A brief sampling of industry news that caught my attention today:
- Delta Air Lines cranked out several news releases today, including its August 2013 performance (85% of flights were on-time and PRASM was up 4%), an order for 40 Airbus aircraft (10 A330s and 30 A321s), and an announcement of chef-driven food and beverage outlets coming to T2 at New York’s JFK Airport.
- United Airlines officially announced new daily nonstop San Francisco-Indianapolis A319 service beginning Janauary 7. The new route was leaked last week. (And I nailed the aircraft type. 😉 )
- Hooray! TSA Pre✓™ will be expanding to 60 additional airports by the end of the year, bringing the total up to 100 airports with the expedited security screening program.
- The Hilton Sukhumvit Bangkok opened today and features 280 rooms and two specialty restaurants. It’s an HHonors category 4 property.
Source: Hilton Worldwide
- Curious if the price you booked a hotel room at will change soon? TheSuitest offers a new Hotel Time Machine feature that predicts price changes in the next 30 days, as well as whether or not the hotel is expected to sell out. Its predictions aren’t guaranteed, of course.
- Hertz is bringing its European budget brand Firefly to Orlando this month, with a total of 20 locations around the U.S. expected by year’s end.
– Follow Darren Booth on Twitter, @FrequentlyFlyin, for more airline, hotel and travel industry news, reviews and opinions.
Related:
Notable Airline, Hotel and Travel News: September 3, 2013
TSA Precheck
Dallas Love Field
Chicago Midway
Is this strong enough to suggest that Southwest is going to start Pre-Check?
There are certainly other small airports, but Midway only has Delta and Love Field only has 3 flights for Delta and United.
@Nick: I’ve read elsewhere in the media that Southwest is expected to participate in TSA Pre in the future, but no hard date has been issued and there’s nothing official from them directly.
@Darren: Thanks for the reply and sorry for not being more clear. I know that no hard date has been announced and don’t know what the space between an announcement and actual implementation would be. It is just odd to me that the TSA would open a PreCheck lane for the ~100 (non-WN + TSA-eligible) passengers that fly through Love Field every day. Hoping with the comment to anticipate an announcement by the end of the year that may just be not that big of a deal for folks. I wonder what the parameters are for airlines to participate…cost of a programming change to send over a number to the TSA (already send over Redress number, if applicable)? Do they have to pay for the infrastructure or additional lanes? As a member of Global Entry, I’ve always thought that I should be able to participate regardless of the airline I fly…I’m still the same ‘trusted traveler’ whether on United or Southwest.
@Nick: I wonder if part of Southwest’s “delay” in participating has any relation to the fact they’re non-GDS based for passenger reservations. I truly have no idea, but just a thought. And I couldn’t agree more, if you’re Global Entry, you’re certainly trusted no matter the airline.