WAV Travel News - Monday Edition
Bill Vervaeke, CDME
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Carnival more than doubles Q1 net income
Carnival Corp. said Friday that its first-quarter net income rose to $49 million from $20 million the year before.
However, revenue declined to $3.5 billion from $3.6 billion.
“The year is off to a strong start, achieving significantly higher earnings than the prior year and our previous guidance,” said CEO Arnold Donald in a statement. "Our onboard revenue initiatives drove particularly strong improvement in the first quarter with onboard yields more than 8% higher than prior year.”
While fuel consumption and fuel prices both declined, changes in currency exchange rates reduced earnings by about 6 cents a share, which is equivalent to the entire profit in the quarter.
Carnival said that since December, unfavorable currency exchange rates have reduced full year 2015 earnings expectations by $219 million, or 28 cents per share. It said this impact has been significantly offset by the improvement in operating performance, resulting in just a nickel reduction in its earnings forecast since the December update.
Carnival said it expects to earn $2.30 to $2.50 per share in 2015 on a non-GAAP accounting basis, compared up from $1.93 per share last year.
Tourico unveils Group Bidding Engine
Tourico Holidays has introduced an online tool enabling hotels to bid against each other in real time for an agent’s small-group bookings.
Agents using Tourico’s online Group Bidding Engine (GBE) log in to the Tourico website where they can query up to seven hotels for bids. They can choose from hotels based on criteria that include location, price range and category.
Hotels have 24 hours to respond by logging in to Tourico’s supplier extranet; while there, they can see what their competitors are bidding and can modify their bids, dropping the price or adding in a free benefit such as breakfast accordingly.
Major group players such as Zentila and HotelPlanner, which partners with Expedia’s Hotels.com, do not offer such transparency, nor do hotel aggregators who work closely with agents. CCRA Travel has an online group booking tool, but it does not offer transparency to responding hotels. ABC Global Services does not have group sourcing available, although it has something in the works for later this year.
Major tour operators such as Funjet Vacations and Apple Vacations provide group booking services but not an automated system, although Apple is working on one.
Christopher Anderson, associate professor at the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, said that online group booking tools have been slow to gain traction in the marketplace, largely because booking a hotel for a group can be a complex process.
The more high-end the hotel, the more additional services there are to be negotiated, and the most efficient way to negotiate is in a conversation. Anderson said that conversion rates for online tools are much lower than for the voice model.
He said that Tourico’s GBE would probably work well for low-end business. The transparency could drive pricing lower but could increase conversion with less human involvement, which in turn could keep margins the same because it involves less staff time.
“The platform has potential for select-service properties that don’t offer much beyond sleeping rooms,” he said. One example of a market to which this would appeal would be parents booking rooms for a swim team or soccer team, he said.
Agents can review quotes as they come in and book the hotel they want on the website by putting 10% down on a credit card. They can then start a rooming list. At that point, a member of Tourico’s group department will contact the agents to continue the planning process. Agents can seek assistance earlier in the booking process if they wish.
Ofir Cohen, executive vice president of global activities and groups for Tourico, said that agents who prefer to book in the traditional way, by emailing a request to Tourico and getting quotes that way, can continue to do so. He said that 35,000 hotels are participating in the GBE; Tourico has 50,000 hotels in its inventory.
Agents can also add on extras such as group transfers, activities and attractions. The GBE is for groups of up to 100 rooms, Cohen said. He added that when the site went live earlier last week, Tourico got 30 requests for bids in less than 24 hours, all for leisure groups. Cohen called that a good response, since the company has done little marketing.
Moon Palace postpones opening for fourth time
Palace Resorts' all-inclusive Moon Palace Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios is not opening on April 11, as the resort pushed back its debut for the fourth time.
The 700-room Moon Palace originally was supposed to open February, then the opening was pushed to March 1 and later to April 11.
"Ownership has made the decision to postpone our soft opening following the successful completion of a multimillion-dollar renovation," a company statement said. "We are monitoring construction very closely to ensure the project is finalized promptly while pending a definitive date from our general contractor in Jamaica."
The inaugural celebration, which had been set for May 6-9 and was to feature a performance by Jamaican reggae singer Shaggy on May 8, will be rescheduled for a later date this year, according to Palace Resorts.
The company assumed ownership of the former Sunset Jamaica Grande last July and began an extensive renovation and expansion.
"As with any opening of this magnitude in a new market, operations and procedures must be honed to meet the highest standards. Palace Resorts is taking every measure to ensure that a five-star experience is fully in place prior to the unveiling," Palace said.
The company will handle all changes to existing airline reservations and absorb all change fees for guests who hold reservations for April 11 and beyond.
British Airways Says Some Frequent Flyer Accounts Hacked
British Airways said on Sunday tens of thousands of its frequent flyer accounts had been hacked and that it had frozen those affected to sort the problem out.
The airline said no personal information had been viewed or stolen, but warned customers that some fliers might not be able to temporarily use their air miles.
It said the problem concerned a small number of its millions of customers and that it expected the system to be back to normal in the next day or so.
"British Airways has become aware of some unauthorised activity in relation to a small number of frequent flyer executive club accounts," a spokesman said.
"We would like to reassure customers that, at this stage we are not aware of any access to any subsequent information pages within accounts, including travel histories or payment card details."
Hackers had launched their attack "via an automated process" using information obtained elsewhere on the internet, he explained, to try to gain access to some accounts.
"We are sorry for the concern and inconvenience this matter has caused," said the spokesman.
Mining for tourists? A dubious economic savior
in Appalachia
Mining for tourists? Parts of Appalachia look to past for tourism
future; 'it's not a panacea'
SECO, Ky. (AP) -- Mines built this company town. Could vines — the wine grapes growing on a former strip mine in the hills above — help to draw visitors here?
Jack and Sandra Looney sure hope so.
Their Highland Winery — housed in the lovingly restored, mustard-yellow "company store" — pays tribute to coal-mining's history here, as do their signature wines: Blood, Sweat and Tears.
"The Coal Miner's Blood sells more than any of them," Jack Looney says of the sweet red.
He and his wife have converted the store's second and third floors into a bed and breakfast. They've also bought and restored a couple dozen of the old coal company houses as rentals, and rooms fill up during their annual spring Miner's Memorial Festival.
Seco, like so many Central Appalachian communities, owes its existence to coal — its very name an acronym for South East Coal Company. But as mining wanes, officials across the region are looking for something to replace the traditional jobs and revenues.
In some of the poorest, most remote counties, about the only alternative people can come up with is tourism — eco-, adventure, or, as with the Looneys, historical and cultural. There are mining museums, festivals, wilderness adventures. Sub-regions have been rechristened with alluring names like the Hatfield-McCoy Mountains or the PA Wilds.
Will it work? Proponents point to the region's assets, its natural beauty, its distinctive mountain character — and characters (like the feuding Hatfields and McCoys). But others note the paradoxes: Environmental degradation alongside unspoiled areas, a history of poor education that for decades didn't preclude high-paying jobs, an away-from-it-all feel partly caused by a lack of good roads and other infrastructure.
There's a gap between desires and infrastructure in many areas hoping to develop tourism, says University of Tennessee researcher Tim Ezzell. "We have community colleges that will teach you to be an X-ray tech, but they don't have culinary arts," he said.
For all but a lucky few places with both assets and access, recent studies and spending data suggest, tourism may be a dubious savior.
"It's kind of really odd that economic practitioners push tourism to be a propulsive industry when it has such low wages," says Suzanne Gallaway, an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro
"It's not a panacea," adds tourism consultant Carole Morris. "It's not going to be that cure-all."
Appalachia covers 205,000 square miles, encompassing 420 counties in 13 states, from northeast Mississippi to southwest New York, according to the official definition offered by the Appalachian Regional Commission. West Virginia is the only state wholly included.
The region includes many cities and has a range of industries. But many areas in Central Appalachia are at an economic crossroads, as mining and logging give way to services jobs.
Sociologist Rebecca Scott, author of a book on mountaintop removal in her native West Virginia, says, "It's important to really point out the situation of the state being caught between the condition of being an extraction economy, a sacrifice zone, and yet having most of its sort of long-term successes in tourism being around nature-based tourism. I think that it's a really big contradiction."
Gallaway, who did her doctoral thesis on tourism development in the region, found that while tourism and hospitality accounted for 16 percent of all jobs in the region, those sectors produced just 7 percent of the wages.
"I think tourism can always be part of a diverse economy," says Gallaway, who teaches at UNCG's Bryan School for Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality. "But I wouldn't put all of my eggs in that basket, no matter who you are."
A look at some tourism initiatives around the region shows challenges as well as successes.
WEST VIRGINIA
A 2012 report compiled for the Mountain State's Division of Tourism found that spending and hospitality employment have been slow to grow in many counties.
A glaring exception was Harrison County, where direct tourism spending has more than doubled since 2004 — to $142 million — and hospitality employment has increased by more than 50 percent. But those numbers can be deceiving.
Many rooms in the area's hotels are being occupied by workers drilling in the nearby Marcellus shale formation, as coal has been replaced by hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, says county commission president Ron Watson.
According to the economic report, tourism-related jobs in the Hatfield-McCoy Mountains — the marketing label for a cluster of coal-producing counties — actually dropped from 1,400 to 1,300 from 2004 to 2012.
