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| Airlines Pressure Congress to Act on Oil Prices |
| Fri Jul 18 2008 |
| With three major airlines last week reporting continuing losses fed by high fuel prices, the airline industry moved in a big way to get Congress to act before its August recess to stem what it terms oil speculation on commodity markets and find new sources of domestic energy. |
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| Panel Overturns ARC Fee Hike |
| Thu Jul 17 2008 |
| The Independent Arbitration Panel (IAP) overturned the Airlines Reporting Corporation's increase in annual fees, ruling in favor of ASTA, and its co-appellants Carlson Wagonlit Travel Assocites and Uniglobe Travel USA."The IAP finds that ARC has not met its burden of proof to show that the new annual administrative fees adopted by ARC on Dec. 6, 2007, represent a fair allocation of costs between carriers and agents," the IAP said in its ruling. "Therefore, ASTA's appeal is granted." |
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| Alaska Airlines Inaugurates Service to Maui |
| Thu Jul 17 2008 |
| Alaska Airlines today inaugurates daily, year-round service between Seattle and Kahului on the island of Maui. In addition, the airline will begin thrice-weekly service between Anchorage and Maui starting on Oct. 31, through April 25, 2009 and year-round service between Seattle and Kona, on the Big Island, beginning Nov. 17.T |
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| Sandals Covers Airfare on Bookings Through Aug. 31 |
| Tue Jul 15 2008 |
| Rising airline costs and talk of a downturn in the economy may have spurred the "staycation," travel's latest trend du jour, but would clients really rather stay home when they can be footloose on a Caribbean beach, cocktail in hand without having to attend to laundry or the lawn? |
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| Amadeus Launches Airline Service Fees Solution |
| Tue Jul 15 2008 |
| Amadeus has launched the first module of the new Amadeus Airline Service Fees product. According to the travel technology supplier, the tool is the industry's first solution to automatically price and collect ticketing fees through multiple channels. |
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| ASTA Announces Mass. Tax Defeat |
| Mon Jul 14 2008 |
| ASTA today announced that Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed the Massachusetts corporate tax bill, minus the anti-travel agent levy that would have taxed travel agents' service fees for online booking of hotel rooms in the Commonwealth. Had the original provision passed, it would have meant an unprecedented double tax on travel agencies' income stream, posing a serious threat to hundreds of traditional agencies in Massachusetts, 98% of which are small businesses, according to an ASTA announcement. |
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| St. Maarten Tourism Applauds New AA Flights |
| Mon Jul 14 2008 |
| American Airlines' announcement to add a second Miami to St. Maarten flight beginning this November was applauded today by St. Maarten's commissioner of tourism Roy Marlin. |
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| EU Emissions Scheme Could Add $79 To Airfares |
| Fri Jul 11 2008 |
| The Air Transport Association (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading US airlines, and IATA voiced harsh opposition to the European Parliament's approval of legislation to add aviation into the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to reduce CO2 emissions. |
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| ARC Unveils Client-Specific Revenue Tracking |
| Fri Jul 11 2008 |
| The Airlines Reporting Corporation announced a new client-specific transaction and revenue tracking resource for Corporate Reservation Service Providers (CRSP) - both agencies and corporate travel departments. The resource is available through eCommission Solutions, LLC, (ECS), ARC announced. |
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| SOS Calls for Congress to Limit Oil Commodities Markets |
| Fri Jul 11 2008 |
| The airline industry-inspired Stop Oil Speculation Now (SOS) coalition is calling on Congress to pass legislation addressing what it calls "index speculators" in oil commodities, who it claims are driving up the price of oil and threatening the existence of the air transportation system. |
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| Auctioning NYC Airport Slots Hits a Snag |
| Fri Jul 11 2008 |
| The administration's plan to let the free market play a role in easing gridlock at the nation's most congested airports suffered a severe blow yesterday, according to Crain's New York Business. |
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| Northwest Jumps on Checked Bag Fee Bandwagon; Proposes 2,500 Job Cuts |
| Thu Jul 10 2008 |
