HEADLINE NEWS.

The U.S. Department of State has issued a worldwide caution to remind Americans to be vigilant about their personal safety when traveling abroad. "We are seeing indications that Al-Qaida continues to prepare to strike U.S. interests abroad," it said. Travelers may obtain up-to- date information on security conditions by calling 888-407-4747 in the U.S., or 317-472-2328 outside the U.S. and Canada. Separately, State has warned Americans not to travel to Indonesia. Anyone already there is strongly urged to avoid traveling to Aceh. Legislative elections will be held on April 5 2004, and there could be election-related demonstrations and violence.

Australian airlines outperformed operators in the US and Europe in ontime performance in Jan., according to the first official figures on domestic flight punctuality released by the government. The Bureau of Transport and Regional Services statistics showed that 87.1% of departures and 86.7% of arrivals operated by the major carriers were achieved within 15 min. of scheduled times. Western Australia Regional airline Skywest was the leading performer with 95% of its flights for the month landing and taking off ontime. It finished ahead of Qantas with 87.3% of departures and 89.5% of arrivals conducted ontime, compared to Virgin Blue with 84.4% and 83.8% of departures and arrivals ontime.

AirTran Airways launched a two-day fare sale April 6 for flights to or from Atlanta and Philadelphia. The reduced fares are available for purchase through April 7 and are good for travel through June 16 2004. They require a 14-day advance purchase. Examples of some of the one-way fares are Philadelphia to Boston for $34, to Denver for $119 and to Los Angeles for $99. From Atlanta, the fares range from $69 to Miami and $109 to Las Vegas. Fares are not valid on Fridays and Sundays. Travel is not permitted on May 31 (Memorial Day).

Aloha Airlines has named its First Class Navigator Class and will now refer to coach as Voyager Class. Glenn Zander, president and CEO, said that as other airlines continue to cut back on food and other amenities, "branding our inflight service as Navigator Class and Voyager Class differentiates what we do&emdash;and how well we do it." The names reflect Polynesian voyaging canoes. When it takes delivery of new 737-700s, it will name them after stars that guided the navigators to and from Hawaii. Aloha uses all-leather seats in both classes, offers a complimentary Mai Tai and macadamia nuts, and a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie.

American Eagle will start new seasonal service to Nassau, Bahamas, from Dallas-Fort Worth. The carriers will operate one flight daily with a 70 seater CRJ-700 regional jet from June 10 to Sept. 7 and then starting up again on Dec. 15 2004.

British Airways will launch wireless Internet connections in 80 of its main lounges around the world. BA said it anticipates having the technology in the lounges by the end of May 2004.

Icelandair says it has a goal of distributing half of all of its tickets electronically by the end of this year.

St. Louis-based INTRAV is offering a series of four new private-jet tours that provide shorter, regionally focused journeys to North America, South America and Western Europe. The four itineraries visit:

* A) Southern California, the Grand Canyon, the Colorado Rockies and New Orleans;

* B) Vancouver, Santa Barbara, Portland and San Francisco;

* C) the countryside in England, Ireland and France and

* D) Argentina, Uruguay and Costa Rica.

For these nine and ten day Luxury Getaways, INTRAV has partnered exclusively with Four Seasons Hotels and Ritz-Carlton. With an intimate group size, each journey consists of at least two nights in three different cities, plus a day-trip to another destination along the way. Deluxe accommodations, sightseeing excursions and select meals are included, as well as special events and all flights aboard the privately chartered jet. An INTRAV travel director will accompany each departure to handle all the details of baggage transfers, tips, etc., and serving as passengers' private concierge. The tours are priced from 13,600 to $22,800 per person double.

JetBlue has been ranked number one for 2003 in the annual Airline Quality Rating released by researchers at Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The rating looks at on-time performance, passenger complaints, baggage handling and denied boards, and applies a formula to weigh these factors. This is the first year JetBlue, ATA, AirTran and Atlantic Southeast Airlines were included. The report said the performance measures show an increasing gap between the performance of the legacy and the low-cost carriers. The 14 airlines were ranked as follows: JetBlue, Alaska, Southwest, America West, US Airways, Northwest, Continental, AirTran, United, ATA, American, Delta, American Eagle and Atlantic Southeast. US Airways was the top carrier in 2002. Overall, the airlines performed slightly better last year due to a large drop in customer complaints. Northwest saw the best improvement, going from ninth to sixth.