Another area that includes the New River Gorge and the Greenbrier resort shed 700 tourism-related jobs during the period, the report shows.
PENNSYLVANIA
Morris, who was head of cultural tourism for the state of Kentucky before opening her own consultancy, says there's a fine line between squashing initiative and encouraging pipe dreams.
"I have rarely been in a place where tourism was impossible," says Morris. "There's always something interesting, something in the history of a community that brings people."
Still, in places where tourism seemed less viable, she saw her job as "managing those expectations."
A few years ago, Morris shared a $100,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant to consult with several "distressed" counties. One of her clients was Forest County, Pennsylvania.
For generations, the county, dominated by the Allegheny National Forest, was a popular vacation destination for blue-collar workers, earning it the nickname "Pittsburgh's playground." But as manufacturing waned and tastes changed, Morris found, locals were left with a "tired product."
Working with the consultants, a local planning group suggested a rebranding: Forest County would become a "gateway" to the Lumber Heritage Region and the PA Wilds. The trick, Morris and team wrote in their action plan, was for the county to stay "true to its heritage of 'the place to get away from it all,' and respect its rural roots while moving into the new marketplace for tourism." The latter meant things as simple as adding Wi-Fi and non-smoking rooms, and encouraging more businesses to take credit and debit cards.
"People do want to get away from it all," the team wrote, "but visitors want to stay connected if necessary."
KENTUCKY
As environmentalists fight to protect areas not disturbed by mining, some longtime residents are trying to make the most of what the coal industry has left behind.
In its day, Lynch was the largest coal company town in the world, built by industrialist J.P. Morgan to provide coking coal for his U.S. Steel Corp. At its height in the 1940s, more than 10,000 people lived in the neat company houses that lined Kentucky 160 and snaked up the surrounding hillsides.
Today, Lynch's population hovers around 730. But Portal 31, the mine that helped fuel America's postwar industrial renaissance, has been given new life.
Passing through a concrete archway topped by the words "SAFETY THE FIRST CONSIDERATION," visitors ride a miniature train several hundred feet into the hillside as a guide and animated exhibits illustrate mining's history here. Several original company buildings have been restored. The ticket office is located in Lamp House No. 2, where miners gathered to fill and light their carbide headlamps before beginning their shift. In 2010, the regional commission awarded a $240,000 grant to restore the old Lynch firehouse.
Down the road in Benham, built to service International Harvester's coal mines, the former company store now houses the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, including items from the personal collection of "Coal Miner's Daughter" Loretta Lynn. The 1926 brick school across the road is an inn that doubles as a training ground for a community college's hospitality management program.
Museum Curator Phyllis Sizemore says the exhibition mine saw a record number of visitors in July: 1,033. That's not a lot, but Sizemore, who grew up in a nearby coal camp, says the value of some things can't be measured in dollars spent or names in a guest book.
"I don't look to tourism exactly as a savior," says Sizemore, 62, the granddaughter, niece, sister and mother of miners. "I look at education as a savior ... We are doing both."
Doing tourism in an out-of-the-way place, especially one that's been blasted and carved up, is "an uphill battle," says Gallaway.
No one knows that better than Jack and Sandra Looney, whose winery lies in Letcher County, once a top coal producer. Since 1988, the county has lost about 80 percent of its mining jobs.
When they bought it, the old company store was little more than a shell. "So we had to rebuild all the inside, put the roof back on it," says Jack Looney, whose father shopped there before breaking his back in a cave-in.
Then there was another big hurdle for the winery: Letcher County had been "dry" since the 1940s. So the Looneys researched state law, petitioned for a precinct vote and won the right to produce and sell alcohol.
Today, rows of vines line the old strip mine at the head of No. 2 Hollow. French merlot plants have been grafted onto native "possum grape" roots to help them adapt to local soil.
"I have found out they grow great here on these mountaintop removals," says Looney, who makes his living building gas stations. "It's real hot and sunny during the daytime, and windy at the evening time."
The Looneys' only advertising is a billboard. Most of their trade comes from folks who'd moved away — and some who stop by just to see family names in an old mining company ledger unearthed during renovations.
More than a decade after renovations were completed, the winery and inn still have trouble turning a profit. Looney says his construction business loaned the operation about $30,000 last year.
The couple started the venture as a way to keep their daughter, Jean, who was studying food science at the University of Kentucky, in the mountains. She eventually started her own vineyard with her husband in Lexington.
Jack Looney still hasn't given up on Jean coming back to run things in Seco. If not, then there are always the grandkids.
"Maybe somebody will before I get too old to quit fooling with it."
In NYC, an unusual task force fights home-as-hotel rentals
Fighting home-as-hotel rentals, a NYC task force knocks on doors, follows digital trails
NEW YORK (AP) -- From an office by the Brooklyn Bridge, a specialized team of investigators tackles a fast-growing concern in the nation's biggest city: apartments being rented like hotel rooms.
Building and fire inspectors, police, lawyers, city tax specialists and others combine door-knocking, digital sleuthing and even video surveillance in an uncommon approach to an issue bubbling up around the country.
New York's investigators have cited over 7,000 fire and building code violations, shut down over 200 short-term apartments and sued several operators — ending an additional 250 short-term rentals — over the last nine years, according to the Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement. With Airbnb and other websites sparking a short-term rental boom, some lawmakers now want to triple the illegal-hotel investigation staff and have it go beyond answering complaints to scour the web for suspect listings.
"The problem has skyrocketed in the past few years," and enforcement must keep pace, says City Council Housing and Buildings Committee Chairman Jumaane Williams.
But some proprietors have called the city's tactics heavy-handed. Airbnb says New York unfairly lumps occasional users in with hotel-scale operators, although officials say enforcement focuses on big players.
"It can get overzealous," says Airbnb public policy head David Hantman, who wants New York laws changed to exempt people renting out their own homes and "target the truly bad actors."
It's largely illegal in New York to rent entire apartments for under 30 days, though it can be OK to rent out spare rooms if a resident also stays home.
Yet vacation rental sites boast many apartments. The city fielded 1,150 illegal-hotel complaints last year, up 62 percent from 2013.
Hosts say "home sharing" helps them pay bills and makes traveling funkier and cheaper. But city officials note that guests generally don't get fire sprinklers and other safety features required in hotels, and residents contend with rotating casts of strangers.
"You get on the elevator, and you don't even know who's going to get on," says Audrey Smaltz, a fashion-industry entrepreneur whose Manhattan apartment building has been used as a $500-a-night hotel, according to a city lawsuit. "I don't feel safe."
Countless travelers have learned the front-door entry code, and a stranger wandered onto the roof and stared at Smaltz through her penthouse terrace window one night last fall, she said.
There are no short-term rentals in the building now, the owner said in court papers.
Many cities are addressing, and sometimes allowing, short-term vacation rentals. San Francisco is now crafting rules permitting some home-as-hotel stays and determining enforcement procedures. In Chicago, a business and consumer department handles unlicensed vacation rental complaints and can issue fines.
New York, meanwhile, uses its multi-agency Mayor's Office for Special Enforcement.
Investigations generally start with a police officer, fire inspector and building inspector knocking on doors and asking denizens whether they live there, acting director Elan Parra says. When investigators find a paying visitor, they'll request booking details.
That can lead to violation notices, fines, follow-up inspections and evacuations, if inspectors declare a serious safety threat.
The consequences might not end there. Using software to cross-reference information, investigators look for patterns in complaints, listings, lessees, building owners, managers, companies or other factors that might point to a multiple-apartment operation and warrant not just administrative fines but a lawsuit for damages. Occasionally, investigators will stake out a building with video cameras, Parra said.
"We focus on the places where people are complaining, where there are clearly presented concerns and issues. ... We want to make sure that we're allocating our resources to getting and eradicating the absolute worst operators" and safety risks, Parra said. This month, his office shut down three Brooklyn dwellings it said were bunk-bed-stuffed, fire-hazard hostels.
Meanwhile, City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal and several colleagues called for expanding the staff from 11 to about 36. Councilman Ben Kallos wants the city to post publicly how illegal-hotel complaints are resolved.
But some short-term rental proponents say the office has gone overboard.
Airbnb has spotlighted a Manhattan man who faced $2,400 in fines after renting his room to a tourist, although his roommate stayed in the apartment throughout. A city board ultimately agreed that was legal and nixed the fine.
Another man sued the city over an illegal-hotel inspection, saying investigators intimidated guests, grabbed him by the neck and pushed him. The city denied his claims and settled for what he says was $2,000; the city couldn't immediately confirm the amount.
The man, Mina Guirguis, says he started renting rooms in his Manhattan loft to visiting international students after he and his wife both lost jobs amid the 2009 recession. They soon expanded to a second loft and another whole building they rented. Guirguis says he was unclear on whether the short-term rental laws applied to his setup.
Now, Guirguis and his wife have been booted from the buildings, and the city sued them this fall.
"We have experienced something I could never even imagine could happen in the United States," Guirguis says. "There is something that needs to be stopped."
Parra says the inspections are conducted legally, and courteously.
"This is really civil enforcement: They ask questions," he said.
And the city may just be getting started.
