EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT 05/01/06 Welcome to EXECUTIVE TRAVEL SKYGUIDE E-ALERT for the week of May 1, the weekly e-mail of essential business travel news! To sign up for the e-Alert, click here. Comair service uninterrupted - for now JetBlue reins in growth as red ink rises Southwest said to be poised for expansion at Denver Delta kiosks add international check-in capability Air New Zealand to offer round-the-world service United Express is moving at Washington Dulles Akron adds new four-gate concourse SLC gets explosives detection devices THIS WEEK'S QUESTION FOR READERS: Have you tried to use miles to book summer vacation travel for yourself and/or your family? If so, did you have trouble getting the flights/dates/destination you wanted? Send replies to skyguide@aexp.com. Last week, we asked if constantly rising air fares (due to higher fuel costs) had impacted readers' travel plans; results were mixed. "My (travel) budget can absorb the increases," said reader Barbara Rosen. But reader George Kowalski said he's driving more now. "The company gave me a car and I use it more than flying," he said. "I will not pay $800-$1,200 to fly from Chicago to Kansas City." AIRLINES Comair service uninterrupted - for now Comair, which operates as the Delta Connection carrier in a large number of U.S. markets, avoided a threatened strike by its flight attendants last week when its bankruptcy court judge decided that the airline cannot void its contract with their union. The flight attendants had threatened to walk off the job if the court had allowed the company to impose new wages and work rules unilaterally. However, the decision still leaves Comair with the need to cut millions of dollars in operating costs if it is to survive and continue normal operations, according to company officials. The airline had already come to terms with its pilots and mechanics on $18 million in annual wage cuts, but those deals are contingent upon Comair reaching a similar agreement with flight attendants. Management and union representatives are expected to resume negotiations toward a new flight attendant contract sometime this month. Comair had been looking to reduce its costs for flight attendant wages and benefits by almost $9 million. But the judge ruled that the company had not met its legal requirement to bargain in good faith with the union. JetBlue reins in growth as red ink rises JetBlue Airways, seen as the latest big success story among low-cost carriers during its initial years of operation, is finding these days that economic realities - including soaring fuel prices - are finally catching up with it. JetBlue last week reported a $32 million net loss for the first quarter of 2006, its second straight quarter of red ink following a $42 million deficit in the final quarter of 2005. As a result, JetBlue CEO David Neeleman said that the airline plans to slow down its ambitious growth plans. JetBlue also went along with an industry-wide fare increase during April that boosted most of its prices by $5 each way and raised the ceiling on one-way fares to a maximum of $399, up from $349. Neeleman said JetBlue will postpone deliveries of 12 Airbus A320s over the next few years, putting them off until 2011-2012. The airline is also planning to sell at least two Airbus planes currently in the JetBlue fleet. To save fuel costs, the airline has been gradually cutting back on its long-haul schedules, reducing frequencies in transcontinental markets like JFK-Long Beach and JFK-Ontario, Calif. The airline's overall capacity grew by about 25 percent during 2005, and some analysts are claiming that a majority of the new markets that JetBlue entered in the past two years have been unprofitable. Southwest said to be poised for expansion at Denver The Rocky Mountain news reported last week that Southwest Airlines is preparing to increase its operations at Denver by as much as 200 percent, perhaps raising its daily departures from the current 20 to as many as 60. Southwest has not yet announced any new service at Denver, but the newspaper said the carrier "appears close to receiving final FAA approval on a proposal to fly as many as 60 daily non-stop departures from Denver." Southwest currently flies from Denver to Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Baltimore/Washington; the newspaper speculated that it could add new service to Houston, Oakland, Orlando and Nashville. The low-cost airline has three gates on the Denver airport's C Concourse and is due to take a fourth starting in June. INTERNATIONAL Delta kiosks add international check-in capability Delta said last week that more than 1,000 of its self-check-in kiosks at airports in Atlanta, New York JFK, Los Angeles and San Diego are now capable of reading passports so that customers can check themselves and their bags in for international flight departures at the devices. "Delta will complete upgrades to all kiosks nationwide during 2006," a spokesman said. Delta is adding a large number of new international routes as part of its financial recovery plan, including 11 new transatlantic routes this year. The company said that self-check-in for international flights at the kiosks takes no more than 90 seconds, including baggage check-in. Air New Zealand to offer round-the-world service Air New Zealand said it will become the only airline to offer an around-the-world routing on a single carrier, starting October 26. That's when Air New Zealand will inaugurate a new service linking London Heathrow with Hong Kong. That will make possible an all-Air New Zealand routing from Los Angeles to London to Hong Kong to Auckland to Los Angeles or the reverse. The carrier is offering an introductory