EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT 12/19/05 Welcome to EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT for the week of December 19, the weekly e-mail of essential business travel news! To sign up for the e-Alert, click here. American goes to Love Field; Southwest backs into DFW Independence Air keeps shrinking Alaska, Horizon to impose new ticketing fee MAXjet plans to add Washington route US Airways opens club at LAX TSA deploys more explosives detection scanners Hotel Update: Mandarin debuts in Tokyo, Courtyard comes to Moscow Reader Question of the Week: The government has expanded options at Dallas Love Field - previously limited to intra-Texas routes and flights to adjacent states - so airlines can now fly from there to points in Missouri. Do you think all Love Field restrictions should be eliminated, permitting flights to anywhere in the U.S.? Send your reply to skyguide@aexp.com. AIRLINES American goes to Love Field; Southwest backs into DFW Now that Southwest Airlines has taken advantage of a change in the law to begin service from Dallas Love Field to Kansas City and St. Louis, American Airlines quickly unveiled its own plans to start flying from Dallas' close-in airport. But American's incursion into Love Field will also mean the loss of some of its services at its Dallas/Ft. Worth hub. American set a March 2 launch date for its new Love Field operation, which initially will include 16 flights a day: four MD80 flights to St. Louis and three to Kansas City, as well as five American Eagle departures each day to Austin and four to San Antonio, using 50-seat regional jets. American said it has the rights to three gates at Love, although it will only need two for its start-up schedule there. At the same time, though, American plans to cut back its operations at DFW. Besides reducing frequencies to the cities it will serve from Love, American will also eliminate one daily DFW-Lima, Peru flight; four daily flights to Long Beach, Calif.; and one flight a day to Providence; Toledo; Green Bay, Wis.; and Rochester, Minn. Southwest, which has been lobbying for an end to federal restrictions on service out of Love Field, has adamantly refused to consider adding its own service out of DFW. But last week it said it would effectively add that airport to its network, by way of an expanded code-share relationship with partner ATA Airlines. Starting January 11, ATA's four daily DFW-Chicago Midway flights will be code-shared with Southwest, permitting passengers from DFW to connect with Southwest's growing flight operation at the close-in Chicago airport, which now includes 42 non-stop destinations. Independence Air keeps shrinking Washington Dulles-based Independence Air, a subsidiary of bankrupt FLYi Inc., has added a new route to San Juan, Puerto Rico as planned, but it also revealed plans to discontinue service to another four cities next month. Effective January 5, Independence will eliminate its four daily flights from Dulles to Chicago O'Hare, as well as its three daily flights to Buffalo, three to Jacksonville and three to Manchester, N.H. With the new cutbacks, Independence's schedule will be reduced to 170 flights a day to 33 cities. A year ago, the airline was operating some 600 daily departures to 47 destinations. FLYi said it has recently been in discussions with various possible investors or purchasers of some or all of its assets. One media report last week hinted that Mesa Air, which had made a bid for the company two years ago, might be interested in doing so again and adding Independence Air to its network of regional feeder operations for major carriers - a role that the former Atlantic Coast Airlines once filled before its transformation into an independent low-cost carrier in 2004. Alaska, Horizon to impose new ticketing fee Starting January 18, Alaska Airlines and sister company Horizon Air will begin charging a fee of $10 for each ticket purchased through its reservations call centers or at airport counters. There will be no fee for transactions made through www.alaskaair.com or www.horizonair.com. The fee will apply for both paid tickets and Mileage Plan award tickets, but not to group fares or tickets issued with a vacation package. The company said that on the same date, it will eliminate the current $60 express award fee for mileage award tickets redeemed within three weeks of travel. Meanwhile, the company said it has upgraded the Alaska and Horizon web sites so that users can see a greater variety of fares and availability on a single screen. The old display was based largely on price, but the new categories let passengers opt for varying levels of restrictions, and to combine more fares than before. INTERNATIONAL MAXjet plans to add Washington route MAXjet, the low-cost, all-business-class airline that last month started flying a 102-seat 767 between New York JFK and London Stansted, said it plans to add a Washington D.C. route early next year. The company said it will take delivery of its second aircraft this month, and will use it to operate to Stansted from Washington Dulles five times a week starting in late February 2006. In mid-February, MAXjet said, it will boost its JFK-London schedule to daily service by adding a Saturday departure. The airline also plans to roll out an awards program by February. AIRPORTS US Airways opens club at LAX At Los Angeles International Airport, US Airways on December 19 will open a new US Airways Club, the only