"You'll see more enforcement as we go along," Mayor Bill de Blasio said this fall.
Islamic State beheads 8, led to death by teens
The Islamic State group released a new video Sunday showing its fighters cutting off the heads of eight men described as Shiite Muslims, who were led to their execution by teenage boys.
The eight men were beheaded in the central Syrian province of Hama. Blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs, the men are seen being led forward in a field by teenage boys, the Daily Mail reported.
The video was posted on social media. It could not be independently verified but it appeared to be genuine, the Associated Press reported. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in the United Kingdom said the video appeared authentic.
The video shows the hostages led in a field by teenage boys, where they were handed over to a group of fighters. A boy wearing a black uniform is seen handing out knives to the fighters before they are killed.
An Islamic State fighter speaks in the video, calling the hostages "impure infidels" and saying the military campaign against the Islamic State will make the group stronger.
"Our swords will soon, God willing, reach ... allies like Bashar and his party," the man said in reference to Syrian President Bashar Assad and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group that is fighting on his side.
One of the victims appeared to be Younes Hujairi, who was kidnapped from his hometown of Arsal near the Syrian border in January, his family told the state-run National News Agency of Lebanon.
The Islamic State terror group, also known as ISIL or ISIS, has beheaded scores of captives since capturing large parts of Iraq and Syria last year. Earlier this month, a video was released showing the beheading of three Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, security forces continued to fight Islamic State militants in Tikrit on Sunday with air support from the U.S. and its allies, Reuters reported.
Tikrit Mayor Osama al-Tikriti warned that retaking the city would be slow. "A rapid advance in a city where the ground is littered with bombs and booby-traps is too tough to achieve," he told Reuters.
The offensive in Tikrit, a town about 80 miles north of Baghdad that was the hometown of Saddam Hussein, has put the United States in an awkward position.
The bulk of the Iraqi force attacking into the city, about 20,000 fighters, is made up of Shiite militias who are supported by Iranian advisers and artillery and rocket support. The U.S. began conducting airstrikes around Tikrit on Wednesday, the Pentagon said.
23 hospitalized after Air Canada flight slides off runway
Air Canada plane makes hard landing short of Halifax runway
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — An Air Canada plane made a hard landing short of the runway at the Halifax airport during a snowstorm, crashing into a bank of antennas and shearing off its main landing gear, nose cone, and an engine as it skidded on its belly, officials said. The airline said Sunday that 25 people were taken to hospitals for observation and treatment of minor injuries.
The airline said Flight AC624, an Airbus 320 that left Toronto late Saturday, had 133 passengers and five crew members. Air Canada said the aircraft landed in stormy conditions at 12:43 a.m. Sunday.
"They touched down 1,100 feet (330 meters) short of the runway so I'd say they're pretty lucky," Mike Cunningham, a regional manager for Canada's Transport Safety Board, told a news conference.
Cunningham said the plane hit an antenna array, shearing the main landing gear off before sliding on its belly onto the runway for another 1,100 feet before coming to a stop. Cunningham said there was significant damage to the plane and could not rule out weather as a factor. He also said he believes a power line was severed, which led to a loss of power at the airport.
Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch said 25 people were taken to local hospitals and all but one of them were released.
"All of us at Air Canada are greatly relieved that there have been no critical injuries as a result of this incident," Goersch said.
The Transportation Safety Board provided pictures that showed significant damage to the plane with the nose torn off and an engine crumpled under a damaged wing.
"This was not a hard landing. This was an actual crash," said Mike Magnus, a 60-year-old businessman who was sitting in the first row. "It was the closest I've ever came to death. There is no doubt in my mind. Obviously that's some political maneuvering."
Magnus added that the snow covering the runway likely extinguished any sparks that might have caused the plane to catch fire.
Power went off at the airport. Nova Scotia Power later tweeted that power had been restored. Cpl. Greg Church of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a power line south of the runway was damaged.
Halifax Stanfield International Airport spokesman Peter Spurway credited the crew and passengers for evacuating the plane within a minute.
"We just kicked the doors out and jumped onto the wing and then ran because we just wanted to get away from the airplane in case of explosions or anything," said Dominic Stettler, a father of three.
Some passengers complained they were left standing on the tarmac, some in their stocking feet, for up to 50 minutes as they were lashed by wind-whipped snow before buses arrived.
"People were just happy to be alive but after a while it got tiresome having to wait outside in the freezing cold. I only had a golf shirt on," Magnus said.
Spurway said the airport is reviewing its response.
The Halifax region was under a snowfall warning, with an Environment Canada alert saying, "Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow." Goersch, Air Canada's chief operating officer, said the weather was appropriate for landing.
"It was safe to fly in this weather. The aircraft did circle for a period of time but when the approach was initiated, the weather was at the approach limits," Goersch told a news conference. "The weather was appropriate for landing."
Randy Hall and his wife Lianne Clark were on their way home from a Mexican vacation when he said he believes the jet hit a power line before it landed hard on the runway. There were sparks but no fire, he said.
"We were just coming in to land and there was a big flash," said Hall. "The plane came down, bang! It jumped up in the air again."
The aircraft skidded for a long time before coming to a stop, said Hall, who is retired. "We were sliding along on our belly. ... I was looking out and I saw the landing gear go and I saw an engine go."
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 listed several cancelled flights at the airport Sunday morning.
8 killed and 10 injured in Florida van crash
Eight people were killed and 10 injured when their van crashed in Florida early Monday, officials said.
The crash happened in Glades County at approximately 12:31 a.m. There were 18 people in the van.
Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Greg Bueno said a preliminary investigation showed that the van, which was heading eastbound on State Road 78, passed through a stop sign before crossing all lanes of the US 27 and crashing into a steep canal on the grass shoulder that was partially filled with water.
Bueno said the driver and seven passengers were confirmed dead and 10 other passengers were taken to four local hospitals, with three in a serious condition. A four-year-old passenger was in a stable condition, he said.
German newspaper releases timeline of Germanwings flight before crash
(CNN)The sounds recorded on one of the "black boxes" recovered from downed Germanwings Flight 9525 firms up investigators' theory that the co-pilot locked the captain out of the cockpit and then crashed the plane.
"For God's sake, open the door!" Capt. Patrick Sondenheimer screamed as he banged on the cockpit door, pleading with the co-pilot.
Thirteen minutes later, the plane slammed into the French Alps.
The audio from the plane's cockpit voice recorder has not been released, but the German newspaper Bild published Sunday what it claims is a summary of the transcript from the recording.
CNN translated Bild's report -- which the newspaper says is based on the 1.5 hours of audio that was on the cockpit voice recorder -- but cannot independently verify the information.
France's accident investigation agency, BEA, told CNN that the agency is "dismayed" by the voice recording leak to Bild.
Martine Del Bono, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the leak could not have come from a BEA agent. She said the agency considers the report mere "voyeurism."
According to Bild's report, Sondenheimer told co-pilot Andreas Lubitz that he didn't manage to go to the bathroom before takeoff. Lubitz tells him he can go anytime.
Lubitz is believed to have locked the pilot of Flight 9525 out of the cockpit before putting the plane on a rapid descent into the mountains, French authorities have said.
The flight took off 20 minutes late. After reaching cruising altitude, Sondenheimer asked Lubitz to prepare the landing.
Once that's finished, Lubitz again tells the captain he "can go anytime."
There is the sound of a seat being pushed backward after which the captain says, "You can take over."
At 10:29 a.m., air traffic radar detects that the plane is starting to descend.
Three minutes later, air traffic controllers try to contact the plane and receive no answer -- shortly after which an alarm goes off in the cockpit, warning of the "sink rate," Bild reported.
Next comes the banging.
Sondenheimer begs Lubitz to let him in. Passengers then begin to scream, according to the transcript obtained by Bild.
Another three minutes pass. A loud metallic bang is heard at 7,000 meters (almost 23,000 feet).
A minute and half later and 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) lower to the ground, an alarm says "Terrain -- pull up!"
"Open the damn door!" the pilot says.
It's 10:38, and the plane is at 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet). Lubitz's breathing can still be heard on the voice recorder, according to Bild's report.
Two minutes later, investigators think they hear the plane's right wing scrape a mountaintop.
Screams can be heard one final time.
'Unbelievable' leak
Cockpit recordings are some of the most sensitive and closely held parts of aviation crash investigations. They're never officially released, according to CNN aviation reporter Richard Quest.
Quest called it "unbelievable" that the black box audio would be leaked in this manner.
Communications between air traffic control and a plane's cockpit can be downloaded privately, but that's less common in Europe than it is in the United States.
An edited and redacted version of the transcript is usually published in part of a final report on an incident.
Although search teams have recovered the cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder remains missing. That device could reveal crucial details about what happened during the final moments of the flight.
What authorities know
Jean Pierre Michel, lead investigator for the French inquiry, said on Saturday that investigators are not ruling out any scenario with respect to the crash out at this point.
But French authorities have said that Lubitz appeared to have crashed Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately into the Alps on Tuesday as it flew from Barcelona, Spain, toward Dusseldorf, Germany, with 150 people on board.
Much attention has focused on Lubitz's state of mind since then, with suggestions that he may have had mental health issues.
Lubitz, 27, passed his annual pilot recertification medical examination in summer 2014, a German aviation source told CNN.
