Air Traffic Is Up and So Are Oil Prices
Air traffic continues to increase, says the International Air Transport Association, with passenger traffic up 8.2% in January, better than December, when severe weather in Europe and North America slowed the recovery. January´s air travel volumes were 18 percent higher compared to the low point reached in early 2009 and some 6% above the prerecession peak of early 2008.

The problem with this otherwise rosy picture? Oil prices. The industry´s current forecasts were based on $84 per barrel oil and that price is now up to more than $100, said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA´s director general and CEO. A $1 increase in the price of oil means the industry has to recover $1.6 billion in additional costs. Bottom line? It´s another challenging year for airlines. (Source: IATA press release).

Airlines Test the Waters With Fare Increase
Early last month, several carriers initiated fuel surcharges that ranged from $4 to $10, according to airfare comparison website FareCompare.com.

Except for some peak travel miscellaneous surcharges for popular travel periods, U.S. consumers haven´t seen domestic fuel surcharges since November 2008, according to Rick Seaney, FareCompare´s CEO. And airlines continue to try hiking fares. Late last month legacy carriers tried a $20 fare hike but ultimately cut that in half when low-cost carriers countered with a $10 fare hike. (Source: FareCompare.com).

American Fined for Charging Bumped Passengers a Fee
Read the fine print if you volunteer to give up your seat on an overbooked flight. The Federal Aviation Administration has fined American Airlines $90,000 for failing to disclose that vouchers given to passengers who voluntarily gave up their seats on oversold flights could be redeemed only after paying a ticketing fee of as much as $30.

Airlines have to look for volunteers before involuntarily bumping passengers, when the Department of Transportation requires the airlines to pay travelers cash in most cases. Ray LaHood, US Transportation secretary, said that if you give up your seat, you deserve full compensation—and not find out later that they have to pay $30 to use it. (Source: DOT press release).

Major Carriers Tout Service into Tokyo´s Haneda Airport
Carriers are adding flights to Tokyo´s Haneda Airport, located near Tokyo´s business center, even as they maintain service to the larger—and more distant—Narita. Delta Air Lines is now flying between Tokyo Haneda and Detroit and Los Angeles.

American Airlines has also begun flying nonstop between JFK and Haneda. The new service is a result of the Open Skies Agreement that the U.S. and Japan signed in October. U.S. carriers aren´t the only airlines flying into the more conveniently located Haneda; British Airways launched its new route to Haneda in Japan on Feb. 19. (Source: American, British Airways, Delta press releases).

Low Cost Carriers Add Workers & Network Carriers Cut Them
Low-cost carriers reported an increase in fulltime employees in December, the latest figures available, while network carriers reported fewer, according to the Department of Transportation.

The result was that the number of fulltime employees for passenger airlines increased .2%. It´s a major turnaround for the industry, which saw employee numbers drop for the 28 months up until November 2010, when there was no change. (Source: DOT press release).

Business Travelers and Managers Less Confident of Regional Carriers
Are you wary of regional carriers? You’re not alone. A Business Travel Coalition study of corporate travel managers found that a majority of business travelers worry about perceived safety differences between regional carriers and network carriers, which use them to beef up their networks, especially to smaller markets.

Because of this, many companies let their travelers opt for an alternative to regional airlines, even if it costs more. In fact, many managers interviewed for the study say they’d pay more to get higher safety standards. Managers and travelers find it hard to tell who they’ll actually be flying. They consider marketing a regional carrier under the brand of a major carrier deceptive marketing. (Source: Business Travel Coalition).

Flight Delays Cost Economy $32.9 Billion
Flight delays do more than make you grumpy. They cost the nation’s economy $32.9 billion and airline passengers bear the brunt of about half that cost, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. About $16.7 million, or more than half of those costs hit travelers, according to the study, which the Federal Aviation Administration commissioned. That’s what your lost time and unplanned spending on food and accommodation add up to.

It hurts airlines, too, costing them $8.3 billion in increased expenses for crew, fuel and maintenance, among other things. (Source: University of California, Berkeley).

Domestic Airfares Up For the Fourth Consecutive Quarter
Domestic airfares are up to an average of $341, a 3.8 percent increase for the second quarter, the fourth quarter in a row that they’ve increased, according to the Department of Transportation.

Fares have increased 13.1 percent in the past year, after falling to a low of $301 in the second quarter of 2009. Fares are the highest they’ve been since the third quarter of 2008, when they averaged $358. Seventy percent of airlines revenue in the first half of 2010 was from passenger fares. During all of 2009, the percent of revenue from fares was 70.2 percent, down from 84.1 percent in 2000. (Source: Department of Transportation).

International Passenger Traffic Up Ten Percent
International passenger traffic was up 10.5 percent year over year in September, according to the International Air Transport Association. North American traffic climbed back to pre-recession (2008) levels, with an 11.1 percent increase in passenger demand.

While September increase was stronger than the 6.5 percent August increase in international passenger traffic, it wasn’t all good news. Freight numbers have fallen six percent since a post-crisis peak in May and, since international air cargo accounts for 35 percent of the value of goods traded internationally, it is a leading indicator of economic activity, (Source: IATA).

Secure Flight is Official
Make sure your airline has your full name as it is on your government ID, as well as your address, date of birth, gender and, if applicable, your redress number.

