Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category

SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

Major Airlines are reproting that their profits are soaring again — thanks to baggage fees, planes packed to near-capacity and other measures that are beefing up the bottom line but also triggering more complaints from passengers.

Three of the nation’s largest airlines — Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and U.S. Airways — reported unexpectedly strong earnings Wednesday, and the rest are expected to post profitable results this week. That would mark the first time since 2007 that all the major U.S. carriers have been in the black.

“It has been the perfect storm of demand increasing while capacity has remained pretty low,” said Matthew Jacob, a senior analyst at New York-based Majestic Research.

The airlines pulled off the rebound by collecting millions of dollars in new fees for luggage, blankets, reservation changes and other services, industry analysts say.

And despite rising passenger demand, the carriers are generally not bringing back the jets they took out of service during the recession, instead packing more people onto each flight.

Passengers appear to have noticed.

Complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation have been increasing for months, and were up 35% in August compared with the same month last year.

“Airline executives have been, and will continue to be, tone deaf to the increasing customer dissatisfaction with the airline industry,” said Brandon Macsata, executive director of the Assn. of Airline Passenger Rights, a Washington-based nonprofit group.

For Mary Cardas, a business consultant from Newport Beach, the hassles of flying are beginning to outweigh the benefits.

“Waiting areas are loud and overcrowded and security is unpleasant. Add to that the natural weather delays that are inevitable between here and where my family lives,” she said, referring to her parents in Oregon. “Quite frankly, I’d rather stay home.”

Cardas, however, would probably be in the minority, according to Robert Herbst, an independent airline analyst and former airline pilot. Herbst points out that airline fares are so low that most people are still willing to put up with the added fees and crowded planes.

Airline representatives, meanwhile, play down the increased number of complaints, saying they represent feedback from a fraction of the overall flying public. They also attribute the increase to a new website and electronic complaint forms introduced in the last year by the Department of Transportation, which make it easier for travelers to grouse.

“I don’t think we should draw a conclusion from a bunch of numbers in a very small sample,” said Tim Smith, a spokesman for American Airlines.

Other statistics show some improvement in airline services.

The rate of passengers involuntarily bumped from flights dropped by about 25% in the April-through-June quarter, compared with the same period last year, and the rate of lost or delayed luggage dropped by 15% in August, according to the Transportation Department.

The three airlines that issued quarterly earnings data Wednesday reported combined profits of $746 million and double-digit revenue gains for the three months that ended Sept. 30 compared with the same period last year.

Delta Air Lines Inc. said it earned $363 million in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $161 million in the same quarter last year.

AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, reported third-quarter income of $143 million, its first profit in three years. That compared with a loss of $359 million for the year-earlier period. It also announced plans to add 33 new flights from Los Angeles International Airport, including new service to Shanghai and nine domestic airports, starting April 5.

U.S. Airways Group reported $240 million in earnings, marking the most profitable third quarter in the company’s history. It swung from a loss of $80 million.

Airline analysts expect the nation’s other major airlines — Southwest, JetBlue, United, Continental and Alaska — to report similarly rosy results.

Investors have been bidding up the price of most big airline stocks; shares of U.S. Airways have gained 127% since Jan. 1.

Herbst said the single biggest factor in the industry’s improved financial picture is that demand for airline seats has increased but capacity has remained flat.

“They are basically selling every seat,” he said.

The nation’s airplanes flew on average 87% full in July, the highest level in a decade, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The airlines’ profit margin also was bolstered by fees charged to passengers for extra services at the airport and in flight.

From April through June, the nation’s largest airlines collected $893 million in baggage fees, $594 million in reservation change fees and $618 million in other charges, such as for transporting unaccompanied minors and shipping pets, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The latest profit reports are the strongest sign that the industry is pulling out of a tail spin that began after the 2001 terrorist attacks and worsened with the global recession and a jump in jet fuel prices in 2008. From 2001 to 2009, the U.S. airline industry lost about $58 billion, according to the Air Transport Assn., the airline’s trade group.

In the midst of the downturn, the industry cut many of its least profitable routes and parked unused planes.

But demand for air travel — both business and leisure — began to bounce back in the last few months and airlines have remained disciplined by limiting the number of new routes and planes they’ve added to the mix.