An official with Lufthansa, which owns Germanwings, said that the exam only tests physical health, not psychological health.
The official also said that the company was never given any indication Lubitz was depressed, and that if he went to a doctor on his own, he would have been required to self-report if deemed unfit to fly.
A Dusseldorf clinic said he'd gone there twice, most recently on March 10, "concerning a diagnosis." But the University Clinic said it had not treated Lubitz for depression.
The speculation about Lubitz' mental state is based on a letter found in a waste bin in his Dusseldorf apartment.
The note, which was "slashed," said Lubitz was not able to do his job, city prosecutor Christoph Kumpa said Friday.
The fact that investigators found "ripped, recent medical leave notes, including for the day of the offense, leads to the preliminary conclusion that the deceased kept his illness secret from his employer and his professional environment," prosecutors said.
Germanwings corroborated that assertion, saying it had never received a sick note from Lubitz.
Anxiety, burnout and depression
A handful of publications, citing unnamed sources, have reported that Lubitz suffered from various psychological maladies.
CNN has not been able to confirm these reports.
Lubitz suffered from "generalized anxiety disorder," and from severe depression in the past, Le Parisien newspaper reported Sunday, citing sources close to the investigation. In 2010, Lubitz received injections of antipsychotic medication, the paper said.
He was also prescribed a medication that influences neurotransmitters, but it's unclear when that happened, according to Le Parisien.
The newspaper said investigators found a handful of pills in his apartment in addition to two sick notes, which forbade him from working from March 16 to March 29.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported Friday that Lubitz suffered from mental illness and kept his diagnosis concealed from his employer.
A subsequent report from the Times on Saturday, citing two officials with knowledge of the investigation, said Lubitz sought treatment before the crash for vision problems that might have put his career at risk. However, an official with Lufthansa, said that if Lubitz had vision problems, they would have been discovered during his pilot recertification medical examination.
Authorities have not ruled out the vision problems could have been psychosomatic, according to the Times.
Citing an unidentified senior investigator, German newspaper Die Welt said that Lubitz suffered from a severe "psychosomatic illness" and that German police seized prescription drugs that treat the condition. Lubitz suffered from a "severe subjective burnout syndrome" and from severe depression, the source told the newspaper.
News reports also stated that antidepressants were found during the search of his apartment.
Investigators are expected to question his relatives, friends and co-workers as they try to pin down what could have prompted the co-pilot to steer a jetliner full of people into a mountainside.
Lubitz had a girlfriend, a teacher at a school in Dusseldorf not far from his apartment, according to German media.
Who was co-pilot Andreas Lubitz?
'This is a man whose life is totally broken'
Dozens of people attended a remembrance ceremony Saturday for the victims of the crash at a church in a nearby town, Digne-les-Bains, France. Most of the people on the plane were from Germany and Spain.
Relatives of the victims and local residents also gathered Saturday afternoon by a simple stone memorial set up near the crash site, in the village of Le Vernet. Flowers have been laid there, in the shadow of the snow-covered peaks of the French Alps.
The mayor of one local community said he had seen Lubitz's father on Thursday evening, describing him as "a man in deep distress."
"We get the impression that that man is bearing the whole weight of the disaster on his shoulders," Bernard Bartolini, the mayor of Prads-Haute-Bleone, said Saturday.
"I can tell that this is a man whose life is totally broken," Bartolini said. "He had so much emotion in him."
Coney Island Rollercoaster Strands Riders on Opening Day
The first public run of the season for Coney Island, New York’s Cyclone, located at Luna Park, gave riders a fright when it got stuck before completing its circuit of the track, according to NBC New York News.
Many, if not all of the stranded riders were among the first 100 to show up that morning at the reopening of Luna Park’s wooden coaster, which got them free tickets. No one was injured, but a few felt shaken from the long climb down.
"It was terrifying, because I was up there and everything was spinning," Gabriella Centeno said after she reached solid ground. "I didn't know what to do."
Anna Dartany said park staff were crucial in her successful descent. "I'm scared of heights," she said, "but with their help I made it down. ... This was insane."
Angie Morris, brand manager at Luna Park, said the coaster had been repeatedly tested for the past month, and that what occurred Sunday hadn’t happened for a very long time, but she wouldn’t say exactly how long.
Morris said the ride would be running again in a matter of hours.
Hundreds of flight delays hit Heathrow
Hundreds of flights were delayed at Heathrow two days after a new system went live to 'cut delays caused by strong winds'.
The delays affected 287 flights taking off from Heathrow on Sunday and 288 flights arriving at the London airport, according the flight data website Flight Aware.
The new system, Time Based Separation (TBS), went live on Friday and was described as a 'world first'.
In a press release by NATS, it said: "A new way of separating arriving aircraft at Heathrow Airport by time instead of distance in order to cut delays caused by strong winds has gone live as part of a phased introduction this year.
"Traditionally, air traffic controllers separate flights by set distances dependent on the aircraft type and the size of the spiralling air turbulence - or wake vortex - they create as they fly.
"Time Based Separation (TBS) takes live wind data from the aircraft to dynamically calculate the optimal safe spacing between each aircraft in order to maintain the landing rate. Its introduction is expected to halve current headwind delays at the airport and significantly reduce the need for airlines to cancel flights."
A spokesman for Heathrow Airport said: "There were delays at Heathrow yesterday due to very high winds.
"We had no cancellations (out of the approximately 1300 scheduled flights) so although we are running at 98% capacity the airport coped well with the weather disruption.
"Of course we are sorry for those passengers who were delayed yesterday."
JetBlue flights delayed at OIA due to widespread system outage
JetBlue flights were delayed across the U.S. Monday morning after the company experienced a system outage, according to its Twitter page.
"We apologize," JetBlue said on its Twitter page. "Our system is [experiencing] a widespread outage. We're working as quickly as we can to get it back."
As of 7 a.m., two JetBlue flights to New York City and one to San Juan had been delayed at Orlando International Airport.
JetBlue later said the company's outage had been resolved. It's unclear what happened with its system.
Hotel giants target tech-savvy millennial travelers
At the latest breed of hotel, rooms are up to one-third smaller than traditional quarters, with furniture that looks fresh from an Ikea showroom.
The work desk is downsized and might double as a nightstand. The Internet speed is super fast. The Wi-Fi is free. Power outlets and USB ports dot the walls, especially near the bed to accommodate binge watching.
The target is the millennial traveler, ages 18 to 34, who likes to stay connected online, eat on the run and commune with other millennials.
Hotel giants, including Marriott International and Hilton Worldwide, are launching brands with names such as Moxy, AC, Edition, CitizenM and Canopy. Even billionaire Sir Richard Branson has a new millennial-oriented chain, dubbed Virgin Hotels.
For good reason: Millennials number more than 75 million in the U.S., and this year the Census Bureau projects they will surpass baby boomers as the nation's largest generation.
Plus, they have money to blow. U.S. millennials plan to spend about $226 billion this year on travel, according to a Harris Poll survey.
"I think it's definitely a smart move," said hotel consultant Alan Reay of Atlas Hospitality Group in Costa Mesa. "It's a huge market."
Creating a millennial hotel means tossing out some traditional features, such as the talkative concierge or soothing fountain.
Full-service restaurants are usually nixed in favor of healthy food-to-go choices in the lobby.
Business centers are swapped out for spacious gathering areas with communal tables, couches and comfy chairs — sort of a hipper version of the parental home that millennials might still be inhabiting.
The front desk check-in might be replaced by a kiosk transaction, as at the pod-like Yotel inn near New York's Times Square or Starwood Hotels' Aloft chain, which is slated to open a location in August near Los Angeles International Airport.
"I don't spend lots of time in my room," said Erin Schrode, 23, co-founder of a nonprofit environmental education program in Sausalito, Calif. "If the room is small and the lobby is comfortable and there are niches and corners to work in, I'm great. We are a communal people."
What the hotels lose in luxury they make up for with technology, including keyless room entry for some hotels and smartphone apps that let guests adjust the room temperature or make restaurant reservations without talking to a human.
At the Aloft hotel in Cupertino, Calif., not far from Apple's headquarters, a 3-foot-tall robot delivers snacks or other small items to guest rooms. The Apple Watch will be able to handle check-in at certain Aloft hotels.
The Yotel New York employs a one-armed robot to ferry luggage into storage lockers, all behind glass. At the nearby CitizenM hotel, each room comes equipped with a Samsung tablet to control lighting, curtains and other features.
"The new traveling generation has a different DNA than their parents and grandparents," said Harry Wheeler, a principal at hotel design firm Group One Partners.
Daria Taylor, 26, welcomes the new hotel style. Taylor said she travels regularly for her job as co-founder of a London-based digital entertainment and youth insights agency.
"I think hotels are very slow at adapting to change," she said. "Many have outdated designs, stuffy communal areas and don't have basic things like Wi-Fi or automated check-in systems."
For Katelyn O'Shaughnessy, 28, convenience is a top priority.
"I don't want to stand in line to check in," said the founder of a Venice travel start-up who is on the road at least twice a month. "I would rather have mobile check-in so I can get right to my room."
As for room size, she quipped: "You can put me in a closet; as long as there is Wi-Fi, I'll be happy."
