Virtual agents no more
Virtual agents no more — Virtual travel agents are virtual no more. After years as online-only brands, Expedia and Travelocity.com will begin selling vacation activities the old-fashioned way. Both companies are opening kiosks and small retail shops in major tourist areas this month. The companies said the change would help them reach customers who had not yet purchased travel services online and would strengthen the companies’ bonds with hotels, where many of the kiosks will be located.
Machinists could send US Airways into oblivion — US Airways machinists face a choice this week: They can approve the carrier’s latest contract proposal and usher in the waves of steep pay, benefit and job cuts that come with it. Or they can turn down the contract and open the door to a walkout that could send the struggling US Airways Group Inc. — and their jobs — flying into oblivion.
Overweight, overbudget Airbus A380 debuts — Planemaker Airbus threw a huge media party on Tuesday for the A380 — overweight, overbudget and still on the ground, but hailed as the world’s largest airliner which its designers say will reshape aviation. French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero are among 5,000 guests invited for a first glimpse of the A380 in Airbus colors.
Comair president resigns — Comair’s top executive resigned Monday, nearly a month after a computer failure and severe winter storm forced the airline to shut down operations on Christmas weekend. Company president Randy Rademacher, who ran the regional airline for five topsy-turvy years, left the company effective immediately “to pursue other opportunities,” according to a company memo issued to the carrier’s 6,000 workers and reported first by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Loyalty program goes to the dogs — Fido and Fluffy can now earn frequent flier miles if their owners fly Midwest Airlines Inc. under a new program announced Monday. Oak Creek-based Midwest Airlines said it will offer pets one free roundtrip flight after flying with their owners on three paid roundtrip flights or six paid one-way flights.
Evacuate the terminal! It’s a water balloon — Authorities evacuated the Walker Field Airport terminal in Grand Junction, Colo., after finding a suspicious item in a man’s suitcase — a water balloon. About two dozen people were evacuated Sunday evening and others weren’t allowed to get off an incoming airplane after the Transportation Safety Authority found what the man called a “Water Wienie.”