Headline News

Airguide Online, April 7, 2004

The U.S. Department of State has issued a worldwide caution to remind Americans to be vigilant about their personal safety when traveling abroad. "We are seeing indications that Al-Qaida continues to prepare to strike U.S. interests abroad," it said. Travelers may obtain up-to- date information on security conditions by calling 888-407-4747 in the U.S., or 317-472-2328 outside the U.S. and Canada. Separately, State has warned Americans not to travel to Indonesia. Anyone already there is strongly urged to avoid traveling to Aceh. Legislative elections will be held on April 5 2004, and there could be election-related demonstrations and violence.

Australian airlines outperformed operators in the US and Europe in ontime performance in Jan., according to the first official figures on domestic flight punctuality released by the government. The Bureau of Transport and Regional Services statistics showed that 87.1% of departures and 86.7% of arrivals operated by the major carriers were achieved within 15 min. of scheduled times. Western Australia Regional airline Skywest was the leading performer with 95% of its flights for the month landing and taking off ontime. It finished ahead of Qantas with 87.3% of departures and 89.5% of arrivals conducted ontime, compared to Virgin Blue with 84.4% and 83.8% of departures and arrivals ontime.

AirTran Airways launched a two-day fare sale April 6 for flights to or from Atlanta and Philadelphia. The reduced fares are available for purchase through April 7 and are good for travel through June 16 2004. They require a 14-day advance purchase. Examples of some of the one-way fares are Philadelphia to Boston for $34, to Denver for $119 and to Los Angeles for $99. From Atlanta, the fares range from $69 to Miami and $109 to Las Vegas. Fares are not valid on Fridays and Sundays. Travel is not permitted on May 31 (Memorial Day).

Aloha Airlines has named its First Class Navigator Class and will now refer to coach as Voyager Class. Glenn Zander, president and CEO, said that as other airlines continue to cut back on food and other amenities, "branding our inflight service as Navigator Class and Voyager Class differentiates what we do&emdash;and how well we do it." The names reflect Polynesian voyaging canoes. When it takes delivery of new 737-700s, it will name them after stars that guided the navigators to and from Hawaii. Aloha uses all-leather seats in both classes, offers a complimentary Mai Tai and macadamia nuts, and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.

American Eagle will start new seasonal service to Nassau, Bahamas, from Dallas-Fort Worth. The carriers will operate one flight daily with a 70 seater CRJ-700 regional jet from June 10 to Sept. 7 and then starting up again on Dec. 15 2004.

British Airways will launch wireless Internet connections in 80 of its main lounges around the world. BA said it anticipates having the technology in the lounges by the end of May 2004.

Icelandair says it has a goal of distributing half of all of its tickets electronically by the end of this year.

St. Louis-based INTRAV is offering a series of four new private-jet tours that provide shorter, regionally focused journeys to North America, South America and Western Europe. The four itineraries visit:

* A) Southern California, the Grand Canyon, the Colorado Rockies and New Orleans;

* B) Vancouver, Santa Barbara, Portland and San Francisco;

* C) the countryside in England, Ireland and France and

* D) Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica.

For these nine and ten day Luxury Getaways, INTRAV has partnered exclusively with Four Seasons Hotels and Ritz-Carlton. With an intimate group size, each journey consists of at least two nights in three different cities, plus a day-trip to another destination along the way. Deluxe accommodations, sightseeing excursions and select meals are included, as well as special events and all flights aboard the privately chartered jet. An INTRAV travel director will accompany each departure to handle all the details of baggage transfers, tips, etc., and serving as passengers' private concierge. The tours are priced from 13,600 to $22,800 per person double.

JetBlue has been ranked number one for 2003 in the annual Airline Quality Rating released by researchers at Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The rating looks at on-time performance, passenger complaints, baggage handling and denied boards, and applies a formula to weigh these factors. This is the first year JetBlue, ATA, AirTran and Atlantic Southeast Airlines were included. The report said the performance measures show an increasing gap between the performance of the legacy and the low-cost carriers. The 14 airlines were ranked as follows: JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, America West, US Airways, Northwest, Continental, AirTran, United, ATA, American, Delta, American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast. US Airways was the top carrier in 2002. Overall, the airlines performed slightly better last year due to a large drop in customer complaints. Northwest saw the best improvement, going from ninth to sixth.