Security fee may double
A fee charged to airline travelers to help pay for airport security would more than double under President Bush’s spending proposal for the Homeland Security Department. Bush’s plan calls for boosting the security fee from $2.50 to $5.50 for a one-way airline ticket and from a maximum of $5 to $8 for multiple legs. The hikes are expected to generate $1.5 billion.
10 great European drives
On a great drive, the destination never surpasses the journey. In Europe, with the densest highway system in the world, good roads are easy to find, but great drives come once in a blue kilometer. The drives that follow are more than means to an end, more than concrete curls along countryside contours or asphalt assaulting towering peaks.
11 killed in LA train wreck
A man apparently intending to commit suicide parked his SUV in the path of a Metrolink commuter train Wednesday morning, then jumped out of the way in time to watch a chain-reaction wreck that killed at least 11 people and injured about 180. The crash, which involved three trains, was the deadliest on a railroad in the United States since 1999.
CDC: Norwalk cases double
Talk about seasick. Over the past two months the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has received reports of 10 cruise ships stricken with outbreaks of gastrointestinal problems - more than double the number recorded during the same period a year ago. The latest case is Holland America’s Veendam.
Florida: triple car-rental fees
It soon could cost more to buy, own and rent a motor vehicle in Florida if state legislators adopt a proposal. Saying Florida desperately needs more money to maintain and build roads, Floridians for Better Transportation is proposing large increases - doubling or tripling, in some cases - in vehicle registration, title and impact fees, and rental-car surcharges.
Blizzard stalls travel
A howling blizzard slammed the Northeast on Sunday with more than 2 feet of snow and hurricane-strength wind gusts, halting air travel for thousands of people, keeping others off slippery highways and burying parked cars under deep drifts. Up to 31 inches of snow fell north of Boston.
5 secret Caribbean bargains
The Caribbean has become a second home to the mega-rich including the likes of Mick Jagger (Mustique), Richard Branson (Necker Island) and Donald Trump (Canouan). But with a bit of careful planning, your jaunt to the sunny shores of some obscure island does not need to break the bank.
Delta posts record loss
The Christmas week storm and subsequent shutdown of Comair, after a malfunctioning computer, cost Delta Air Lines $20 million, the company disclosed while reporting a record $2.2 billion fourth quarter loss. The report capped a year where the carrier lost $5.2 billion, the largest one-year loss in airline history.
Plane water still unsafe
The U.S. government has found for the second time in recent months that water from a sampling of commercial aircraft galleys and bathrooms was not safe for use, regulators said on Wednesday. Tests last November and December by the Environmental Protection Agency on a fraction of the thousands of planes in the domestic and international commercial fleet found samples failed to meet government drinking water standards.
Airline bloodletting continues
Domestic airlines this week begin reporting 2004 losses expected to top $5 billion, pushing the total since 2000 to almost $33 billion. The expansion of “simplified” fare structures featuring lower business-travel prices could cost the carriers an extra $2.1 billion.