On the Go – November 22, 2023

Industry News – Click on the title to read the full article. Many of the sources below require a free registration to gain access to the article. If a paid registration is required, the individual source will be noted.

Airlines

Southwest Airlines Confident Changes Made Earlier This Year Will Help Avoid Another Winter Meltdown (Source: CBS News)
Southwest Airlines is taxiing into the holiday travel season confident that changes made when the weather was warmer will help avoid another winter meltdown.  Flight delays were stacking up Tuesday night, with FlightAware showing 22% of the airline’s flights impacted by a major East Coast storm, and passenger numbers up 8% over last year.

An Inside Look At “A Day In The Life Of A Plane” (Source: Today)
As a record 30 million people take to the skies this Thanksgiving, NBC’s Tom Costello spent the day traveling on one plane to see what a day trip for a plane was like. Costello detailed his experience watching the plane deplane, the crew move to another flight, cleaners and catering preparing for the next flight and baggage handlers rapidly unloading/reloading between flights “A lot of energy, a lot of technology, a lot of things in place to make sure we can manage the unexpected,” said American Airlines COO David Seymour. “We’re never complaining anymore if our flight is a few minutes late,” said Hoda Kotb. “You get what it goes through.”

Delta To Get Seven Gates In Charlotte, NC Expansion (Source: WSOC-TV)
The ongoing 200,000-square-foot expansion project at Charlotte Douglas Airport will add seven gates dedicated to Delta Air Lines and three common-use gates. The North Carolina airport expects the expansion to open in the fall of 2024.

American Scraps All International Flights From Seattle, Adds New Route From Dallas (Source: The Points Guy)
Turning Seattle into an international gateway hub seems to have been a failed experiment for American Airlines.  The carrier filed plans over the weekend to cut its final international route from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA), as first seen in Cirium schedules and later confirmed by an airline spokesperson.

General Interest

Here’s What Thanksgiving Foods You Can Bring In Your Carry-On And What Has To Be Checked (Source: The Points Guy)
For a lot of Thanksgiving travelers and hosts, there’s a mutual, perhaps unwritten, agreement: The out-of-town guests travel, and the hosts handle the cooking.  For plenty of others, though, it’s not quite so straightforward. This means you’re likely to see a fellow passenger toting a turkey or pie while preparing to board the flight home for the holiday. And, of course, we expect to see plenty of passengers flying with leftovers on their way home.

Hotels

Wyndham Continues To Shoot Down Choice Hotels’ Buyout Efforts (Source: Travel Weekly)
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has rebuffed Choice Hotels International’s latest buyout attempt, with Wyndham chairman Stephen Holmes calling Choice’s most recent outreach “a step backwards.”  Holmes in a memo on Tuesday criticized Choice’s repeated efforts to acquire Wyndham, alleging that “Choice continues to ignore our major concerns around value, consideration mix and asymmetrical risk to our shareholders, given the uncertainty around regulatory timeline.”

A New Aloft Hotel Is Coming To Orlando (Source: Travel Market Report)
Aloft announced today that it would open Aloft Lake Nona in the city’s Lake Nona area. The hotel will open just south of Orlando International Airport and adjacent to the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) National Campus.   The hotel adds 205 guest rooms and 15 suites to the area, all with open floor plans, ultra-plush beds, and more.