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Friday February 3, 2012
Follow The Money
Why Do Cruise Lines Do The Things They Do? High fixed costs make the cruise industry “a perilous business to make money in,” according to industry veteran Rod McLeod. Those costs also explain the willingness to sell a berth for next to nothing, rather than let it go empty, as well as cruise lines’ firm focus on shipboard revenues. It’s more difficult to understand the lines’ inscrutable segmentations.
Travel Market Report
Parental Unit
WS Says Short-Haul Subsidiary Would Operate Separately The new short-haul carrier being considered by WS would operate separately, says CEO Gregg Saretsky. "This will be a wholly owned subsidiary with a single fleet of turboprops, where the operations, the maintenance, the in-flight, the airport and the pilots are part of a separate company but owned by the same parent," Saretsky told an investor conference.
Winnipeg Free Press
Fee For All
Spirit Launches New Fees To Cover Cost Of New Fare RulesThe always entertaining NK has come up with a novel way to express displeasure at new U.S. Department of Transportation regulations. The carrier is adding a $4 "unintended consequences of DOT regulations" fee to ticket prices in response to new rules that allow pax to wait as long as 24 hr. to pay for a reservation.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Open Jaw News: In For The Short-Haul
Thursday February 2, 2012
Ancillary Angst
Agents Say Confusion, Inefficiency Deter Add-On Sales An international travel agency survey has found that agencies want to sell airline ancillary services through GDS systems, but face challenges due to confusion around what services are offered by each airline and the lack of efficient processes to complete the sale. Agents responding to the Travelport survey indicated that booking optional services takes nearly 30% longer than a regular booking.
Open Jaw
Northern Exposure
4N Says It’s Ready To Compete With WS Air North says it’s ready to take on new competition, but warns there could be hundreds of Yukon jobs at risk if it loses. With WS announcing a new route between YVR and YXY beginning in May, 4N has discounted fares. President Joe Sparling says it's a money-losing proposition but he'll keep it up as long as he can.
CBC
Shuffling The Deck
Sproul To Step Down At TPI, Chia Back At The HelmTravel Professionals International has announced that Phil Sproul is stepping down as President eff. 29FEB, following 4 years at the helm of the company. TPI Founder, Chairman and CEO, Morris Chia, will become President again eff. 01MAR. He had held the title for more than a decade prior to the hiring of Sproul.
Open Jaw
Open Jaw News: Northern Fights
Wednesday February 1, 2012
State Of The Industry
Travelsavers’ Mazza-Burney Says It’s Not Just Numbers Mazza-Burney says she’s seeing some shifts in the Canadian market in terms of destination preferences and sees river cruising as a fast-growing segment. After a slow start in January, she sees the overall market changing for the better.
Open Jaw
Dark Glasses
IATA: Steady 2011 Pax Demand But 2012 Will Be Tough Despite a tumultuous global situation, IATA has reported that full year 2011 pax demand rose 5.9% compared to 2010, in line with long-term growth trends. But the group’s Director General Tony Tyler still sees difficulties ahead. “Cautious improving business confidence is good news. But 2012 is still going to be a tough year.”
Open Jaw
Olympic Exaggeration
Plenty Of Hotel Rooms Available For LON GamesThe LON Olympics organizing committee has returned approximately 20% of reserved room inventory to LON hotels, totalling 120,000 room nights at more than 200 hotels. According to Tom Jenkins, President of the European Tour Operators Association: “Every Olympics has exaggerated the number of international Olympic visitors that has arrived, and in this respect LON looks no different.”
Travel Weekly
Open Jaw News: Cautious Optimism
Tuesday January 31, 2012
North & South
WS Unveils Summer Sked, New Destinations Days after announcing details of new service between YYZ and LGA, WS has followed up with news of new daily YVR/YXY service and a 2012 summer schedule featuring KIN and AUA as a 1st time summer destinations. The airline also announced service expansion from seasonal to year-round on 4 popular winter routes.
Open Jaw
Big Ouch
Concordia Crash Hits Carnival Bookings, Bottom-Line Carnival says it will take a $155-$175 million charge against net income this year because of the Costa Concordia cruise ship catastrophe. The cruise giant says that figure could be higher due to lower net revenue yields, but it’s too soon to tell. Carnival says overall bookings were down “in the mid-teens” in the days following the incident.
Reuters
Reboot
Amadeus Crash Hits Thousands Of Agents & PaxThe Amadeus computer system crashed for 3 hours on Monday, impacting both travel agents trying to make bookings and pax attempting to check-in online, reserve seats or buy tickets. The crash also hit pax trying to check-in for flights at airports, as staff were unable to scan passports. Reports say up to 150 airlines were affected.
TravelMole
Friday January 27, 2012
State Of The Industry
V.Com’s James Sees More Independents Seeking Solutions With wholesalers continuing to expand their retail presence by absorbing existing retail outlets, it’s becoming more important than ever for independent agencies to band together in consortia, says Vacation.com’s V.P. Canada Christine James. “They can’t do it on their own,” says James. They just don’t have the critical mass or marketing tools to survive independently.”
Open Jaw
Gloves Off
WS Announces LGA Service, Launching 04JUN The fight is on. Yesterday, AC announced a ramping up of service to NNYC, in a move seen as a pre-emptive strike against rival WS. Today, WS has unveiled details of new service to LGA, with 7 daily business weekday flights set to take off 04JUN. That number will rise to 8 in July.
Open Jaw
Permanently Temporary
YVR’s AIF Fee Jumps To Fund $1.8 Billion ExpansionIntroduced as a “temporary” measure in 1993, YVR’s Airport Improvement Fee is once again being increased to pay for a $1.8 billion airport upgrade. The cost for those travelling within B.C. will remain at $5, but for those flying outside the province’s borders the fee will rise to $20 from $15, eff. 01MAY.
The Province
Open Jaw News: The Battle Of New York
Union Says AC Considering Offshore Airline
MA Stops Flying After Creditors Swoop In
AF Prepares For Strike 06-09FEB
Westin Opens 1st Panama Property
For a full listing of today's news stories, visit the Newsroom
Putting The Costa Concordia Disaster In Perspective
Royal Caribbean Bookings Hit By Concordia Effect
RCCL Post $607 Million 2011 Net Profit, Up 17.8%
For a full listing of Cruise News stories, visit the Cruise section
03FEB12
Insight & India – A Perfect Match
with Suzanne Christie
In celebration of the launch of their new India & Nepal program, Insight invited top agent partners to a taste of the sub-continent’s delicious cuisine at the ubiquitous Amaya folks’ newest Toronto location, Global Bazaar.
Cris David,...read on
02FEB12
Excuse me, dahrlings, but...
Where Do They Put The Bodies?
There is no more need to repent our sins, Pumpkins, or ask for forgiveness. PR is man’s salvation.
U.S. firms [also known as ‘cleaners’] are raking in millions to finesse the images of murderous African dictators – I call it ‘scummy laundering’. And entire countries such as Rwanda are ... read on
The Best Of Ivanna
02FEB12
Click for more cartoons.
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