round-the-world economy fare of $2,500 for persons ticketed before July 31. AIRPORTS United Express is moving at Washington Dulles United said it is relocating all its United Express flights at Washington Dulles from Concourse G to Concourse A. The move was expected to be finished by May 1, the company said. United has 207 daily departures of United Express flights at Dulles. It noted that the change to Concourse A will permit faster baggage delivery for arriving United Express flights, improved customer amenities, extra passenger boarding bridges and a more efficient way for passengers to travel between concourses, with mobile lounges departing Concourse A every 5 to 10 minutes to the Main Terminal and Concourses C and D. Akron adds new four-gate concourse At Ohio's Akron-Canton Airport, a new second-level concourse with four gates opens to passengers on May 2. AirTran Airways, which has added lots of new service at CAK in recent months, will occupy three of the four new gates. Frontier will use the fourth gate starting in July. Later this summer, the facility will add new north gates that will be used by United Express and Northwest Airlink. The new second-level concourse will also add a food court and free WiFi access later this summer, airport officials said. SLC gets explosives detection devices The Transportation Security Administration said last week that Salt Lake City International has become the latest airport to receive new "explosives detection trace portal machines." The facility now has five of the devices, including one at the International Terminal checkpoint and two each at the Terminal One and Terminal Two checkpoints. Passengers selected at random, or those designated as needing extra screening, will enter the portals and be subjected to bursts of air that will then be analyzed for traces of explosive materials. AIR ROUTES ATLANTA (ATL). Delta continues its international route expansion on May 1, when it is due to begin daily non-stops between Atlanta and Copenhagen. On May 4, Delta will add daily service between Atlanta and Edinburgh, Scotland. Meanwhile, Delta will also beef up service levels on a number of domestic routes from Atlanta May 1, adding a fourth daily flight to Bloomington, Ill.; a seventh to Buffalo; a fifth to Flint, Mich.; a seventh and eighth to Gulfport/Biloxi, Miss.; a seventh to Newport News, Va.; an eighth to Pensacola, Fla.; and a tenth daily roundtrip between Atlanta and Philadelphia. BOSTON (BOS). From May 1 through October 27, American Airlines will operate daily seasonal service between Boston and Paris CDG. CHICAGO O'HARE (ORD). May 1 is the starting date for American Airlines' seasonal daily service between O'Hare and Glasgow, Scotland, continuing through September 30. On May 6, American Eagle begins weekend (Saturday and Sunday) service between O'Hare and Freeport, Bahamas, supplementing its existing daily service between ORD-Nassau. DALLAS/FT. WORTH (DFW). American Airlines begins seasonal daily service on May 1 between DFW and Anchorage, Alaska, continuing through September 30. Also on May 1, Delta will add a third daily frequency to its new non-stop service between DFW and New York LaGuardia. LOS ANGELES (LAX). Air Canada Jazz will kick off new service May 1 between LAX and Edmonton, Alberta, using two-class, 75-seat regional jets. On May 4, United Express begins new twice-daily non-stop service between Los Angeles and Boise. MEMPHIS (MEM). Northwest is due to discontinue its four daily flights between Memphis and Gainesville, Fla. On May 1. NEW YORK KENNEDY (JFK). On May 4, JetBlue Airways will begin twice-daily service between JFK and Bermuda. ORLANDO (MCO). Effective May 3, JetBlue Airways will begin new service between Orlando and Puerto Rico, including two daily flights to San Juan and one to Aguadilla. WASHINGTON DULLES (IAD). United on May 4 starts new daily non-stops between Dulles and Vancouver. DEALS AND SPECIAL OFFERS FOR BUSINESS TRAVELERS MAXjet Airways (888-435-9629; www.maxjet.com), the all-business-class carrier operating to London Stansted from New York JFK and Washington Dulles, is offering a special reduced fare of just $1,000 roundtrip for tickets booked and travel completed by June 2. The airline normally charges starting fares of $1,500 roundtrip from JFK and $1,750 from Washington. SAS (www.scandinavian.net) is having an online sale on business class fares to Stockholm for travel between June 15 and August 15. Tickets must be purchased at the time of booking, a Saturday night stay is required, and taxes/security fees of $80-$100 per segment are extra. Sample one-way fares include $1,186 from Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland or Philadelphia; $1,268 from Newark, Tampa or Washington D.C.; $1,320 from Chicago; $1,392 from LAX, San Francisco or Seattle. Avis is offering a free one-category upgrade for U.S. and Canadian residents who book a car in Europe for pickup by June 30. Reservations must be made by May 31 at www.avis.com, using Avis coupon number UESA011; customers must also print a coupon found at www.avis.com/europe to present at the rental counter. The upgrade applies to bookings of economy, compact or intermediate cars in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the U.K. 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. Doing what you love: Do you have a hobby or pastime that you'd like to turn into a business, so that you could escape the confines of corporate life? Read the June issue of Executive Travel to learn from several entrepreneurs how they made just such a transformation. If they did it, maybe you can, too. By Jim Glab Have a question or comment? Send it to skyguide@aexp.com. To sign up for the e-Alert, click here.