Japan Airlines will launch three-times-a-week flights between Japan and Kona, Hawaii, on June 2. JAL filed the plan May 8 with the Japanese Ministry of Transport. With the new flights the carrier will serve two destinations on the "Big Island" - the carrier also flies between Tokyo Narita Airport and Keahole Airport, a second airport on Kona. The new flights will operate nonstop from Tokyo to Kona using a 404-seat 747-300, with a stop in Honolulu on return flights. The U.S. and Japan concluded an agreement recently that allows the service to begin.
Hyatt Hotels Corp. has revamped its Cuisine Naturelle menu to help travelers maintain a healthy diet and boost energy while on the road. Meals feature low-fat, low-cholesterol foods and high-protein meals. The menu, first developed in 1992, represents 30% of Hyatt's total food sales. The latest version contains eight new entrees and is available in all 103 Hyatt hotels in North America.
Fuel Cost and Consumption U.S. Major, Nationals and Large Regionals April 1995 - March 1996 Total Total Cost Gallons (Dollars) 1995 April Domestic 1,023,098,895 537,964,806 International 353,736,924 210,795,692 System Total 1,376,835,819 748,760,498 May
Air Canada, Air Alliance and Air Nova have put in place electronic ticketing to 23 more destinations in Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Currently, Air Canada and regional partners AirBC, Air Ontario, Air Alliance and Air Nova offer ticketless travel to more than 60 destinations in Canada and several major cities in the U.S., including Seattle, Boston and New York.
Anne-Marie Idrac, France's transport secretary, and Daniel Goldin, NASA administrator, are the featured speakers at the American Bar Association Forum on Air&Space Law, scheduled June 5-6 at the Sheraton Washington Hotel in Washington.
Cost of travel continues to increase faster than other goods and services. In March, travel prices were up 1.3% versus 0.5% for the consumer price index, according to the Travel Industry Association's Travel Price Index. The cost of lodging was up 3% in March from February and 5.5% from March 1995. Air fares fell 0.3% from the previous month and from March 1995.
World Airways flew 4,292 block hours in April, a 0.9% increase from April 1995 levels. Average daily utilization fell to 9.6 block hours from 12.8 in April 1995. Average fleet size was 14.9 aircraft units, compared with 11.1 a year ago. For the first four months, block hours increased 34% to 14,926, and utilization fell to 9.9 block hours per day from 10.3. Average aircraft units numbered 12.4, compared with nine in the same 1995 period.
Southwest has launched "Go West" discounts on fares from San Antonio, Austin and Houston to Nashville and destinations in the West. One-way fares range from $49 to $99. They require a seven-day advance purchase.
Strong international business helped generate another healthy month of traffic growth for Northwest in April. International traffic jumped 18.1% last month, compared with April 1995 levels, pushing systemwide traffic up 11.2%. Capacity for the month increased 7%, while the load factor increased 2.7 percentage points to 70.9%. The number of passengers carried rose 8.9%. For the first four months, traffic was up 11.9%, compared with the same 1995 period, on 8.1% more capacity. The load factor was up 2.4 points to 70.4%.
Reno Air, emulating Southwest, has started offering "Take A Friend" fares. The discounts enable a full-fare passenger to take up to three companion passengers on the trip for $50 roundtrip each between either Fairbanks or Anchorage and Seattle and Portland.
TriStar Airlines passengers can save $25 on a weekly car rental from Budget. TriStar's ticket jackets contain certificates for lower rates redeemable at Los Angeles and Las Vegas McCarran airports.
Export-Import Bank Chairman Martin Kamarck, defending the bank against charges of "corporate welfare," and "interference in the market place," said yesterday at Ex-Im Bank's annual conference in Washington that U.S. companies "time after time, deal after deal...face not just bruising competition on market factors, or price, quality, service, but also official, foreign government-sponsored financing support. Almost always that support is backed by proportionately greater resources than the U.S. has given to Ex-Im Bank and its sister agencies.
Hewlett-Packard Co., SkyTel Corp. and Etak Corp. are offering visitors to Atlanta faster, more accessible travel information June 1-Sept. 30 with the Personal Travel Guide, a hand-held PC and two-way pager with a digital street map of Atlanta and the surrounding area. The guide is being tested by the Federal Highway Administration, the results of which will help the three companies determine commercial applications.
American Trans Air launched a summer sale with fares as low as $71 one way to children and senior citizens. The carrier also is offering a special seven-day rate for an Avis car rental in Florida.
Canadian Airlines International reported marginally better first quarter results yesterday and lined up British Airways as its new European alliance partner. Canadian reduced its first quarter net loss by nearly 20% to C$110.9 million. The carrier's operating loss for the quarter was C$90 million. The results include a C$10 million gain on the sale and leaseback of five 737-200s, which helped the carrier increase its cash on hand at the end of the quarter to C$109.6 million.
The Pew Charitable Trusts have struck a $12 million public/private partnership with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to market the Philadelphia region as a tourist destination. The campaign is aimed at attracting extended-stay vacation travelers to the city and neighboring counties.
Rosenbluth International has been awarded the 1996 Triumph Award by the Fargo-Cass County Economic Development Corporation. Rosenbluth has 270 associates in its Fargo, N.D., IntelliCenter. It set up shop originally with the intent of providing jobs to 40 residents of drought-stricken Linton, N.D., and later decided to put a permanent office in North Dakota. The Triumph Award recognizes achievement and commitment to community by manufacturing and national service businesses.
Fort Worth, Texas-based Lone Star Airlines extended its Spring Super Sale, launched in March, until May 17. The carrier serves 18 cities in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mexico.
The House Commerce subcommittee on commerce, trade and hazardous materials this week approved legislation (H.R.2579) to establish a National Tourism Board to develop a national travel and tourism strategy and a non- profit National Tourism Organization to implement that strategy. The National Tourism Organization would be successor to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, which has been abolished. The bill, sponsored by Rep.
American has expanded its NetSAAver Fares program offering discounted fares to e-mail subscribers who sign up via the airline's Internet homepage. Subscribers receive an e-mail message every Wednesday announcing travel discounts for the coming weekend. The program, tested in Dallas/Fort Worth and Chicago, will be offered in additional markets beginning this week. American will post up to 20 special travel values per week with roundtrip prices as low as $59. NetSAAver fares are available directly through American's homepage at http://www2.amrcorp.com/cgi- bin/aans.
United applied yesterday for allocation of seven of the 14 weekly third- country code-share frequencies available to U.S. airlines under the recent U.S.-Poland agreement. United proposes daily code-share service between U.S. points and Warsaw, via Germany, beginning Nov. 1, the date the service becomes available. The flights between Germany and Warsaw will be flown by United code-share partner Lufthansa with no local fifth-freedom traffic carried under the United designator code.
Orlando's booming tourist business has prompted Loews Hotels and MCA Inc. to develop two luxury hotels at Universal City Resort, which will open in 1999 as an expansion of Universal City Florida. The resort will include a 750-room luxury hotel, The Portofino Bay Resort at Universal City Florida, which will be designed to look like a Mediterranean fishing village in a harbor setting. Construction will begin in 1997, and the hotel will open two years later.