Millennials say they don't want to spend on frills but insist on modern amenities and a location within walking distance of bars, restaurants and other nightlife.
The rates for millennial-oriented hotels typically range from $150 to $200 a night, less than full-service hotels but not as cheap as economy hotels, consultant Reay said.
The minimalist CitizenM boasts on its website that "we sold the hotel cliches and used the money to make your stay cheaper," with rooms starting at $199 a night.
The 230-room hotel, which opened last year, also houses a 24-hour cafeteria, as well as a full-service coffee and cocktail bar.
Marriott International is launching three hotel brands for millennials in the U.S. Moxy is Marriott's mid-price boutique hotel that is set to open in eight locations in the U.S., including New York, San Francisco, Seattle and New Orleans, starting as early as next year.
AC is Marriott's European-style brand that has opened U.S. hotels in New Orleans and Kansas City, Mo., with a third slated to open in Washington, D.C., next month.
Edition is Marriott's high-end brand that opened its first U.S. hotel in Miami Beach last year, with another scheduled to open in New York later this year.
"They center around social media and technology with an emphasis on style and design," said Tina Edmundson, Marriott's global officer for luxury and lifestyle brands.
Montage Hotels & Resorts, based in Laguna Beach, plans to open its own millennial hotel, called Pendry, in San Diego next year. The company describes the new brand as "London hip, New York paced and California healthy."
Billionaire entrepreneur Branson launched Virgin Hotels last year in Chicago. He has announced plans to open a Virgin Hotel in New York next year, with others under consideration in Los Angeles, San Francisco and several other cities.
The Virgin Hotel in Chicago features rooms with sliding doors that separate the bedroom from the bathroom, hallway and closet. The rooms have mini fridges stocked with snacks at street prices, free high-speed Wi-Fi and a Bluetooth sound system.
Even budget hotel chains are targeting millennials. Red Roof Inn estimates that about 12% of its guests are millennials, up from 9.5% in 2010. To draw more young travelers, Red Roof President Andrew Alexander said, his company is testing outdoor gathering spots with fire pits and picnic areas at hotels in Ohio, Michigan and Florida.
Bill Vervaeke, CDME
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Post-attack, security measures don’t diminish Paris’ allure
PARIS — It’s hard to imagine anything that would keep tourists away from the iconic landmarks of Paris for long. But after gunmen stormed the offices of the city’s satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people here in January, I wondered if such an act of terrorism might dent the allure of the City of Lights.
But judging by the crowds at the Eiffel Tower in late March, which is still considered to be the tail end of the low season here, travelers appeared not to have been deterred.
Which isn’t to say that the Hebdo incident is a thing of the past, either. All over Paris, armed security guards could be seen patrolling densely populated areas such as the Marais and Montparnasse neighborhoods, the Eiffel Tower and Centre Pompidou, usually in packs of three, dressed in camouflage gear and toting pretty serious-looking guns. Their presence is a new development since the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
And at shopping centers and museums throughout the city, patrons were asked to open their bags and purses for a quick glance inside by security personnel, also a recent development, all of which served as a constant reminder that Paris is a bit on watch these days.
The deadly attack was carried out by two brothers who identified with a branch of al-Qaida in Yemen, and it brought to light many of the tensions in France between its Muslim and non-Muslim populations.
When I asked locals what the mood has been in Paris in the aftermath of the attacks, they explained that immediately following the shootings, the situation was fragile to be sure. There were concerns about copycat incidents or about an increase in tensions.
Some feel the attacks have given a small boost to the conservative movement in France. But generally speaking, any temporary unease that arose in the immediate wake of the attacks has subsided.
Of course, it wouldn’t be France without a large amount of debate over the incident, what spurred it and how to prevent future attacks. When during a city tour of Paris we passed by the offices where the shootings took place, our guide pointed out the location, noting the flowers that had been left there to honor the dead, and gave some quick insight into her thoughts on the current situation in Paris, concluding that relations between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in Paris will only get better in time, not worse.
But all told, Paris doesn’t feel very different and certainly doesn’t feel any less grand. Paris is and always will be an undeniably beautiful and impressive travel destination.
As an American in Paris, it also didn’t hurt that the euro was trading at about 1.06 to the dollar during my time there. When the dollar had traded less favorably in the past, I often had abstained from even entering stores when traveling in Europe. Why bother, I felt, if it was all going to cost me 30% or more than the listed price? Why even tempt myself?
But with the dollar’s current strength, I had no problem opening up my purse for security checks at the shopping centers and then ultimately opening it up for cashiers, as well. I can’t remember the last time I did a fair amount of shopping in Europe, other than a few trinkets to bring home as gifts.
Toward the end of my journey, my luggage had a few extra items. It had me wondering how many others were feeling like freshly empowered Americans in Paris, like myself, and whether retailers are feeling an American consumer bump in kind.
Anthem of the Seas gets giant giraffe art piece
Anthem of the Seas, the sister ship to Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, will apparently have a giant giraffe in the spot occupied by a pink bear sculpture on Quantum.
Photos of the enormous giraffe being hoisted aboard Anthem emerged on Twitter, and Royal Caribbean retweeted the photo under the heading “It’s a bird… it’s a plane… no, it’s a Giraffe. Anthem of the Seas’ larger than life art piece."
The giraffe appears to be wearing a bright yellow swimming singlet and has a pink inner tube float around its midsection.
Other than the Quantum series, Royal Caribbean ships do not have large sculptures on the upper deck. The 30-foot-tall magenta bear, which Royal named Felicia, was fashioned by Denver-based artist Lawrence Argent out of 1,340 stainless steel triangles that weigh eight tons.
Argent called his composition "From Afar."
Indiana tourism fights to buff tarnished image
State may face uphill battle after uproar over religious objections law.
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana tourism agencies are rolling out campaigns emphasizing that everyone is welcome, but it might not be enough to quickly restore the state’s battered image after a backlash over its religious objections law.
An uproar sparked by fears that the law would allow discrimination against gays and lesbians led a few convention organizers and performers to cancel events and some state and local governments to ban travel to the state last week. Revisions to the law’s language have eased some of the criticism, but experts say the state could be dealing with a damaged reputation for years to come.
In a sign that Indiana is still under close scrutiny, hundreds of gay rights supporters marched to the site of the NCAA Final Four in Indianapolis on Saturday as college basketball fans were arriving for the games. The marches called for the state to go further and enshrine in its civil rights law protection for gays and lesbians.
Chris Gahl, vice president of Visit Indy, the lead promoter for Indianapolis, said he has been in “full crisis mode” since the furor erupted after Gov. Mike Pence signed the law late last month.
Gahl said Visit Indy received more than 800 emails from people saying they were canceling trips for events such as the Indianapolis 500 or choosing a different vacation destination. The agency has been scrambling to prevent groups and businesses from either pulling out of negotiations for future conventions or canceling upcoming events altogether.
Two groups, including the public employee union AFSCME, have canceled conventions, and Gahl said two others were on the fence. He put the economic impact of those events at a “healthy eight figures.”
“What keeps us up at night is the fact that 75,000 people depend on tourism for a paycheck,” Gahl said. “And if we don’t fill the city with conventions and visitors, they don’t work.”
The crisis isn’t confined to Indianapolis. Fort Wayne, the state’s second-largest city, has had six national conventions express concerns about continuing business in Indiana. If all six pulled out, it would represent about $1.2 million in revenue, said Dan O’Connell, president and CEO of Visit Fort Wayne.
Businesses say they’ve been inundated with emails from people asking for reassurance that they are welcome in Indiana, or canceling orders or plans. The famed French Lick Resort, a hotel in an historic town in southern Indiana, issued a statement Friday saying it has “always been open and inclusive” and that the new law won’t change that.
Traci Bratton, owner of the Hoosier Candle Company in Dayton, about 50 miles northwest of Indianapolis, said she’s received emails from out-of-state customers who like her products but say they won’t be bringing their business to Indiana because of the law.
“Hoosier Hospitality has been thrown out the window,” Bratton said.
But the impact is being most keenly felt in Indianapolis, which has earned national praise for its transformation from a place once referred to as “Naptown” and “India-No-Place” to a vibrant, friendly city that used sports and a downtown renaissance to land a Super Bowl and become a popular pit stop in what was once called “flyover country.”
Indy Big Data, a tech convention slated for May, has lost nine national sponsors, including Amazon and Cloud-era. GenCon, the city’s largest convention, has a contract with the city until 2020, but Gahl said negotiations to extend the agreement for another five years could fall through because of the outcry over the law. A departure of GenCon, which brings in about $56 million each year, would be a huge loss, Gahl said.
Even though lawmakers have revised the language of the religious objections law to make clear that it’s not intended to discriminate, Indiana still lacks statewide civil-rights protections for the gay and lesbian community. And economic experts said perceptions about the law could prevent companies from attracting and retaining young talent.
Kyle Anderson, a business economics professor at Indiana University, said Indiana already had a hard time competing on a national level to bring in top talent. For young professionals who tend to be more progressive about social issues, the law could be another reason for them to avoid jobs within the state.
“The last week will perpetuate the notion that it’s not a great place to live,” he said.
Lawmakers and community leaders acknowledge they have work to do but say the state will recover.