In September, the total miles flown by passengers on U.S. carriers was up 7% and passenger revenue up 19% compared with the same period last year. But the industry as a whole has increased capacity by less than 1% over the last year, Herbst said.

To cut costs, the airlines have been shedding workers. In August, the airline industry employed 6,469 fewer full-time employees than it did in August 2009, a 1.7% decrease, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Kate Hanni, founder of FlyersRights.org, a Napa-based nonprofit group that advocates for airline passengers, said travelers were increasingly frustrated about flying in more crowded planes and paying a menu of new fees. She said complaints filed at her website have jumped 35% over last year.

“The bottom line is that passenger frustration is at an all-time high,” she said.

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MY TAKE: The airports may have gotten a lot more friendly in this economic downturn, but they sure haven’t made it any easier. Betwween the cargo screening at airports and the hour long walk through metal detector time you have to plan for, flying just isn’t that much fun any more. I can understand the fact that cargo handling has to be managed carefully and we have to have airline metal detector equipment installed. This is the sign of the times and that’s not ever going to change. But do they have to take away our pillows, squeeze us into tiny seats and charge us for the kid-sized cardboard meals we get on transatlantic flights?

The only comfort I get at he airport now is the fact that I can walk around with my smokeless cigarette and nohthing is said. Did you know that the electronic cigarette is designed to be enjoyed anywhere smoking is banned? It is. Airports included.

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Source: Assocatied Press

Zurich archiologists say they have unearthed a 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe.  The ancient poplar wood door is “solid and elegant” with well-preserved hinges and a “remarkable” design for holding the boards together, chief archaeologist Niels Bleicher said Wednesday.

Using tree rings to determine its age, Bleicher believes the door could have been made in the year 3,063 B.C. — around the time that construction on Britain’s world famous Stonehenge monument began.

“The door is very remarkable because of the way the planks were held together,” Bleicher told The Associated Press.

Harsh climatic conditions at the time meant people had to build solid wood houses that would keep out much of the cold wind blowing across Lake Zurich, and the door would have helped, he said. “It’s a clever design that even looks good.”

The door was part of a settlement of so-called “stilt houses” frequently found near lakes about a thousand years after agriculture and animal husbandry were first introduced to the pre-Alpine region.

It is similar to another door found in nearby Pfaeffikon, while a third — found in the 19th century and made from one solid piece of wood — is believed to be even older, possibly dating back to 3,700 B.C., said Bleicher.

The latest find was discovered at the dig for a new underground car park for Zurich’s opera house.

Providing the doors for a neolithic village was one task faced by earlier Britons. What about the grounds? Northern New Jersey landscaping experts thrilled at the find are also interested in the landscaping history around ancient sites and burial grounds, like Stonehedge. This door may not have had a fancy brass compass or handle, but it showed craftmanship.

Archaeologists have found traces of at least five Neolithic villages believed to have existed at the site between 3,700 and 2,500 years B.C., including objects such as a flint dagger from what is now Italy and an elaborate hunting bow.

Helmut Schlichtherle, an archaeologist for the conservation department in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said finding an intact door was very rare, as usually only the foundations of stilt houses are preserved because they are submerged in water for millennia. Without air, the bacteria and fungi that usually destroy wood in a matter of years can’t grow, meaning many lakes and moorlands in Europe are considered archaeological treasure troves.

“Some might say it’s only a door, but this is really a great find because it helps us better understand how people built their houses, and what technology they had,” he said.

Schlichtherle, who wasn’t part of the Zurich dig, said over 200 stilt houses have been discovered in southern Germany alone, but to date no doors.

The Zurich scientists plan to exhibit their door once it has been carefully removed from the ground and soaked in a special chemical solution to prevent it from rotting.

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MY TAKE: I have been to some amazing early settlements in Britain, including Stonehege and they are amazing. It’s hard to fathom how such intricate architectural forms, like interlocking tile and stone work were incorporated without the availability of heavy equipment. Try putting in simple garage flooring without a proper cutting tool and a ruler and you wind up with a mess on your hands and your floor.

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SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a new ordinance requiring food trucks in the city to be required to post letter grades from public health officials evaluating their food-handling practices, just like restaurants do now.