| Northwest Airlines Corp. has announced that it will begin charging $15 to check a single piece of luggage. The airline also announced new fees, some as high as $100 to redeem a frequent flier award ticket, and a job cut of 2,500 jobs.The $15 fee for the first checked bag will apply to tickets sold after today, July 10, for travel starting Aug. 28 within the US or to Canada. Other fees include $25 for issuing a domestic frequent flier ticket, $50 for a trans-Atlantic frequent flier ticket and $100 for a trans-Pacific frequent flier ticket. |
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| ARC: Sales Up on Fewer Transactions |
| Thu Jul 10 2008 |
| The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) released its operating results for travel agency air ticket sales in June 2008, showing statistics that continue to reflect both slowing transactions and rising costs, due in large part to soaring energy prices. |
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| ATA Opposes European Emissions Scheme |
| Wed Jul 09 2008 |
| The Air Transport Association (ATA), the industry trade organization for the leading US airlines, and IATA voiced harsh opposition to the European Parliament's approval of legislation to add aviation into the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), pointing out that the proposal violates the Chicago Convention, which is the treaty governing international aviation, as well as other international laws. |
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| Air France to Raise Fuel Surcharges |
| Wed Jul 09 2008 |
| Air France said yesterday that it would raise its fuel surcharge because of high oil prices.The airline, part of the France-KLM group, plans to increase its fuel surcharge by two euros on domestic flights, four euros on medium-haul flights, 10 euros on long-haul flights and 14 euros on extremely long-haul flights. |
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| US Airways Will Cancel Some In-Flight Movies |
| Wed Jul 09 2008 |
| US Airways announced plans to remove in-flight movie systems from some of its airplanes.Travis Christ, the airline's vice president for sales and marketing, told Bloomberg News the decision will save the company about $10 million per year. |
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| American Airlines Plans Sea-Tac Cuts |
| Wed Jul 09 2008 |
| American Airlines is poised to cut about 13% of its Sea-Tac Airport staff this fall and also plans to eliminate several flights at Sea-Tac, the international airport for Seattle. |
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| ARC Announces Revenue Tracking |
| Mon Jul 07 2008 |
| The Airlines Reporting Corporation announced a new client-specific transaction and revenue tracking resource for Corporate Reservation Service Providers (CRSP) -- both agencies and corporate travel departments. |
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| Ruden: Air Crisis 'Acutely Affects' Travel Agencies |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| Travel agencies "are acutely affected" by the airline crisis because fuel surcharges, baggage fees and the continual delays erode consumer confidence in the air transportation system, leading people to avoid traveling altogether, ASTA senior vice president of legal and industry affairs Paul Ruden told a Congressional committee last week. |
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| BA in Deal to Acquire L'Avion |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| British Airways announced an agreement to acquire French airline L'Avion and integrate the company with its new subsidiary OpenSkies. |
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| ASTA Tells House Panel Air Crisis 'Acutely Affects' Agents |
| Wed Jul 02 2008 |
| Travel agencies "are acutely affected" by the airline crisis because fuel surcharges, baggage fees and the continual delays at security lines and on the tarmac erode consumer confidence in the air transportation system, leading people to avoid traveling altogether, ASTA senior vice president of legal and industry affairs Paul Ruden told a Congressional committee yesterday. |
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| Carnival's Torrent: 'Customers Want Agents' |
| Fri Jul 18 2008 |
| In her first four months as Carnival Cruise Lines' senior vice president of sales and guest services, Lynn Torrent has been on the road listening to agents to find out what they need in travel agency support - and one result will be clearer group policies, Torrent told Travel Trade on board the new Carnival Splendor. |
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| Karisma Creates Agt 'Dealerships' To Grow in US |
| Fri Jul 18 2008 |
| Back in the day when Mandy Chomat was cutting his teeth in the airline industry he "lived or died" by the sales performance of his travel agent team. It used to be that airlines valued their travel agents and cultivated a team of travel agents experts who were trusted to act as sales representatives on behalf of their chosen airline. |
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| Las Vegas Reaches Out to Agents for Growth |
| Fri Jul 18 2008 |