If history is any indication, they’re likely right.
Arizona battled a similar public relations crisis in 1987, when former Gov. Evan Mecham sparked an outcry when he rescinded Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday. The fallout, which included losing a bid to host the 1993 Super Bowl and a boycott of tourism and convention sites for much of the late 1980s, severely damaged the state’s image for years.
In 1992, an initiative to restore Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Arizona was approved. The state has hosted three Super Bowls since then.
Crash co-pilot’s profile stirs questions, unease
Revelations raise questions: Could he have been stopped?
BERLIN — The profile that has emerged of German-wings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz has become more troubling by the day.
In the hours after Flight 9525 crashed in the French Alps two weeks ago, Lubitz was regarded as one of 150 victims in an unexplained disaster. Two days later he was the prime suspect of an unfathomable act.
By now, French and German prosecutors have little doubt that the 27-year-old intentionally slammed the Airbus A320 into a mountain, killing everyone on board, and there is growing evidence that his actions weren’t just a split-second decision but the result of days of planning.
The revelations have raised questions about who knew what, when, and whether Lubitz could have been stopped.
The crash has prompted particular soul-searching in Germany. Seventy-two of those killed were German citizens, the worst air disaster in the nation’s history since the Concorde crash of 2000, in which 97 Germans died.
“Germany, a byword for technical perfection where security isn’t just a hallmark of quality but an article of faith and a measure of value, has been traumatized,” historian Michael Stuermer wrote in an op-ed for Die Welt newspaper.
Investigators have pieced together a picture of Lubitz by analyzing the voice and flight data recorders found at the crash site, searching his homes in Duesseldorf and Montabaur, and by interviewing friends, relatives, colleagues and doctors. This is what they have communicated about their findings:
• Medical records show that before he received his pilot’s license, Lubitz suffered from depression, with doctors recording “suicidal tendencies.” It forced him to take a break of several months from his pilot training. Lufthansa has said Lubitz informed their flight school when he returned in 2009 that he had experienced an episode of “severe depression.” But German-wings, the Lufthansa subsidiary Lubitz joined in 2013, said it was unaware of this. But both airlines say Lubitz passed all medical tests and was cleared as fit to fly.
• In the months before the crash Lubitz sought help from several doctors, including specialists at Duesseldorf ’s University Hospital. The hospital declined to confirm reports that Lubitz was experiencing vision problems, but said he had come in for tests. Duesseldorf prosecutors say there was no evidence the co-pilot had any physical ailments.
• In the week leading up to the crash Lubitz spent time online researching suicide methods and cockpit door security. Safety rules introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States allow someone in the cockpit to deny others entry.
• Shortly after takeoff from Barcelona on March 24, Lubitz offered to take over the controls while the pilot went to the toilet. Finding himself unable to enter the cockpit on his return, the pilot pleaded with Lubitz to let him back in. Lubitz ignored him and repeatedly accelerated the plane before it slammed into a mountainside near the village of Le Vernet.
With pilots responsible for the lives of 10 million air travelers worldwide every day, the idea that one might be harboring a dark desire to harm himself and others has prompted deep unease.
“A technical malfunction, a terrorist act, a natural disaster or human error — none of these would be so troubling,” German weekly Der Spiegel wrote in its latest edition.
Two Germanwings Flights Make Unscheduled Landings
Two Germanwings airliners made unplanned landings within 24 hours of each other, one because of a mechanical problem, the other, because of passenger health issues, according to eTurboNews.
Germanwings Flight 4U814 took off from Cologne, Germany, bound for Venice Italy at 9:55 a.m local time Saturday. But the Airbus A319 with 123 passengers and five crew members diverted to Stuttgart, Germany when warning systems indicated the aircraft was losing oil. The pilots then shut off one of the plane’s engines, then landed without incident.
The airline wanted it to be understood that this was not considered an emergency landing. The aircraft was examined by technicians to find out what went wrong.
Friday’s unscheduled landing occurred on a Germanwings Airbus flight that took off from Hanover, Germany bound for Rome, but landed in Venice after a passenger and a crewmember fell ill.
Rome professor Eugino Bartolini told “Il Messaggero” newspaper that a female passenger sitting in the row behind him required assistance for “apprehension” and “fear of flying.”
“We saw the plane gradually descending and then Venice’s lagoon appeared. When the plane landed, the captain told us over the microphone, in English, that a crew member and passenger were unwell and so he had decided to land at Marco Polo,” Bartolini said.
Air Algerie Mali Crash Linked to Icing and Pilot Error
The crash of Air Algerie MD-83 in Mali last July, an accident that claimed 116 lives, was triggered by the icing of pressure probes after pilots failed to turn on anti-icing systems, investigators said.
When the probes iced up in difficult weather conditions, the aircraft’s autopilot thought the engine power was excessive and slowed thrust below that required to maintain cruise height, triggering the events that caused the plane to lose control, the French accident investigator BEA said on its website. A final report will come by year-end, it said.
“If the engine anti-ice protection system is activated, these pressure sensors are heated by hot air,” BEA said in its interim report. “Analysis of the available data indicates that the crew likely did not activate the system during climb and cruise.”
BEA shared the findings with the European Aviation Safety Agency and through EASA with U.S. regulatory authorities and expects they will form the basis for future publication of corrective measures to help crews identify similar situations and respond, the organization said.
Two similar events occurred, in June 2002 and in June 2014, BEA said, though there were no serious consequences after the crew detected the problem and responded appropriately. BEA will ask regulators to issue new advice to pilots
The plane was carrying 110 passengers and six crew. The plane disintegrated upon hitting the ground.
Officials: Sea lion pulls man into San Diego bay
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Officials say a 62-year-old man holding a fish he caught on a boat in a San Diego bay was pulled overboard by a sea lion.
San Diego lifeguards tell the Los Angeles Times that the man was posing for a photo when the sea lion, apparently attempting to get the fish, bit on the man's arm instead and pulled him to the bottom of the 20 feet of water in Mission Bay until he was let go and rose to the surface.
San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesman Capt. Joe Amador says in a report by U-T San Diego that the animal lunged over a railing on the boat and latched onto his hand and the fish around 4 p.m..
He says the man had cuts on his hands and feet and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance.
Meet TripAdvisor's top reviewer, who has contributed to the site more than 65,000 times
If TripAdvisor had an arcade game-style high score, then you’d see Brad Reynolds’ initials beside it. The Hong Kong-based American man has been outed as the site’s top reviewer, sharing his opinion about 3,323 different hotels, restaurants and attractions (and by the time you read this, he’ll probably be assigning a three-dot rating to something else). Reynolds submitted his first review in 2010, which means that for the past five years, he’s been writing almost two posts every day.
Posting under the name BradJill (Jill is his wife), he has rated 115 hotels, 1,165 restaurants and 2,031 attractions on the site, reviews that TripAdvisor says have helped and guided more than 2.7 million (!!!) travelers. Although the majority of his reviews are in and around Hong Kong, he’s posted about things to do, see or avoid in an impressive 140 different cities.
His obsession (and since he’s posted in their forums almost 21,000 times, it’s probably fair to call it an obsession) started after he and Jill found themselves turning to TripAdvisor to give them suggestions for their own travels. He told Road Warrior Voices:
“I wouldn’t call myself a super reviewer, maybe just a consistent reviewer. Jill and I research our vacation trips quite a lot on TripAdvisor and do our best to come up with a bucket list of things we want to see and do that are meaningful to us. These are the places that I tend to review from our travels.”
But just being consistent doesn’t even begin to describe it, not when you’ve posted more than 30,000 photographs to one website. (And Reynolds is not compensated by the site for his time or his ever-increasing pile of contributions.) Some of his most recent reviews have been for the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong (not “amongst our personal favorite temples”) and the Agave restaurant, where he was displeased with the cheese distribution on his Gringo Nacho plate. Reynolds said:
“While at home in Hong Kong and Macau, there are interesting places to visit or eat at which unfortunately have not been reviewed by many – or any – TripAdvisor members. I will sometimes purposely visit these and take pictures so that I can post a review.”
Obviously, Reynolds is nothing if not thorough; in the months that have followed his trip to New York City, he has posted 42 reviews about everything from the Grand Central Terminal to Times Square to the statues in Central Park (Although he loved Sting’s performance in The Last Ship, so there goes his credibility). Reynolds said:
“I’ll go ahead and take notes on certain places we visit, especially restaurants, as I find it more difficult to remember all of the details and specifics after a few weeks. I used to keep travel journals before, so perhaps this has been replaced by my writing reviews, which I do very much enjoy. Although I try to keep my reviews informative and objective and not so much a reflection of my personal feelings.”
As monumental as his TripAdvisor contributions might be, the most impressive part is that he still seems to have time to leave his house every single day. He puts on actual pants and shoes and goes outside. Who does that?
Delta 20-Minute Checked Bag Guarantee to be Permanent
Delta Air Lines’ 20-minute guarantee for checked baggage, introduced on a trial basis in February, will now be an official feature, according to USA Today. "Customer response was positive and our employees are rallying to achieve the 20-minute mark, so it's here to stay," Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant said in an e-mail to USA Today’s “Today in the Sky” column.
