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TOP STORY

Clouds blanket much of Northern California ahead of heat event


Travel


ROUTES: SFO LOSES A LOW-COST EUROPE OPTION


A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF AIR TRAVEL AND AIRPORT NEWS

By Jim Glab, Freelance WriterSep 9, 2023




The entrance to San Francisco International Airport, 2009.

George Rose/Getty Images

In this week’s air travel developments, a new report says business travel
spending will top pre-pandemic levels next year, as road warriors are
increasingly combining company and personal trips; a low-cost European carrier
apparently plans to drop a key San Francisco route but add one from Los Angeles;
a Taiwanese airline sets a December launch date for SFO flights; international
route news comes from Cayman Airways, Austrian Airlines, JetBlue and Biman
Bangladesh Airlines; a new Bermuda airline starts all-business-class service to
the East Coast; American adds a new transcontinental route from Southern
California; JSX switches airports in San Diego; Hawaiian plans to start flying
its first new Boeing 787 from San Francisco on April 15; airlines plan more Maui
service cuts; and San Jose International Airport expands online parking
reservations and adds a car wash option.



For the past couple of years, airlines have been predicting that the business
travel market — the bread and butter of their bottom lines — would return to
pre-pandemic levels soon enough but weren’t sure just when, even as leisure air
travel roared back to record levels this summer. Now, the Global Business Travel
Association, a trade group of corporate travel managers, is forecasting in its
2023 Business Travel Index Outlook that company travel — at least in terms of
spending — will blow past pre-pandemic levels next year. GBTA predicts worldwide
business travel spending will hit $1.4 trillion in 2024 and continue to grow in
the following years, reaching $1.8 trillion by 2027. 



A stock image showing a business traveler at the airport. 

Dana Hoff/Getty Images

“In 2022, global business travel spending rose 47% to $1.03 trillion, with
strong gains continuing and 32% growth expected in 2023,” GBTA said. “These
robust gains were fueled by pent-up demand after the COVID-19 pandemic, more
favorable global economic conditions in 2022 and 2023 and recession risks that
have yet to happen.” Those spending numbers include all business travel expenses
worldwide — not just airfare but also lodging, food and beverage, ground
transportation, and other costs. The increased spending might not necessarily
correlate with the number of business trips. “Business travel spending is a key
indicator, but how travel volumes will continue to rebound is yet to be seen,”
said GBTA CEO Suzanne Neufang. 

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The organization also surveyed 4,700 business travelers around the world to get
a sense of how their habits are changing as the market rebounds. It found that
the two “biggest drivers” of the industry’s revival so far this year have been
“the return of in-person meetings and events and the recovery of some
international business travel capacity and volumes” as COVID-era restrictions
were removed. The survey found that 62% of business travelers are more
frequently “blending business and personal travel (i.e., bleisure travel) than
they did in 2019, with 42% adding additional leisure days to their business
trips and 79% of these travelers staying at the same accommodation for business
and vacation portions of their trip.” Respondents estimated their own business
travel spending at an average of $1,018 per person per trip, including $391 for
lodging, $189 for food and beverage, $182 for airfare, $136 for ground
transportation, and $120 for miscellaneous expenses. Two-thirds of the travelers
surveyed said their companies provide them with a corporate credit card; of
those respondents, 37% said their companies mandate the card’s use for business
travel bookings.



A Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Norse Atlantic Airways stands at the gate in
Germany.

Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images

San Francisco appears to be losing an option for cheap flights to London. The
European low-cost carrier Norse Atlantic, which started flying the SFO-London
Gatwick route in July, is not taking reservations for flights after Oct. 28,
according to Simple Flying. That could make SFO-London a summer seasonal route
for the carrier, but AeroRoutes reports that Norse Atlantic has also “closed
reservations for service in 2024,” when it had previously planned to resume
daily SFO-London 787 flights on March 31. Meanwhile, Norse Atlantic plans to add
a new West Coast route next year: Los Angeles to Paris Charles de Gaulle. The
airline already flies from LAX to Gatwick and Oslo. Norse has service to Paris
from New York JFK and plans to add Miami-Paris flights in December. Its new
LAX-Paris service is due to launch May 1 of next year, with six 787 flights each
week on a route also served by partners Delta and Air France, as well as Air
Tahiti Nui and French Bee (to Paris Orly). Norse said one-way fares on the route
will start at $279. Meanwhile, Norse is offering a global fare sale, with
discounts on bookings made by midnight Sept. 12, including SFO-London fares
starting at $159 each way and LAX-London at $179. Seats are limited, and
blackout dates apply.

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A couple of months ago, the Taiwanese airline Starlux announced plans to add San
Francisco as its second U.S. gateway (after Los Angeles) by year’s end, and now
it has a startup date. According to AeroRoutes, the carrier will begin flying
from Taipei to SFO on Dec. 16, initially operating three flights a week and
increasing to daily frequencies March 31. Starlux is a full-service airline; it
will use a 306-seat Airbus A350-900 on the route (as it does between Taipei and
LAX), offering four classes of service: first, business, premium economy and
regular economy. Both the Taipei-SFO and Taipei-LAX routes are already served by
Taiwan’s other two big international carriers, China Airlines and EVA. As One
Mile at a Time’s Ben Schlappig commented, “I can’t think of anywhere other than
Taipei where you have three global airlines that share the same hub.” 



FILE: Travelers wave Cuban and U.S. flags after JetBlue Flight 387, the first
scheduled commercial flight to Cuba since 1961, arrives from Fort Lauderdale on
Aug. 31, 2016, in Santa Clara, Cuba.