such facility located in Terminal One. It provides workstations with data ports, fax machines, copiers and shredders; cable TV, newspapers and magazines; free drinks and snacks; and eventually, T-Mobile WiFi access. The LAX location will be US Airways' 21st club; they're located at 16 airports. FAA/SECURITY TSA deploys more explosives detection scanners The Transportation Security Administration has installed three "explosives detection trace portals" in passenger checkpoints at Indianapolis International Airport. They will only be used on passengers singled out for extra security screening procedures. Passengers enter the portal and stand still while puffs of air are emitted and analyzed, a process that takes a few seconds. Indianapolis is the 21st airport to get the equipment; TSA said that it expects to deploy additional devices this month to airports in Charlotte, Detroit, Sacramento and Washington D.C. (both Dulles and Reagan National). HOTELS Mandarin debuts in Tokyo, Courtyard comes to Moscow Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has opened its first property in Japan; the Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo occupies the top nine stories of that city's Nihonbashi Mitsui Tower in the financial district ... The first Courtyard by Marriott has opened its doors in Moscow; the Courtyard by Marriott Moscow City Center is a 10-minute walk from the Kremlin, with rates starting at $295 weekdays, $225 weekends this winter ... Hilton has put its name on a 212-room property in Florence, Italy, now called the Hilton Florence Metropole ... There's a new Crowne Plaza hotel in Asuncion, Paraguay ... In the U.S., the former Wyndham Pittsburgh Airport Hotel in Coraopolis, Pa., is now the Pittsburgh Airport Marriott ... The 1,600-room Wyndham Anatole in Dallas will become a Hilton in January 2006 ... Starwood has cut the ribbon on what it calls "the first Sheraton prototype design hotel," the Sheraton Minneapolis Midtown in that city's Midtown Exchange development. In other news, Starwood Hotels has completed its previously announced acquisition of the Le Meridien brand, and company sources say the Meridien properties should be incorporated into the company's Preferred Guest program sometime next spring. AIR ROUTES ATLANTA (ATL). Delta Air Lines has expanded its Latin America schedules, adding new daily non-stop service between Atlanta and Managua, Nicaragua; boosting Atlanta-Belize service to daily frequencies; and adding a second flight three days a week to its Atlanta-Santiago, Chile schedule. Meanwhile, new seasonal Saturday-only 737 service from Delta links Atlanta with Bozeman, Montana from now through April 1. BOSTON (BOS). Delta has launched new Saturday-only service from Boston to Nassau, Bahamas. CHICAGO O'HARE (ORD). United has started Saturday-only A320 flights between O'Hare and Liberia, Costa Rica. HOUSTON BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL (IAH). Continental kicked off weekly 737 flights between Houston and the island of Bonaire, with Friday night departures from Houston and Saturday returns from Bonaire. Continental also started twice-weekly 737 service from IAH to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. KANSAS CITY (MCI). Frontier Airlines has added a Kansas City-Puerto Vallarta non-stop route, operating Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. NEW YORK LAGUARDIA (LGA). Continental Airlines started a new non-hub flight from LaGuardia to Aruba, operating once a week on Saturdays. NEWARK (EWR). Continental is using a 737-700 for new Saturday-only non-stops between Newark and Liberia, Costa Rica; and for Saturday-only service from Newark to Curacao. SAN DIEGO (SAN). Air Canada Jazz has started daily non-stop service between San Diego and Vancouver, using 75-seat regional jets. SAN JUAN (SJU). American Eagle started new service between San Juan and Fort-de-France, Martinique, operating four days a week with 64-seat Super-ATR aircraft. WASHINGTON DULLES (IAD). Independence Air's newest route is from Dulles to San Juan, with one daily A319 roundtrip. DEALS AND SPECIALS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS Effective for travel through February 28, members of American Airlines' AAdvantage program will be able to obtain short-haul economy class award tickets for 15,000 miles roundtrip instead of the usual 25,000 miles. First or business class awards will be available for 30,000 miles instead of 45,000. The offer applies for flights of less than 750 air miles one-way. See www.aa.com to book or www.aa.com/shorthops for available markets. WorldHotels, the Americas (www.worldhotels.com; 800-223-5652), which handles bookings for 500 hotels in 70 countries worldwide, has come out with a "Mad for Miles" promotion effective for stays at its member properties from January 15 through April 30. Participants can earn 500 miles per night instead of per stay, to go into their account at United Mileage Plus, American AAdvantage, Delta SkyMiles or Northwest WorldPerks. For links to other websites where you can search for bargains, click here: www.executivetravelonline.com/reference/deals.html For in-depth analysis, news, features and opinions about the current business travel scene, check out Joe Sent Me (www.joesentme.com), produced by veteran traveler advocate/journalist Joe Brancatelli and a team of contributors. By Jim Glab Have a question or comment? Send it to skyguide@aexp.com. To sign up for the e-Alert, click here.