EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT 05/16/05 Welcome to EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT for the week of May 16, the weekly e-mail of essential business travel news! To sign up for the e-Alert, click here. US Airways, America West merger may be near All eyes still on United this week Northwest will debut Boeing's new Dreamliner in North America Passenger interest group rates airline lounges, cuisine Airport evacuation incidents said to be rising House panel nixes security fee increase Southwest terminal opens at Baltimore/Washington International LAX gets explosives detector booth for passenger screening AIRLINES US Airways, America West merger may be near Various Wall Street analysts and airline consultants said in press reports last week that bankrupt US Airways and American West Airlines might be announcing a planned merger as soon as this week. The two have been in discussions for several weeks, as US Airways apparently sees a corporate marriage as its best hope for staying in the air. Another report said US Airways pilots have scheduled a meeting for this week to discuss the implications of a merger. Traditionally, one of the biggest stumbling blocks in airline mergers is how to combine the seniority lists of unionized employees -- especially pilots. This could be a sore spot since US Airways, as the older of the two companies, has the most senior pilots; but America West would presumably be the acquirer, and may seek to protect the status of its own pilots. Some analysts also questioned whether Southwest Airlines, a major competitor of both US Airways and America West, might try to interfere with a merger plan by bidding on assets of US Airways - much as it did several months ago when it bought gates and other assets at Chicago Midway from bankrupt ATA -- which had also been an acquisition target of America West. All eyes still on United this week Air travelers are keeping a close eye on United Airlines' bankruptcy proceeding, where court decisions could determine whether some United unions go on strike. Last week, unions lost a major battle when the bankruptcy court approved United's request to terminate its pension plans, which will be taken over by the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. This week, the court could rule on United's request to impose unilateral changes in wages and work rules for unions that haven't yet agreed to new contracts -- specifically, the mechanics and ground workers. Those employees have threatened to strike if their current contracts are voided; management and labor representatives were said to be working feverishly to come up with new contract terms before the issue comes up before the court. United management maintains that any employee walkout would be illegal, and it has threatened to fire striking workers. The biggest threat to United, however, is what would happen to its future passenger bookings - and revenues -- if a walkout occurs. Meanwhile, the court's ruling that United no longer has to pay into employee pension funds has the remaining legacy carriers (except US Airways, which also ended pensions) fretting. The decision means that United now has a huge cost advantage over them. Major airlines have been lobbying Congress for a change in the law that would let them spread out their pension fund contributions over a longer span of time (most of them are already way behind in those payments), but Congress has reportedly been cool to the idea of giving the airline industry even more special treatment than it already has. Northwest will debut Boeing's new Dreamliner in North America Northwest Airlines said last week it will be the North American launch customer for Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner. Continental has also ordered some 787s, but Northwest said it will receive its planes first, starting in August 2008. Northwest placed an order for 18 of the fuel-efficient, long-range aircraft, and said it will configure them with 36 business class and 185 economy seats. The airline didn't announce any specific deployment plans for the planes, but said it would use them mostly on international routes. Passenger interest group rates airline lounges, cuisine SkyTrax (www.airlinequality.com), the British-based organization that tracks airline passenger interests, has issued its annual ratings for international carriers' first and business class lounges, and for their on-board food service. Cathay Pacific took the top spot for both first class and business class lounge facilities. Ranking second for its first class lounges was Thai Airways, followed by South African, Asiana, Malaysia and Lufthansa. The second-place ranking for business class lounges went to Virgin Atlantic, followed by Gulf Air, Asiana, Swiss and Singapore. In creating the rankings, "We are not interested in which airline has the largest lounges, or necessarily the most technologically advanced services - but the combined quality of product and service," a spokesman said. As for cuisine, the organization's business class rankings put Gulf Air on top, followed by Continental, bmi (British Midland), Austrian, Qatar Airways and South African. For first class food, Gulf Air was again in first place, trailed by Cathay Pacific, Swiss, Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France. In economy class, Thai Airways was judged to have the best food, followed by Austrian, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Malaysia, Qantas and Gulf Air. FAA/SECURITY Airport evacuation incidents said to be rising An analysis of federal statistics by USA Today last week found that the number of U.S. airport evacuations for security purposes totaled 276 in 2004, up from 118 the previous year. And another 59 