Indonesia probes air crash as neighborhood mourns
Indonesia probes air crash as neighborhood mourns — Weeping residents of Indonesia’s third-biggest city picked through the charred rubble of their homes on Tuesday a day after a domestic airliner slammed into a local neighborhood, killing 149 people. Police watching over the wreckage of Mandala Airlines flight RI 091 said its black box had been found late on Monday night and sent for analysis by investigators looking into the cause of the disaster. (Reuters)
Fall travel forecast: bad to maybe worse — AHH, autumn. No more crowded airports, chronically overbooked hotels or highways clogged by minivans filled with vacationers. Is it any wonder that business travelers look forward to the end of summer? At least they used to. This year is different. (The New York Times)
British Airways fined for labor violation — British Airways PLC has been fined 5,000 Hong Kong dollars (US$641; euro515) after pleading guilty to violating the labor rights of the head of its Hong Kong cabin crew union, officials said Tuesday. (AP)
Miss. official says casino companies reluctant to rebuild — Before Katrina, Mississippi’s Gulf coast had evolved from a swampy backwater to a boom town of casinos, tourism and beachfront entertainment employing thousands. What will it take to rebuild and restore hope to this once vibrant region after the storm? Some fear Mississippi could lose its hugely profitable Gulf Coast gambling industry altogether because of Hurricane Katrina. (CNN)
Passengers forced into Red Sea; 57 die — Smugglers on a boat making an illegal crossing from Somalia to Yemen forced passengers into the Red Sea at gunpoint miles from shore, leaving at least 57 dead and about 100 missing, fishermen and a diplomat said Monday. (AP)
Alps cable car crash kills nine — At least nine people have been killed and several others injured in a cable car accident in the Austrian Alps. A helicopter dropped a concrete block onto the cables, causing at least one car to fall and others to swing violently, local media said. (BBC News)
Airbus in $1.5bn deal with China — A Chinese airline has placed an order for 10 Airbus A330 aircraft in a deal worth $1.5bn (£815m). The purchaser, China Southern Airlines, has already bought four Airbus jets from the European consortium. The A330s, capable of carrying more than 300 passengers, are due for delivery in 2007-2008. (BBC News)
Striking Northwest workers walk in parades — Northwest Airlines employees on strike for more than two weeks took their picket line to the streets Monday during two Labor Day parades in Detroit, hoping their presence would help rally support from other unions. “With the assault on labor right now, it was important for us to be out with all the unions,” Bob Rose, president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association Local 5 in Detroit, said in describing the more than 100 Northwest union members, family and friends who showed up to march in the parades. (Rapid City Journal)
Travel sites push hotels out of searches — Travel Web sites such as Expedia and Orbitz are shoving hotel companies out of both paid and organic search listings, according to a new study exclusive to DM News. Web analytics company SEMphonic, Novato, CA, found that Expedia, Orbitz and Hotels.com hold the top spots in paid search listings on Google and Yahoo while TripAdvisor.com and Hotelclub.net are at the top in organic rankings. No major hotel chain, such as Marriott and Radisson, is in SEMphonic’s top 10 for overall ratings analyzing paid and organic results combined. (DMNews)
Finally, gas prices take a break — Gasoline prices fell Tuesday, according to the daily survey conducted by the travel group AAA, marking the first slowdown in over a week despite fears of supply shortages that erupted in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (CNN)
Northwest said to face FAA probe –
Federal aviation regulators are investigating possible maintenance problems at Northwest Airlines since mechanics went on strike Aug. 20, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. According to the newspaper, the Federal Aviation Administration said one of its inspectors, temporarily re-assigned from his duties at Northwest, had complained to the FAA and to Mark Dayton, a Democratic senator from Minnesota. (Reuters)
Carnival helps Katrina victims, cuts earnings estimates — Three Carnival Cruise Lines ships have been pressed into service by the government to provide shelter for as many as 7,000 hurricane victims. The Ecstasy, the Sensation and the Holiday will be pulled from regular use at the request of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Latest News about Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The cost of the charters was not disclosed. (AP)
New storm threatens eastern Florida — Tropical storm warnings were posted for Florida’s central Atlantic coast on Tuesday as a new cyclone formed and threatened to hit the state as a weak hurricane by the weekend. (Reuters)
Thrown off schedule — For business travelers, dodging hurricanes is an annual ritual that, like weathering summer thunderstorm delays or winter blizzards, gets easier with practice. But Katrina is different somehow. Although most business travelers insist that the human catastrophe it unleashed has not induced them to call off trips to hurricane-prone regions like Texas and Florida, they confess to having second thoughts about making plans for subsequent visits. (The New York Times)
How do travel companies rate with kids? — Anyone with children knows they can be tough customers. Even the biggest brand names in travel don’t always make the grade with kids. The few companies that do should be singled out. And other travel firms may gain from some helpful suggestions. (USA Today)
Skip Bowman, Carrie Charney, Christopher Elliott, Leslie Friedman, John Frenaye, Charles Leocha, Marge Purnell, Valerie Schneider, Mary Staley, Stephanus Surjaputra, Richard Wong.