VIEW press/Corbis via Getty Images

In other international news, Cayman Airways plans a seasonal expansion of its
service from Los Angeles to Grand Cayman, adding a second weekly flight from
Nov. 5 through March 9. Austrian Airlines has filed plans to begin seasonal Los
Angeles-Vienna service June 2 of next year, a couple of weeks later than it did
this year but increasing frequencies on the route from five a week to six.
JetBlue has terminated its service to Havana from New York JFK and will do the
same to its Fort Lauderdale-Havana flights effective Sept. 17, according to
AeroRoutes. And another foreign airline wants to fly to the U.S., according to
Simple Flying: Biman Bangladesh Airlines has submitted an application to the
Transportation Department for permission to operate six flights a week starting
next summer between Dhaka, Bangladesh, and New York JFK, operating nonstop
eastbound and via a stop in Izmir, Turkey, westbound. Simple Flying notes that
any U.S. approval would depend on Bangladesh’s earning the Federal Aviation
Administration’s Category 1 safety ranking.

The newest foreign airline to start service to the U.S. is BermudAir, which last
week started flying from Bermuda to Boston and to New York’s Westchester County
Airport in White Plains, with plans to add Fort Lauderdale service Sept. 22.
BermudAir is looking to serve the top end of the market with business
class-style seating. It’s using leased Embraer E175s that have 88 seats, but
it’s selling only 44 of them per flight to provide passengers with extra
space. BermudAir said it will introduce a new “Aisle Class” configuration on the
E175s on Nov. 1, changing the layout from two-by-two seating to one-by-one, with
a total capacity of 30 seats. “Our Aisle Class seats are designed as suites,
providing an exceptional level of comfort and privacy,” the airline said. And
its in-flight food and beverage services “are curated in partnership with local
establishments, bringing a taste of the island’s renowned hospitality to the
skies.”

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The main cabin inside a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner from Hawaiian Airlines. 

Courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines

On the domestic side, American Airlines plans to add another transcontinental
route from its Miami hub on Jan. 8 when it introduces daily service between
Miami and Orange County’s John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. Earlier, American
announced plans for new Miami-Portland service beginning Nov. 5 and
Miami-Sacramento flights starting Dec. 20. JSX, which offers business
class-style service on 30-passenger regional jets, is moving its San Diego
operations from San Diego International to Carlsbad Airport as of Oct. 5. JSX
flies from San Diego to Las Vegas and Taos, New Mexico. On Sept. 13, low-cost
Avelo Airlines is due to launch its newest route, operating two weekly flights
between Las Vegas and Dubuque, Iowa. 

Want to be the first to fly Hawaiian Airlines’ new 787-9s? The airline said this
week it will put its first Dreamliner into service April 15-May 14, with daily
flights between San Francisco International and Honolulu, followed May 14 by
“select flights” on its Los Angeles-Honolulu route and May 15 on its LAX-Maui
route. Hawaiian plans to add 12 new 787s to its fleet over the next few years.
The 300-passenger planes include a premium cabin with 34 Leihoku suites in a
1-2-1 configuration, equipped with privacy doors, wireless cellphone chargers
and other amenities.  

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People swimming in the sea on Aug. 21, 2023, on Maui in Hawaii after the
devastating wildfires that ravaged the island.

Zeng Hui/Xinhua via Getty Images

There’s no telling how long it could be before travel to Maui recovers following
the deadly wildfires there. A couple of weeks ago, we reported on how some
airlines had downsized their flight schedules to Maui's Kahului Airport in the
wake of the disaster, and AeroRoutes has an update. It said that Southwest
Airlines this week suspended flights to Maui from San Jose, Sacramento and
Phoenix at least through Nov. 17 and reduced its Oakland-Maui schedule from two
daily flights to one. Southwest has also suspended its Los Angeles-Maui service
at least through Oct. 4. American Airlines has cut one of its two daily LAX-Maui
flights through Nov. 15. Delta has done the same through Nov. 16. United’s
earlier reduction of LAX-Maui flights from two a day to one has been extended
through Dec. 20. Its Maui flights from Denver and Chicago will remain suspended
through Oct. 28 and Dec. 13, respectively. Alaska Airlines’ previously announced
reduction of Seattle-Maui service from three daily flights to two, which had
applied through Sept. 30, has been extended through Nov. 16.

In airport news, San Jose International Airport has announced an expansion of
online parking reservations and the introduction of a car wash option. “The
airport has added its Terminal A Parking Garage, or Hourly Lot 2, to the Online
Parking Reservation System at a flat rate of $24 per day,” SJC said in a news
release. “Terminal B Hourly and Daily Lot 5 is also now available for
reservations online. Parking reservations continue to be available in the
Airport’s Economy Lot 1 for a low flat rate of $18 per day.” Travelers can
see real-time parking availability, book and pay on the airline's website. They
can also now book a “waterless exterior car wash” in SJC’s hourly, daily and
economy lots provided by Future Wash for $59.99, $89.99 or $199, depending on
the level of detail. “During the online booking process, travelers provide their
vehicle details, and upon completion, are contacted by the Future Wash mobile
car washing team to confirm the order and the car’s reserved location. The
vehicle is then cleaned at its parked location and ready two hours prior to the
travelers’ scheduled return. A minimum 24-hour stay is required,” SJC said. 






Sep 9, 2023


JIM GLAB

Freelance Writer


JIM GLAB IS A FREELANCE WRITER.




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