evacuations of terminals, concourses or other areas were ordered in the first 10 weeks of 2005, the report said, indicating that the total for this year could be even higher than 2004. The newspaper said that the evacuations - which disrupt flight schedules and anger passengers, since everyone who has already gone through security must be re-screened - are usually the result of something going wrong at a carry-on bag checkpoint; e.g., a passenger with a questionable item passed through and wasn't caught in time for re-screening, or a metal detector was found to be unplugged. The newspaper said that 190 airports have evacuated passengers at least once; the airport with the highest rate of evacuations was Los Angeles International, with 64. House panel nixes security fee increase The House Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security has sent to the full House a funding bill that does not include the increase in passenger fees sought by the Bush Administration. The committee allots $5.7 billion for transportation security, mainly for air travel, but legislators did not include the White House's proposal to boost the fee imposed on airline passengers. Instead of the current $5 per segment for security costs, the administration sought to raise it to $8. AIRPORTS Southwest terminal opens at Baltimore/Washington International The new Terminal A/B at Baltimore/Washington International Airport will open for public use this week. The $264 million facility, to be used by Southwest Airlines, brings together 11 new aircraft gates with the 15 existing Concourse B gates, giving Southwest more room to expand at BWI, where it is the largest operator with 47 percent of the market and 164 daily flights. Southwest is vacating its eight gates in BWI's Concourse C. The terminal also has a state-of-the-art in-line baggage screening system to facilitate checked baggage scanning, and a number of new food and retail concessions managed by BAA Maryland. In other BWI news, Maryland's governor last week signed a bill that will rename the facility. As of October 1, it will be called Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. LAX gets explosives detector booth for passenger screening Los Angeles International is the latest airport to begin using new security technology. Last week, the Southwest Airlines security checkpoint in Terminal 1 installed a GE EntryScan 3 "walk-through explosives detector." A passenger stands inside the device for a few seconds and it blows puffs of air on him; then it analyzes the air sample for traces of explosive materials. The Transportation Security Administration is already using the same machines at airports in Boston, Miami, San Francisco, Phoenix, Providence, Rochester, San Diego, Tampa, and Gulfport, Miss. AIR ROUTES CHICAGO O'HARE (ORD). United has increased frequencies on its Chicago-Hong Kong non-stop route from seven flights a week to 10, with additional westbound departures on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. DENVER (DEN). On May 22, Frontier JetExpress/Horizon Air will begin twice-daily regional jet service between Denver and Tulsa. MEMPHIS (MEM). Northwest Airlink/Pinnacle Airlines set a May 16 start for new service between Memphis and Lincoln, Neb., with two daily regional jet roundtrips. NEW YORK KENNEDY (JFK). JetBlue adds a new market on May 17, when it launches the only non-stop service between New York and Portland, Ore., with one daily roundtrip; the eastbound flight is a redeye. NEWARK (EWR). Why go through London? Travelers bound for southwestern England have a new option as of May 19, when Continental launches daily non-stop flights between Newark and Bristol, using a two-class 757. SAN FRANCISCO (SFO). Icelandair adds San Francisco to its route map on May 18. The airline will offer two flights a week in May and September, and four a week from June through August, from SFO to Reykjavik, with connections to several European cities. Icelandair will use a two-class 767 on the route. WASHINGTON DULLES (IAD). Air France has added a third daily flight to its Washington-Paris CDG schedule, using a three-class A330-200. THIS WEEK'S DEALS AND SPECIALS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS May 24 is the purchase deadline for a Continental Airlines (www.continental.com; 800-525-0280) sale on tickets to Beijing. The airline will launch new non-stop daily service June 15 with a 777 from its Newark hub. The introductory fare, good for trips through July 10, is $888 roundtrip from Newark, Boston and Washington (Dulles and Reagan National). It's $938 from Houston or Cleveland. Priority Club (www.priorityclub.com), the frequent guest plan of InterContinental Hotels Group (InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Indigo, Staybirdge Suites, Candlewood Suites) is offering members 2,000 bonus points or 500 bonus miles for every second qualifying stay between May 16-August 31 (1,000 points/250 miles for Staybridge and Candlewood stays). The offer applies up to a maximum of 20,000 bonus points or 5,000 bonus air miles. The Accor Group -- brands include Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis - is having a sale at all of its Asian hotels (www.accorhotels-asia.com) are on sale for Internet bookings only, for stays from now through June 26. We found a rate of $85 a night at the Sofitel Seminyak Bali, where the rack rate is $220. Other sample sale rates include the Sofitel Vinpearl in Vietnam from $75 a night, and the Novotel Benoa Bali from $56. Accor's Asian hotels are in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. For links to other websites where you can search for bargains, click here: www.executivetravelonline.com/reference/deals.html By Jim Glab To sign up for the e-Alert, click here.