All five county supervisors voted for the new ordinance, which received preliminary approval Tuesday but must be ratified in another vote next week. The ordinance would go into effect 30 days after the final vote in unincorporated areas of the county; local city councils must ratify the new grading plan for it to be effective within city limits.

The plan will expand the popular program that gives brick-and-mortar restaurants an A, B or C grade on food-handling practices to rolling food establishments. In recent years, some entrepreneurs have turned the once-derided “roach coaches” into upscale, gourmet kitchens on wheels, offering international foods and exotic fused concoctions of kimchi tacos or fancy cupcakes.

The first phase of the plan will expand the grading program to about 3,200 full-service catering trucks, and a second phase to begin next July will expand them to about 2,800 more limited food facilities, such as hot dog and churro carts.

The board also approved an amendment by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas asking the county Department of Public Health to brief the supervisors on how officials plan to educate the public and food truck owners about the new ordinance, how they plan to evaluate its effectiveness, and any options to reward vendors who sell healthier foods in low-income communities with limited access to nutritious foods.

The ordinance would require twice-a-year inspections for mobile food facilities, up from the current requirement of a single annual inspection. A separate certification inspection would still be required. The ordinance would also require them to report their routes to the county, so that officials could perform surprise inspections.

Those that aren’t complying with county health rules could be shut down.

The proposed ordinance covers almost any truck selling any type of food, including motorized and nonmotorized vehicles, food carts and “any vehicle from which animal food, bakery products, fish, shellfish, fruits, vegetables, meats, poultry, preserves, jelly, relish, milk or other dairy products, food or food products, ice or beverages, whether in bulk, canned, wrapped, bottled, packaged, or any other form, are sold.”

One main question is how much the expanded inspection program will cost. Public health officials don’t have an answer, but say they will monitor the cost of the expanded program and report to the board next April on whether inspection fees should be raised.

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MY TAKE: I’m happy to hear the letter grades will now have to apply for the food trucks. These things are getting so popular and prevalent in Los Angeles and they are not serving up “roach coach” food anymore, that’s true. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these gourmet kitchens on wheels started setting up folding tables on the sidewalk with linen napkins and decorative country plates. It’s already happening at some L.A. farmer’s markets where vendors have table linens for the customers and flowers in vases for sitting down to eat. It’s a lot like an open feast and the only thing missing are the waiters, tips and chandelier lighting.

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Clean-N-Simple

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SOURCE: Associated Press

Virgin Galactic’s space tourism rocket SpaceShipTwo completed its first solo glide flight in October, moving plans to fly paying passengers closer to reality.

SpaceShipTwo was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the mothership.

The entire test flight lasted about 25 minutes.

“It flew beautifully,” said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides.

The six-passenger SpaceShipTwo is undergoing rigorous testing before it can carry tourists to space. In the latest test, SpaceShipTwo did not fire its rocket engine to climb to space.

Until now, SpaceShipTwo has flown attached to the wing of its special jet-powered mothership dubbed WhiteKnightTwo. Sunday was the first time the spaceship flew on its own.

The news was hailed by space tourism advocates.

The “flight marks another key milestone towards opening the space frontier for private individuals, researchers, and explorers,” John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said in a statement.

Whitesides said SpaceShipTwo will make a series of additional glide flights before rocketing to space.

SpaceShipTwo, built by famed aircraft designer Burt Rutan, is based on a prototype that won a $10 million prize in 2004 for being the first manned private rocket to reach space.

The news was hailed by space tourism advocates.

The “flight marks another key milestone towards opening the space frontier for private individuals, researchers, and explorers,” John Gedmark, executive director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, said in a statement.

Whitesides said SpaceShipTwo will make a series of additional glide flights before rocketing to space.

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MY TAKE: I have to wonder: once folks to start paying to go up in space on this aircraft, what will they have to wear? I’m sure sorority apparel is out of the question, but are paying customers going to be able to go up into space wearing special space suits? If so, what will these look like and who how much will they cost? Greek clothes are not going to work, I’m aware. Carhartt clothing is an ideal company to select for making the suits. They already make flame resistant clothing for most of the service industry and police and fire units, why not space suits?

What will paying passengers be allowed to take with them? Free PS3 download games likely won’t be provided. But that sparks an idea for a new PS3 download: why not create a game for kids that simulates the first trip out to space?

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