Travel News

Have a nice stay, Malaysian style! This true story is from Ian Thomson, Britannia Airways cabin services manager at Manchester via the airline's house magazine Britannia Briefing. Upon landing at Kula Lumpur the following came over the broadcast system. "Ladies and gentlemen. It is illegal to bring drugs into, or be caught with drugs whilst in Malaysia. If you are found with them in your possession it will result in the death sentence. Have a nice stay in Malaysia".

Sir Richard Branson once again attempted to break another world record, this time the fastest crossing of the English Channel by an amphibious vehicle. Although this is a serious record attempt, the multimillionaire businessman always manages to bring a humorous side to the business. However, despite his success in the aviation industry, many business executives should take notice of a statement Sir Richard made some years ago. When questioned about the fastest way to make a million pounds he said... "Start with a billion pound and then build an airline!" In today's competitive market many of the executives behind new airline startups should perhaps take note!

Get set for more high-flying adventures when A&E Network premieres the second season of its hit real-life show AIRLINE. New episodes of the series, which showcase the thrills and spills behind-the-scenes of the nation's fourth largest airline, Southwest, will air every Monday on A&E at 10:00 pm ET/PT and 10:30 pm ET/PT beginning July 5, 2004.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce, 3.4 million international visitors traveled to the U.S. in April, representing a 28 percent increase over April 2003. This statistic shoes continued positive growth from the first quarter of 2004, which demonstrated a 12 percent increase over the same period in 2003. For April, Canadian visitation increased by 25 percent; Mexico, by 16 percent. Overseas arrivals increased 33 percent, and Asian visitation showed a 68 percent increase. U.K. visitation increased 19 percent, solidifying that country's position as the top overseas market. German visitation increased 20 percent.

Canada enjoyed a huge year-over-year increase in April 2004 over April 2003, posting a 21.9 percent hike, according to the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC). The April 2004 volume reached 1,133,000 trips. Overnight travel from the U.S. to Canada in April rose by 22.7 percent, representing 897,000 trips. The CTC attributes this increase to the number of U.S. travelers arriving both by car (20.8 percent) and other modes of transportation (26.1 percent). Despite the positive news, the CTC cautioned that the result is only the second positive monthly result recorded this year, and "cannot be considered a trend at this time."

Flight delays rise in April. The nation's largest airlines saw on-time arrival rates fall to 83 percent from 86.9 percent last April, according to the DOT monthly Air Travel Consumer Report. The best arrival rate, for the sixth month in a row, was by Hawaiian Airlines at 94.9 percent, followed by ATA at 87.6 percent and SkyWest at 87.1 percent. The worst performance was seen by America West at 76.9 percent. Complaints also rose to 556, a 16.8 percent increase. And airlines are still receiving a high number of complaints by passengers about the treatment of the disabled. There were 42 in April. The lowest rates of canceled flights were seen by JetBlue, which had a zero percent rate, followed by Continental at 0.2 percent and AirTran at 0.2 percent. The highest rates for canceled flights were from American Eagle, 1.9 percent.

The U.S. House has passed legislation that would extend by one year the October deadline for Visa Waiver Program countries to include biometric identifiers on passports. The bill was introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee; a similar bill is now pending in the Senate. The Travel Industry Association of America (TIA), which has been working vigilantly for the delay, applauded the House's action, saying certain tourism trading partners are not ready to produce the passports. TIA President and CEO William Norman said on Monday, "Today's House vote shows that Chairman Sensenbrenner and the Administration are sensitive to travel industry concerns. We appreciate their actions." The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) also lauded the deadline. NBTA successfully lobbied that keeping in place the original October 2004 deadline requirement would hurt thousands of American businesses that depend on international travel and would be harmful to the American travel and tourism industry. The Association is now poised to tackle a similar measure before the Senate.

Travelers are spending more on summer vacations than they did over the winter, according to the new ASTA/Fodor's Summer Hot Spots Survey. Typical summer destinations, such as Orlando, Las Vegas, New York City, San Francisco and Honolulu, are seeing travelers returning, they said. "We've seen nothing but positive signs that travel is way up for this summer," said Tim Jarrell, publisher of Fodor's Travel Guides. Florida accounts for 29.2 percent of all responses. Internationally, London was the top destination followed by Rome, Cancun and Paris. He said travel is back to levels seen before summer 2001. The survey of travel agents found that 63.9 percent are finding that average spending is higher.