Travel & Travel Technology News.

Oct 16, 2006

Hawaii Survey Shows Visitors are Satisfied. Fully two-thirds of the domestic visitors surveyed about their most recent trip to Hawaii rated it "excellent," according to data from a visitor-satisfaction report issued Friday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. Oct 15, 2006

Some travelers like programmed rebooking. Some travelers praise sophisticated computer programs that airlines use to rebook travelers on canceled flights. The programs consider itineraries, the convenience of alternatives, how much a traveler paid for his ticket and how often he or she flies the airline. Oct 9, 2006

Use of mobile phones onboard commercial aircraft is inevitable, a panel of experts agreed on the future of the inflight communications market. But the emergence of cabin standards is "a major issue, and cannot be ignored," stated Wale Adepoju, CEO and chief analyst of the Inflight Management Development Center. "Travelers are positive to the concept," said David Coiley, director-marketing and strategic relationships for AeroMobile, a joint venture with ARINC and Telenor. "We are ready to go and this thing is coming. It's a question of how we address it in the airline community," OnAir Commercial Director Adrian Gane added. Oct 9, 2006

In analyzing the mobile phones onboard commercial aircraft market, Adepoju noted that "nearly all business travelers bring a mobile phone with them" when they travel. Some 3,500 aircraft already are equipped with satellite phones, but usage is low at just 35 sec. per flight, likely owing to the cost--as much as $10-$12 per min. He expects this to rise to 4-7 min. per flight once travelers can use their own phones with much lower roaming rates. Oct 9, 2006

Another perspective on mobile phones onboard commercial aircraft is provided in a new report from Telecom, Media and Finance Assoc. forecasting that the total market for inflight connectivity services will be "between $260 million and $950 million" by 2016 "depending on the rate of deployment." While large "in the context of current revenues from inflight passenger connectivity, which totaled around $50 million in 2005," the figure is likely to disappoint airlines and others that expected a much larger market, according to TMF President Tim Farrar. "In particular, the growth of the market will be slower than they may have anticipated with projected revenues of only $70-$253 million by 2010." Oct 9, 2006

AeroMobile, OnAir

AeroMobile expects to have its mobile system operational on two airlines within the next six months. They are Qantas, which is conducting trials and an unidentified Middle Eastern launch customer. OnAir, a partnership of Airbus and SITA, will run trials at Air France, TAP Portugal and bmi next year and has Ryanair as a launch customer. Oct 9, 2006

ARINC, SITA

ARINC and SITA released a detailed set of standards and specifications last week that the companies say will "enable the adoption of efficient, XML-based business-to-business messaging" for airlines. The standards define a new messaging approach, Type X, that makes use of XML and Web Services technology to complement existing industry Type B messaging. "The standards and specifications ratified this week represent more than a year of development by a blue-ribbon industry work group including Amadeus, British Airways, Galileo, Lufthansa Systems, Mercator, Northwest Airlines, Sabre and Worldspan," said a joint ARINC/SITA statement. The companies say Type X will enable more cost-efficient electronic communications than standard Type B, which currently is used by them in an estimated 40 million messages daily. Oct 9, 2006

Delta Vacations

Delta Vacations has launched a new "Book Now/Fly Free Later" promotion that rewards travelers who book an air-inclusive Delta Vacations package of five nights or longer before October 31, 2006 with a voucher for one free round-trip air ticket. Oct 15, 2006

Transaero

Transaero will introduce SITA's PassengerWeb Check-in application next month. Initial deployment will be available from the airline's home base at Moscow Domodedovo, first within Russia and then abroad. From Russian and English, the service gradually will be made available in Chinese, French and Spanish. Transaero also intends to work with SITA on introduction of check-in kiosks in the near future. Oct 11, 2006

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Editor: Aram Gesar, eMail: [e-mail]

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Oct 9, 2006