Category: America

US carriers JetBlue Airways and United Airlines have announced fresh safety measures aimed at restoring confidence in travel, as several executives pointed to signs of domestic demand improving. A Reuters report said that American states are starting to reopen and airlines expect an increase in domestic travel over the extended holiday weekend for Memorial Day on May 25. While data shows only a small fraction of recent flights were more than 70% full, there may soon be full or near-full planes, said Airlines for America, a trade group representing major U.S. airlines. The group launched a public awareness campaign called ... Read more

The latest hotel booking data from Smith Travel Research (STR) has revealed for the first time in the many weeks since the pandemic took hold, US hotels have sold over ten million room-nights during the week that ended May 9, 2020. These numbers demonstrate an uptick of more than three million room-nights over the week of April 11. US hotel occupancy rose to 30.1% for the weekend of May 9, showing an increase in weekend occupancies for the second week in a row. Revenue per available room (RevPAR) at hotels in resort destinations was still down by 82.4%, as compared ... Read more

Hawaii will discourage tourists from visiting its vacation hotspots till end of June. The coronavirus related stay-at-home measures will continue up until that period, state governor David Ige has said. The current 14-day mandatory quarantine for everyone traveling into the state, which began in March, will certainly be extended until the end of next month, Ige said in an online question-and-answer session late on Thursday. Tourism is a big part of Hawaii’s economy – more than 10.4 million visitors came to the islands last year, supporting some 216,000 jobs in a population of around 1.4 million, a Reuters report said. ... Read more

Colombia’s national airline, Avianca, has filed for bankruptcy protection in a US court. The carrier is the second-largest in Latin America, but its passenger operations have been grounded since March because of coronavirus. It said the pandemic had cut more than 80% of its income, and it was struggling with high fixed costs. If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Avianca will be the first major airline to go under amid the pandemic. In a statement, the firm said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a court in New York. The process postpones a US company’s ... Read more

Thousands of employees at a hospital in the epicentre of America’s fight against the coronavirus are being rewarded for their hard work, CNN has reported. More than 4,000 hospital staff — including doctors, physician assistants, nurses, and facilities and food service teams — at NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst were surprised with a three-night complimentary vacation, Hyatt and American Airlines have announced. The two companies collaborated to treat the frontline workers with free round trip flights on American Airlines to Hyatt hotels in select destinations across the US and Caribbean “to help them recharge and reconnect with their loved ones” once ... Read more

Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade organization for the leading US airlines, announced that its member carriers are supporting the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to begin checking the temperature of the traveling public and customer-facing employees as long as necessary during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Temperature checks are one of several public health measures recommended by the CDC amid the COVID-19 pandemic and will add an extra layer of protection for passengers as well as airline and airport employees. Temperature checks also will provide additional public confidence that is critical to relaunching air travel and our nation’s economy. ... Read more

Due to reduced air flight availability, the closure of cruise ports in regions around the world and other factors impacting international travel, Princess Cruises is extending the pause of its global operations. This would result in cancellation of select cruises through the end of the 2020 summer season, including the following cruises and associated cruise tours: All remaining Alaska cruises on Emerald Princess and Ruby Princess All remaining Europe and Transatlantic cruises on Enchanted Princess, Regal Princess, Sky Princess, Crown Princess and Island Princess Summer Caribbean cruises and all Canada & New England cruises on Caribbean Princess and Sky Princess ... Read more

Norwegian Cruise Line, the world’s third-largest cruise operator, has warned there is “substantial doubt” that it will be able to continue in the industry, following the severe impact of the corona virus pandemic on travel. The company, which is listed on the New York stock market, said: “Covid-19 has had, and is expected to continue to have, a significant impact on our financial condition and operations, which adversely affects our ability to obtain acceptable financing.” In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Norwegian said the difficulties it had experienced arranging emergency funding had “raised substantial doubt ... Read more

Carnival Cruise Line is looking to resume service in North America on August 1, in a gradual “phase-in” approach. “We are taking a measured approach, focusing our return to service on a select number of home-ports where we have more significant operations that are easily accessible by car for the majority of our guests,” the Florida based international cruise liner said in a news release. Carnival said that as it resumes operations in August, it will only be sailing from three ports: Miami and Port Canaveral in Florida and Galveston, Texas. Eight Carnival ships — Dream, Freedom, Vista, Horizon, Magic, ... Read more

Puerto Rico is trying out innovative methods to keep tourists interested. Discover Puerto Rico has been aiming to keep their destination in the thoughts of past and potentially new visitors through videos and Instagram live sessions, and is now looking to take the next step. It is taking virtual experiences of the island a step further by launching live guided tours with Google Earth. In working with Discover Puerto Rico, Jorge Montalvo, founder of Patria Tours, will host a series of three live guided tours kicking off the week of Sunday, May 3 through Saturday, May 9. Starting in timing ... Read more

California governor Gavin Newsom ordered all beaches and state parks in Orange County to temporarily close, after images in the news showed crowds gathering on beaches violating the state’s physical distancing rules. Beaches and all state parks in California will be closed, effective Friday, May 1. Activity seen on only a few beaches threatened the progress California has made in battling coronavirus, the governor said Thursday. “Specific issues on some of those beaches raised alarm bells,” Newsom said. The vast majority of coastlines saw people following the statewide orders, he said. But the “density, the volume of people, concentrated space, ... Read more

United Airlines on Wednesday said that it has cut its flight schedule by 90% for the month of May and expects similar cuts for June as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The carrier said that travel demand is now essentially at zero showing no sign of improving in the near term. United disclosed its outlook in a memo to employees that it publicly released. The memo was from Chief Executive Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby. United said it flew less than 200,000 people in the first two weeks of April, a 97% drop from the more than 6 ... Read more

Walt Disney World in Florida plans to furlough about 43,000 workers after it closed last month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the company and a union coalition representing the workers said. In mid-March, Disney’s theme parks closed down globally, including Disney World in Florida and Disneyland Resort in California. The furloughs, which are set to begin on April 19, were part of an agreement between Disney World and the Service Trades Council Union, a collection of six unions representing the 43,000 workers at the theme park resort in Florida. The workers, who are expected to be called back to their ... Read more

The coronavirus pandemic has hit the US hospitality sector hard. About 80% of rooms in the US are empty, according to a new study. Hotel occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room were down significantly year-over-year for the week of March 29 through April 4, per a new report from STR, a firm that analyses hospitality industry data. Compared with the week of March 31 to April 6 last year, hotel occupancy was down nearly 70%, with only 21.6% rooms filled. “Data worsened a bit from last week, and certain patterns were extended around occupancy,” Jan Freitag, STR’s ... Read more

Thousands of Delta Air Lines employees have volunteered for unpaid time off as the carrier tries to save costs, even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the world. Some 35,000 workers have signed up for unpaid leaves of absence that the Atlanta-based carrier started offering last month, CEO Ed Bastian said. That amounts to more than a third of the roughly 91,000 full-time employees Delta had at the end of last year, according to its latest annual report. Delta is seeking even more volunteers and bolstering benefits given to workers while they’re gone, Bastian said. He said last ... Read more