The Transportation Security Administration’s one-year grace period for Secure Flight, which requires airlines to have all of that information about passengers so they can compare passenger lists against TSA watch lists, is over. Now, if the airline doesn’t have that information about you, authorities can deny your right to board. (Source: Transportation Security Administration).

To All Travelers:

Secure Flight is a program that was developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in response to a key 9/11 Commission recommendation: uniform watch list matching by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The mission of the Secure Flight Program is to enhance the security of domestic and international commercial air travel through the use of improved watch list matching.

Secure Flight will conduct uniform prescreening of passenger information against federal government watch lists for domestic and international flights. TSA will take over this responsibility from aircraft operators who, up until now, have been responsible for checking passengers against government watch lists.

Secure Flight will match the name, date of birth and gender information for each passenger against government watch lists to:

After matching passenger information against government watch lists, Secure Flight will transmit the matching results back to airlines.

Williamsburg Travel-American Express must collect the required information from all travelers:

• Name as it appears on your government-issued photo ID that you use to pass through airport security.
• Date of birth
• Gender
• Redress Number (If Applicable)

The information will be stored permanently in profiles so that you do not need to provide the information every time that you travel. This information is required before an airline will issue a boarding pass for travel.

Passengers who decline to provide this information to the airlines in advance of their travel plans will face - at a minimum - additional screening and delays at the airport, likely to include being denied boarding.

For some travelers this may be different than the way your name appears on frequent flyer accounts. You will need to change the frequent flyer accounts.

Additional Information about Secure Flight Program.

1. May 15th all names must exactly match your government issued I.D.
2. August 15th you must also provide gender, date of birth, etc.

If you are a Williamsburg-American Express Client

Please complete our online Secure Flight Information.

GAO Proposes Rules Governing Airline Ancillary Fees Airline ancillary fees increased by 43 percent last year, totaling $13.5 billion, a number big enough to get attention from Congress and the government’s watchdog agency, the General Accounting Office.

The GAO is designing rules requiring airlines to tell customers about these fees in a consistent way.

A Congressional subcommittee on aviation just held hearings on the fees; at that hearing, the head of the National Business Travel Association testified that fees equal fares and that the DOT should require airlines to display those fees clearly at every step of the booking and purchasing process. (Source: GAO, NBTA press releases.)

Airlines Revenues and Profits Are Up; So Are Fares The Air Transport Association of America (ATA) said last week that passenger revenues for a core group of U.S. carriers in June was up 25 percent over last June.

Next, the aviation consulting firm AirlinesFinancials.com reported that the nine biggest airlines’ second quarter profits just missed a decade high. And, those same airlines’ second quarter revenues were the second highest in history. Finally, the Department of Transportation reported that average domestic airfares in the first quarter of 2010 were up 4.7 percent from the first quarter of 2009 and at their second highest level since 2001.

The ATA quickly pointed out that, despite the rise, airfares continue to be a good deal—they may be higher than they were in 2009, but are at about the same level they were in 1999, when the average one-way fare was $153.88. (Source: ATA, AirlineFinancials.com, DOT press releases.)

American, JetBlue Tighten Partnership Airlines continue to ally with each other in order to gain efficiencies of scale. Some, like Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines two years ago and United Airlines and Continental Airlines this year, are merging.

But American Airlines and JetBlue Airways are taking another tack by tightening their partnership. American and JetBlue now offer interline service linking JetBlue domestic flights into Boston Logan and New York’s JFK to 14 international destinations American serves. It’s offering this service on domestic flights on which the two carriers do not overlap.

You can book American and JetBlue flights on a single itinerary through your travel agency, major online travel agency websites or through American. Ultimately the two carriers will sell these flights on both airlines’ websites.

Later this year, the two carriers will enable members of each airlines’ frequent flyer club--American’s AAdvantage program and JetBlue’s TrueBlue program--to earn points in their respective program when they fly these routes. (Source: American, JetBlue press release.)

FAA Says Mexico Falls Short of ICAO Safety Standards The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that Mexico does not meet international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

As a result, the United States is downgrading Mexico from a Category 1 to Category 2 rating. With the IASA Category 2 rating, Mexican air carriers cannot establish new service to the United States, although they are allowed to maintain existing service.

The FAA said that Mexico is making “significant improvements” and that it will work closely with Mexico to help it regain its Category 1 ranking. Aeromexico, meanwhile, issued a statement saying that the downgrade does not refer to the safety of individual airlines.

Aeromexico said it continues to comply with the highest international safety standards and is operating normally. (Source: FAA, Aeromexico press releases.)

Helpful Information & Tips for our Business Travelers.

Airlines

• Low-Cost Carriers Show Profit, Legacy Carriers Lose Money
• Baggage and Other Fees Adding Up For Carriers
• American Pioneers Another New Fee
• Delta Drops Fee for Last-Minute Frequent Flyer Tickets
• Air Traffic Inches Passed Pre-Recession Levels

Read more

Hotels & Amtrak

• Hoteliers Keep Adding Rooms
• Hotel Industry Leading Indicator Is Up for Fourth Month in a Row
• Amtrak to Expand Free wifi
• Rebounding Business Travel

Read more