The carrier will give any flier 2,500 free miles if their luggage doesn’t arrive on the carousel within that timespan on any domestic flight. International flights with a final leg occurring domestically are also eligible. The guarantee applies to flights operated by regional Delta Connection affiliates as well.
Delta said the elapsed time from plane to carousel will be "measured by Delta's baggage tracking system, where available."
There are some conditions to get the miles: Customers must be a Delta SkyMiles member in good standing at the time of tardy luggage; the offer is limited to one request per passenger per outbound or return travel; The amount of miles is fixed at 2,500 regardless of the number of checked bags; lost, mishandled, and damaged bags are excluded, as are oversize and overweight bags, and special items.
Fliers must fill out an online form to redeem the miles. The airline will verify eligibility, then award the points.
Husband and Wife Killed By Amtrak Train
Amtrak train No. 80, the Carolinian, was headed from Charlotte, N.C. to New York City, when it struck and killed a couple who were on the tracks in Durham, N.C., about 25 miles northwest of Raleigh, the Associated Press reported.
According to police, 38-year-old Derek Lowe, and 33-year-old Tina Lowe were hit by the northbound train shortly before 10 a.m. Sunday and both were pronounced dead at the scene. At the time of the accident, the pair were on property owned by Norfolk-Southern Railway.
WRAL relayed a report by investigators that said it appears “one person was sitting on the tracks and the other was trying to pull them off.”
All 166 passengers on the Carolinian were uninjured, and the train continued on its route after about a two-hour 45-minute delay.
The last accident for Amtrak also occurred in North Carolina, where a passenger train struck a tractor-trailer in Halifax County. The locomotive and a baggage car derailed, and 55 people were injured.
Is Delta Queen Sailing Back to Life?
The Delta Queen steamboat, a 1927-built National Historic Landmark, is making its way south on the Mississippi River to Louisiana in preparation for a possible return to overnight cruises.
The paddlewheeler is heading for a private slip off the Intracoastal Waterway near Houma, La., where it will undergo some minor repairs and maintenance.
“We’re going to start doing some maintenance and top-side repair work to the degree that funding allows, mostly focusing on the hotel side of the vessel,” said Cornel J. Martin, president and CEO of the recently reborn Delta Queen Steamboat Co. “She’s been laid up for quite a while and hasn’t been operating as a dockside hotel since early 2014. There has not been a lot of maintenance in that time.”
Martin and his partners, Randy and Leah Ann Ingram, who operated the Delta Queen as a permanently moored hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn., estimate the ship needs about $5 million in repairs before it could return to overnight cruising. Those three own almost 90 percent of the vessel, but there are three other owners as well.
The immediate repairs will focus on allowing the ship to operate again as a hotel or banquet facility. The major marine repairs will wait until a congressional exemption is passed that will allow the historic vessel to comply with federal safety regulations and operate overnight passenger river cruises once again.
“We think the entire repair bill will total about $5 million — $1.2 million on the hotel side and $3.8 million on the marine side,” Martin said. “Obviously, we’ll not tackle the marine repairs until the congressional exemption is approved and she is able to sail again as a cruise ship. If the exemption is delayed or takes more time than we hope to get approved, we can always use her again either as a hotel or reception facility, or at least open her for tours, to generate some revenue until it’s time to do the marine side and get her back into her true service, which is our ultimate goal.”
As the Delta Queen makes her way down the river, fans line the shores to take photos, posting them on Facebook.
The Delta Queen stopped sailing in 2008 after it lost a federal Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) exemption that allowed it to operate overnight cruises, despite being built with wood, considered a fire risk. The vessel had received the exemption nine times over 40 years before that. Rep. Steve Chabot, a Delta Queen supporter from Cincinnati, in early March reintroduced legislation to grant the exemption again. A previous effort didn’t pass by the time the last Congress ended.
“Hopefully this time around we’ll make much quicker progress,” Martin said. “The last time we were up there lobbying for the legislation, we didn’t even own the vessel, we just had plans to purchase it. It wasn’t until we got a purchase agreement in July last year that we were able to really start making progress in Senate. Now we own the vessel, so when we tell congress we will replace the boilers and make those commitments, they can hold us to them because we own the boat. There was always the danger last year that they’d pass the legislation and someone else could buy the boat.”
The boilers indeed are a major part of the work needed. “The Delta Queen’s boilers date back to 1919. They were initially intended for a WWI destroyer, but then the war ended, the ship was never built and the boilers were sold as war surplus,” Martin said. “They’re way beyond their useful life, so we’ll replace those with much more modern, efficient and environmentally friendly boilers. Those boilers burn bunker-C fuel and the new ones would use low-sulfur diesel, which is much more environmentally friendly. That’s really the biggest part of our marine renovation.”
Otherwise, the Delta Queen is equipped with modern safety systems, he said. “She’s got very modern and efficient smoke, fire and heat detection systems with more than 300 sensors and more than 1,200 sprinkler heads.”
What’s more, much of the wood structure is being replaced. “Since 1993, we agreed with Congress that any time we made repairs we would replace any wood outside of the public view,” Martin said. “We replaced the wood with non-combustible material. All of that is steel now in the crew quarters. Each year we continue to reduce the wood by 10 percent and will going forward.”
Plus, Martin said the SOLAS regulations adopted almost 50 years ago were aimed at ocean-going wooden vessels, not riverboats.
“In the early 1960s, there were a couple of incidents of ocean-going ships made of wood, so the intent was to stop ocean-going cruise ships made of wood from coming into U.S. ports,” he said. “No one considered the Delta Queen in 1966, as it was the only vessel operating overnight cruises on inland rivers. Unlike ocean-going vessels, it was never more than a couple of hundred yards from shore. If anything happens, it can pull in to shore and evacuate.”
Martin knows the ship very well. He worked for its former owners, the original Delta Queen Steamboat Company and its later parent company, American Classic Voyages. The Ingrams asked him to partner with them since he had the expertise and knowledge about acquiring the federal exemption. He joined them in 2012.
Martin said the Delta Queen could return to overnight passenger service in 2016 if the timing works out.
“Our best case scenario is if we can have the legislation done by the fall, she could be steaming by next summer, in 2016,” Martin said. “We’re looking at six to eight months after the legislation passes, we should be ready to book cruises again. Once the legislation is secured, a number of banks will work with us to make the financing happen.”
Where the Delta Queen would be based is still under consideration. Communities competing for the ship include Cincinnati, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Kimmswick, Mo., a small, historic community 25 miles south of St. Louis, has made “a fairly aggressive offer,” Martin said. “We’re considering it.”
If and when it does return to overnight service, the Delta Queen will operate similar itineraries as it did before, on the Mississippi River system, from Galveston, Texas, to Mobile, Ala., from New Orleans up to Pittsburgh or up to St. Paul, Minn., and to places like Chattanooga, Nashville, and all the way to Tulsa, Okla., Martin said.
“Our immediate concern was getting the boat out of Chattanooga and to Louisiana, getting her secure and safe so we can start doing maintenance and repair work,” Martin said. “All the repair work in the interim is being done with donations and support from our existing owners. The Delta Queen has a huge fan base, and people have been very generous in working to rescue and preserve her. Regardless of the legislation, we still have to preserve this national treasure, and a lot of folks are working to make that happen.”
But regular overnight river cruises is the way to ensure the Delta Queen survives. “It allows you to generate the kind of revenue needed to preserve and keep her alive,” Martin said.
Why is that so important to so many people?
“The Delta Queen represents part of our history that we can’t get back,” Martin said. “She’s the only 1927 overnight paddlewheel steamboat out there, although there are replicas. An authentic steam-driven paddlewheeler is a step back in time to the whole Mark Twain era. That’s of importance to all of us. This vessel pretty much has a life of her own, and a huge fan base not only in America but internationally.
“For us, it’s a matter of saving a piece of American history,” Martin said. “We’re saving a National Historic Landmark. It’s in the National Maritime Hall of Fame, and was named a National Treasure on the National Register of Historic Places, the most elite of the national landmarks. The Delta Queen has all of this historical significance, and it would be a shame to lose that.”
More than two dozen new cruise ships are on order
When the first passengers boards the new Viking Ocean Star Saturday in Istanbul, it will be more than just another cruise. It will mark the debut of a new oceangoing cruise line.
That hasn’t happened for some years, and it signals the coming of a wave of new cruise ships that will tempt vacationers in the next few years.
The new cruise line is Viking Ocean Cruises, sister company to Viking River Cruises, and it will launch three additional new ships in 2016-17. The Viking Star will be christened May 17 in Bergen, Norway.
But it’s not the only company building new ships. Established cruise lines also are expanding their fleets. Royal Caribbean will debut its new Anthem of the Seas later this month and has two more new ships coming next year. Norwegian Cruise Line will base its new Norwegian Escape in Miami this fall and is building three additional vessels to come in 2017, 2018 and 2019. MSC Cruises has contracted to build four new ships by 2019 and has options to build three others by 2022.
And on March 26, Carnival Corp. announced it would build nine more “next generation” cruise ships between 2019 and 2022, in addition to those it has already committed to. Carnival, which owns Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises, Holland America, Seabourn, Cunard, Costa and several European lines, did not specifiy which brands would get the new ships.
