government of India confirmed an outbreak of H1N5 virus, commonly referred to as Avian Influenza, on a small farm north of Imphal in the state of Manipur which is in the northeast part of the country. The government has started culling poultry in that area. There are no reported cases of human illness. This is the fourth outbreak reported in India. The first three occurred in early 2006."

Sudan- On August 1, the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum issued the following Warden Message: "Armed groups were present on August 1 on the outskirts of El Fasher town and have publicly announced plans for increased activity there, targeting persons associated with the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS.) The armed groups may engage in attacks, hostage-taking, kidnappings, or assassinations, and they may not distinguish between official and civilian targets. "U.S. citizens should defer travel to El Fasher and its environs. The U.S. Embassy suggests that American citizens maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. Americans should regularly evaluate their personal security practices, exercise caution near likely targets, and take prudent steps to ensure personal safety."

New legislation will require visitors to the United States to register their travel plans 48 hours before departing for the U.S. The agreement -- signed by the United States and the European Union -- will allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue using Passenger Name Record (PNR) data as a screening tool at U.S. borders. What the legislation changes is how the PNR data is collected. Airlines will now be required to send passenger data directly to the DHS. Under the new agreement, the Department of Homeland Security will collect 19 types of PNR data, which will include passenger's contact, frequent flyer, billing and baggage information. The Department of Homeland Security says it will filter out sensitive information like political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership and the sex life of an individual -- except in exceptional cases. Information will be maintained for seven years in an active file and eight years thereafter in a dormant file with limited access. U.S. Homeland Secretary Michael Chernoff calls the PNR data "a proven resource for connecting the dots associated with terrorist activity and serious transnational crime". He added that the PNR data is "roughly the same" information that a traveler would provide to an airline or travel agent when purchasing a ticket. Visitors from 22 western European countries will be affected by the new rule, which is expected to be introduced next year.

Fliers traveling with large video game consoles and DVD players will now have to remove those items from the carry-on luggage for separate ex-ray screening. The change apparently was instituted by Transportation Security Administration on Saturday with very little fanfare. TSA spokesman Norm Brewer told USA TODAY on Sunday that he had not heard of any problems resulting from the new rule, which affects Playstations, X-boxes and Nintendo consoles as well as DVD players. Smaller electronic items -– such as cellphones and iPods –- do not have to be removed for separate screening.

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Previous Updates

August 2, 2007
July 26, 2007
July 20, 2007
July 12, 2007
May 31, 2007
May 17, 2007
May 10, 2007
May 3, 2007
April 27, 2007
April 26, 2007
April 19, 2007
April 12, 2007
April 9, 2007

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