Southwest Airlines Chairman Herb Kelleher told the World Affairs Council there that the airline will add 14 more daily nonstops to its previously announced schedule, effective July 6 2004. By mid-summer, it will be operating 28 daily nonstops from Philadelphia. Just the day before, US Airways CEO David Siegel told employees in an Internet broadcast that the airline must drastically reduce costs because "Southwest is trying to kill us." He also revealed Southwest's plans to add flights in July to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans, Houston Hobby, Los Angeles, and Raleigh-Durham.

Travelocity has introduced a "new look and feel" with its now easier to use Web site. The company said its site now has faster download speeds and more drop-down menus, as well as more personal information on the home page. The new home page loads almost twice as fast, Travelocity said. Its new logo includes "guiding stars" and a new color scheme.

Virgin Atlantic Airways intends to launch new routes from London to Australia, Cuba and the Bahamas while increasing existing service to the U.S., Caribbean, Asia and the Far East in the next two years. And it will be adding an additional 1,400 employees over the next year. Chairman Richard Branson said the New York-London route for business travel has been "incredibly strong in recent weeks," while its London- Gatwick flights to the Caribbean and Florida are popular with leisure travelers. He said in the next year the carrier will begin to serve Sydney, Havana and Nassau. In the next two years, it will take delivery of six A340-600s.

A national survey conducted on behalf of Orbitz for Business by Harris Interactive reveals the majority of business travelers are equally or more cost-conscious when it comes to saving their company money in 2004. According to the poll, 83 percent of business travelers feel "more" obligated to save their company money when traveling for business this year. The survey also found that 35 percent of business travelers plan to use an online agency to book business travel in 2004, while one in five (19 percent) said they would use their company's in- house corporate travel agent. Less than one in ten (8 percent) said they would use leisure travel agents for their business-travel needs. For business travelers who use corporate agents, 42 percent feel their corporate travel agent does not always give them the lowest price and 44 percent believe that corporate agents charge high service fees. In addition, more than a third (36 percent) of business travelers frequently search online to see if they can find a better deal than their corporate agent. Eighty-four percent of business travelers cite convenience as a reason for booking business travel online in 2004; 69 percent cite a preference for self-service. The survey, conducted online March 1-3 2004, sampled 2,272 U.S. adults 18 years or older, 733 of whom are employed and plan to travel for business at least once in 2004.

The FAA, at its Annual Forecast Conference in Washington, said as the U.S. and other economies rapidly recover over the next two years, aviation would benefit. Passenger demand will return to pre-Sept. 11 levels by 2005, and large and small airlines will see an annual growth rate of 4.3 percent, the FAA predicts. Low-cost carriers and regional airlines could account for more than 50 percent of all domestic passengers by the end of the 12-year forecast period--2004-2015. But rising fuel prices are still a concern, and the profitability of airlines hinges on the business traveler returning to enough degree. DOT Secretary Norman Mineta said passengers are using different airlines and different airports than in the past, such as Long Beach, Charlotte and Midway, which helps with traffic congestion.

Travelocity has upgraded its TotalTrip vacation booking tool. Users can now simultaneously reserve tickets for attractions, ski lifts, airport transfers, air fare and accommodations. Travelocity said this extends to more than 70 destinations. The lift tickets and ground transfers were not available previously and are now all shown on one itinerary. Domestically, the transfers can be reserved on SuperShuttle, Aloha VIP Tours, All Resort Express and Colorado Mountain Express.

TripAdvisor has released the results of a yearlong study of popular hotel sites on the Web, ranked by quantity and quality of information found on the Internet. The greater the amount of positive content found about the hotel, the higher its ranking. In the U.S., the best were found to be, categorized by city, the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort in Las Vegas; The Carlyle in New York; Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando; the Mandarin Oriental in Miami; The Orchard Hotel in San Francisco; Hale Koa Hotel in Honolulu; Le Pavillon in New Orleans; Willard Intercontinental in Washington, D.C.; Fitzpartrick Hotel in Chicago and the Hilton San Diego Gaslamp Quarter in San Diego.

Vacation.com has modified its customized email tool, called e- Engagement, to help agencies comply with new federal rules governing unsolicited promotional email, or spam. Under the CAN-SPAM Act passed by Congress, agencies must provide a physical agency address in their email, use a valid return email address and provide a clear means for the recipient to opt out of the mailing list. Even though its VacationPort tool has also been modified, it does not fall under the regulations because an agent can use it to respond to a specific inquiry.