| Las Vegas - At the Vacation.com International Conference here last month, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority sales executive Ed Fioravante told travel agents that with 136,000 hotel rooms now and 40,000 more coming on line, Las Vegas needs the sales reach that only agents can provide.With all that growth, and with existing properties upgrading to remain competitive, Las Vegas needs "travel agents to support us" in attracting ever-increasing numbers of leisure and business visitors to the destination, Fioravante told the travel agents. |
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| Travel Bound Pays 20% on Italy Bookings |
| Wed Jul 16 2008 |
| FIT wholesaler Travel Bound is offering 20% commission on all Italy bookings between now and Sept. 30, including hotels, apartments, tours, transfers and land packages. Selling exclusively to travel agents, the company has also expanded its lineup of hotels to include seven newly built 3-, 4- and 5-star hotels in Rome and Milan, and 90 new add-on sightseeing tours throughout Italy. |
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| YTB Considering Franchise Model |
| Tue Jul 15 2008 |
| In an SEC filing dated July 15, Sott Tomer, CEO of YTB International, Inc. announced that the company is contemplating the replacement of its referring travel agent ("RTA") business model with the implementation of a franchise operating system, potentially in 2009. |
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| Web Site Looking for Travel Agents |
| Fri Jul 11 2008 |
| Compete4YourSeat.com is looking for travel agents. Compete4YourSeat.com allows the consumer to submit an air itinerary to anywhere in the world and subscribing travel agents to bid on the itinerary. |
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| Auto Europe Pledges $5 per Booking for CA Agents |
| Tue Jul 08 2008 |
| Auto Europe today announced that is pledging $5 per reservation booked by any travel agent, nationwide, for their client now through Dec. 31 toward a relief fund to assist agents affected by the wildfires in Northern California. |
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| '.travel' Domain Reaching Out To Travel Agents |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| The .travel top level Internet domain name is a top opportunity for small business travel agents to be competitive in branding their agencies and profiting from the Web, according to Edward A. Cespedes, CEO of Tralliance Corporation, The .travel Registry. |
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| Canadian Agency Sale Shows How Much Value Can Be Created |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| ROTTERDAM- Holland America's team successfully showed off its new Signature Class Eurodam here last week to some 35,000 Europeans, former employees, past passengers, travel agents and its VIP Centurion top producers, but the buzz of the ship to insiders was the sale of Mary Jean Tully's The Cruise Professionals agency to UK's Travelzest for some $13 million in Canadian dollars. |
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| You Want Fries With That? |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| I doubt that anyone reading this has never been asked that question at a fast food restaurant. Why does the person ringing up your order care if you want French fries or a drink - or try to get you to supersize your order? Because the incremental profit from these items is quite significant (and on a percentage of price, substantially higher), the owner of the restaurant has an interest in making a profit and the cashier has been trained to ask so there is an opportunity to make that incremental profit. Only those interested in earning more money for their time and effort need proceed. |
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| 'Other' Products Can Bring Extra Revenue |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| A veteran travel agent recently told a class of prospective travel agents "there is always money to make in travel." Though he was speaking of the more traditional sales avenues (cruises, tours, airfare, etc.), travel agents can sell many other products to grow their bottom lines. |
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| Travel Agent Online Community Opens |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| A new professional online community has been launched by Tom Ogg & Associates for travel professionals. Visit www.HBTACommunity.com to sign up. The new social networking community allows travel professionals to communicate globally with one another, according to Tom Ogg, founder of HBTACommunity.com, and a contributor to Travel Trade's Home Based Trade magazine. |
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| Travelsavers Adds 5 Preferreds |
| Thu Jul 03 2008 |
| Travelsavers announced that it has signed on five new preferred suppliers: MSC Cruises, Key Tours, Keith Prowse, Variety Cruises and Pullman Tours. |
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