Next year will bring eight new oceangoing ships, including two more ships for Viking Ocean, as well as new builds for Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Holland America, Regent and Seabourn. Crystal Cruises, recently acquired by mega-company Genting Hong Kong, plans to put a new ship into service in 2018, but has not finalized details.
All this building reflects the spiraling popularity of cruising, which has grown spectacularly over the years. Ten years ago, cruise ships carried just 10.1 million passengers. This year, the industry is expected to carry 23 million, according to the Cruise Line Industry Association.
The spate of new ships may also reflect a trend that bigger is better in cruise ships. Many of the new vessels will be jumbo sized. Norwegian Escape, debuting later this year, will carry 4,200 passengers. Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, due next year, will join the line’s Oasis-class ships as the world’s biggest. MSC Cruises’ four new ships all will carry more than 4,000 passengers. The Carnival Vista, with almost 4,000 passengers, will be Carnival Cruise lines’ biggest ship.
However, some cruise lines, particularly the upscale ones, are sticking to smaller ships, with a philosophy that having fewer passengers enhances the cruise experience. All the ships being built for Regent, Seabourn and Viking Ocean will carry fewer than 1,000 passengers.
Why is Viking, which has been astoundingly successful operating river cruises, plunging into the oceangoing cruise market, which already has almost 150 ships that largely serve the American market? Torstein Hagen, chairman of Viking River Cruises and the new Viking Ocean Cruises, says his ships will offer something the others don’t.
“The introduction of Viking Star … will represent a distinct change in ocean cruising — an alternative to the mega-liners dominating the world’s ports,” Hagen said last year. “It is our view that in the race to build enormous ships, some cruise lines have lost sight of the destinations to which they sail.’’
Hagen’s company isn’t the only one that has decided to sail into the cruise business. Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, which already is into airlines, hotels, space travel and entertainment, announced in December it was forming a new South Florida-based company, Virgin Cruises, that will sail two new ships. Details, including when the ships will launch or where they will go, have not been announced.
What does this mean for passengers?
First, the new ships will provide state-of-the-art facilities and new choices in style, activities and itineraries. Some ships will sail out of new homeports and call at new cruise ports.
Perhaps more importantly, their numbers will keep cruise prices low, says Bob Levinstein, CEO of CruiseCompete.com, a major online travel marketplace. “We’re over capacity now and the ships keep coming,” Levinstein said. “That’s pushing prices down.”
But that’s not deterring expansion plans of cruise lines, which seem confident in the continuing growth of cruise vacations.
“We’re taking the brand to the next level,” said Rick Sasso, president of MSC North America, a subsidiary of MSC Cruises. “We had 120,000 passengers in 2003, we’ll have 1.7 million in 2015 … and in eight years we’ll double that.”
MSC’s next new ship, the 4,140-passenger MSC Seaside due in 2017, will be homeported year-round in Miami and its size will be a plus for passengers, Sasso said.
“It’ll have 500,000 square feet of public space . . . [enabling] us to have a lot more entertainment space for passengers,” he said. Among its features will be a two-deck aqua park that will introduce a new water activity, Slideboarding, which combines a water slide with an interactive game, and Adventure Trail, a ropes course.
Once, like the MSC Seaside, most major ships launched in South Florida or at least spent part of their inaugural year in Miami or Fort Lauderdale. But with other cities in the Northeast and along the Gulf Coast now operating ports that will accommodate large cruise ships, more ships bypass South Florida entirely. None of Royal Caribbean’s three Quantum-class ships will homeport here. Carnival introduced its Dream class ship and Norwegian its Breakaway class elsewhere.
The Caribbean is still the No. 1 cruising sea, but today ships are homeported in many more U.S. ports including New Orleans, Galveston, Tampa, Port Canaveral and Houston. Few if any ships used to cruise from the Northeast United States or in the Mediterranean during wintertime; now they do.
Carnival will homeport its 3,954-passenger Carnival Vista, debuting in 2016, in Miami year-round. The Carnival Vista will introduce several new features, including SkyRide, an open-air suspended cycling experience, and the world’s first IMAX theater at sea.
Norwegian Cruise Line’s new Norwegian Escape, to be based in Miami this fall, boasts new features, among them the Margaritaville at sea, a ropes course and a bocce ball court.
Meanwhile, Port Everglades will become the winter home of at least two of the new ships. Royal Caribbean will base its mega-sized new Harmony of the Seas there after its 2016 debut in Europe. Harmony, which can carry more than 5,000 passengers, will replace Oasis of the Seas, which will then be homeported in Port Canaveral. Holland America’s new Konigsdam, coming in 2016, also will sail out of Port Everglades in wintertime.
Ships now range even further abroad. Royal Caribbean will base its new Ovation of the Seas in China when it debuts in 2016, becoming its fifth ship deployed in that country for at least part of the year. Princess will have three ships based year-round in Australia and two sailing seasonally from Australia. Carnival Spirit sails year-round from Australia and Carnival Legend is there seasonally.
To offer new experiences for their passengers, cruise lines now take them to many more ports of call and visit all seven continents. Worldwide today, cruise ships call at nearly 1,000 ports, twice as many as 10 years ago, according to the Cruise Line Industry Association.
What’s next? Expect the cruise lines to come out with even more new destinations, new itineraries, new onboard facilities and other new lures to tantalize tomorrow’s cruise passengers. After all, they’ve got a lot more cruise ships to fill.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed an Oceania ship as new. The Sirena is not a new build but a ship currently with Princess Cruises that will be refurbished before joining the Oceania fleet in 2016.
NEW SHIPS ON ORDER
Listed below are the ship name, cruise line and number of passengers for new oceangoing ships that will debut in 2015 through 2020. This list includes only cruise lines that are based in the United States or that actively market themselves to Americans. It does not include smaller vessels, river cruise ships or options to build additional ships. It also does not include Crystal’s new ship, Virgin Cruises’ two ships or the nine ships just contracted for by Carnival Corp., for which details have not been announced.
2015
Anthem of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, 4,100 passengers.
Viking Star, Viking Ocean, 930.
Norwegian Escape, Norwegian Cruise Line, 4,200.
2016
Carnival Vista, Carnival, 3,954.
Ovation of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, 3,250.
Harmony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean, 5,400.
Viking Sky, Viking Ocean, 930.
Viking Sea, Viking Ocean, 930.
Seven Seas Explorer, Regent, 738.
Koningsdam, Holland America, 2,660.
Seabourn Encore, Seabourn, 604.
2017
Norwegian Bliss, Norwegian Cruise Line, 4,200.
Viking Sun, Viking Ocean, 930.
MSC Seaside, MSC Cruises, 4,140.
Unnamed, MSC Cruises, 4,500.
Unnamed, Princess, 3,568.
2018
Unnamed, Norwegian, 4,200.
Unnamed, Carnival, 3,954.
Unnamed, Holland America, 2,660.
Unnamed, Celebrity, 2,900.
Unnamed, Royal Caribbean, 5,400.
Unnamed, MSC Cruises, 4,140.
Seabourn Ovation, Seabourn, 604.
2019
Unnamed, Norwegian, 4,200.
Unnamed, MSC Cruises, 4,500.
2020
Unnamed, Celebrity, 2,900.
Silver Airways cancels South Florida flights from St. Pete/Clearwater
CLEARWATER — Silver Airways has canceled its service from St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport to Fort Lauderdale and Key West even before the flights were set to begin.
Airport officials unveiled the new non-stop flights in January, but their original March launch date later was delayed.
Officials at Silver Airways said bookings at the Clearwater airport, known as PIE, didn’t justify starting the route.
“Bookings for the PIE flights were not performing to a level to be economically feasible,” Silver spokeswoman Misty Pinson said in a statement Saturday.
Passengers who already booked will be accommodated by flights out of Tampa International Airport, she added.
Silver was the latest addition to St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport’s list of low-cost carriers that fly across the United States and into Canada.
Silver operates a fleet of 34-seat Saab 340B prop airplanes with numerous routes in Florida and the Bahamas.
The Clearwater Airport relies on Allegiant Airlines for more than 90 percent of its commercial flights and officials have been looking to diversify the number of carriers operating there.
Teen kicked off easyJet flight over luggage
LONDON, England - Low-cost carrier easyJet is facing public scorn once again after a 14-year-old girl was booted from a flight for having too many carry-on bags.
Deva Joseph, an unaccompanied minor, was denied boarding a flight from London to Spain when gate agents told her that her bags exceeded the allowance, The Mirror reports.
According to easyJet’s website, the carry-on policy was last revised less than two weeks prior to Joseph’s flight. Under the revised policy, flyers on basic tickets are allowed to carry one only one bag onto the aeroplane.
However, Joseph attempted to carry a suitcase as well as a handbag onto the aeroplane. When gate agents told the teen that she could only carry one bag on-board, she attempted to put her handbag in her suitcase, but it wouldn’t fit.
The teenager claims that she offered to pay at the gate for her suitcase to be checked to her final destination. According to her account, however, the gate agents refused, citing a credit card-only policy for purchases at the airport. Even though Joseph claims she was willing to leave one of her bags behind, the teen was not allowed to fly on her booked flight.
“I was sat on the floor crying,” Joseph said. “I just wanted to get home, but they didn’t care. I was desperate, I was pleading.”