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Travel Hot News.com
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press agencies
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| FLash | Continental cuts wage, benefits for reservation, foodservice workers
Continental Airlines Inc. said Thursday it has finalized pay and benefit cuts for its reservations and foodservice employees, saving $22 million a year the company says will help mitigate higher fuel costs. Combined with similar cuts announced Tuesday for most U.S.-based management and clerical employees, Continental has gained $70 million in annual savings toward its goal of cutting labour costs by $500 million a year. For employees in reservations and its Chelsea Food Service unit, the changes include lower salaries and reduced vacation, holiday, sick leave and 401(k) retirement plan benefits, Continental said. |
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Nominations in Transat A.T. Inc.’s
Upper Management |
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| Jean-Marc Eustache | The President and Chief Executive Officer of Transat A.T. inc., Jean-Marc Eustache is pleased to announce the nominations of Lina De Cesare and Philippe Sureau to the positions of President, Tour Operators and President, Distribution, respectively. These nominations are effective immediately. “Lina De Cesare and Philippe Sureau, co-founders of Transat, were already responsible for the development and management of these two sectors at Transat. These changes to the structure reflect the company’s operations and also create an environment that favours the succession development program at Transat. I wish to congratulate these individuals, present from the onset, on their nomination,” underlined Jean-Marc Eustache.
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| Border Security Fingerprints |
| AP |
Juan Valencia was nonchalant Friday as his fingerprints were electronically matched against more than a million prints of criminals, suspected terrorists and others not welcome in the United States. After a few minutes, a computer screen before the U.S. Customs agent processing Valencia flashed ``no hit found,'' the all-clear for the Frenchman to enter the United States. ``I guess it's fine,'' Valencia said after becoming one of the first foreign visitors to encounter the US-VISIT biometric entry procedures at the U.S.-Canadian border at Niagara Falls. Ont..
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Palestinian and Israeli Ministries
of Tourism continue to cooperate and
ensure smooth Christian |
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| Shown left to right, Eli Cohen, Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and Dr. Bajis Ismail, Director General, Palestinian Ministry of Tourism. | For the first time since the outbreak of the Intifada, working teams from the Israeli and Palestinian Ministries of Tourism met yesterday in Jerusalem to discuss further cooperation between the two sides. The focus of this meeting was to broker a commitment from both sides, offering Christian pilgrim and tourists, easy passage to Bethlehem, to celebrate Christmas. Pilgrims and tourists will be able to visit the birthplace of Christ, Church of the Nativity, and enjoy the festive atmosphere, sights and sounds that the Christmas season brings to Bethlehem. Leading the teams were Eli Cohen, Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism and his Palestinian counterpart, Dr. Bajis Ismail.
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| Cruise group Carnival reports fourth quarter earnings up despite hurricanes |
| AP |
Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise group, reported Thursday that fourth-quarter earnings rose 43 per cent despite an unprecedented hurricane season that disrupted travel. The Miami-based company had net income of $294 million US, or 36 cents a share, in the September-to-November period, compared to $205 million, or 26 cents a share, a year earlier. That beat the average estimate of 31 cents a share from analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. Revenues were $2.24 billion, compared with $1.82 billion a year earlier.
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| Airlines Prepare Passengers for a Busy Holiday Season: 38 Million Passengers Expected |
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The Air Transport Association (ATA) is projecting nearly 38 million passengers to travel during the upcoming holiday season, representing growth of 5.7 percent over the 2003 holiday season. Over this holiday season -- the period of December 17 through January 3, 2005 – domestic air travel is expected to be 5.6 percent greater than during the holiday travel season in 2003. Domestically, the number of passengers is projected to top 34.6 million, while international projections expect the number of passengers to climb to nearly 3.3 million, up 5.7 percent.
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| FLash | Ottawa announces U.S. customs pre clearance for Halifax International Airport
Travellers flying from Halifax International Airport to the United States will soon have the option of pre-clearing U.S. Customs and Immigration, federal officials announced Friday. Once the pre-clearance facility is completed, Halifax will become the eighth Canadian airport to offer this service. The airports in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal already offer pre-clearance. The pre-clearance process means travellers to the United States should enjoy shorter connections at American hub airports, and expanded service to U.S. airports without federal inspection facilities. The program allows travellers and their goods to be inspected by U.S. officers for the purposes of customs, immigration, public health, food inspection and plant and animal health before flights depart from Canada for U.S. destinations. The news was welcomed by Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm. ``With a U.S. Customs and Immigration pre-clearance facility at the airport, it makes it easier to do business and travel between the United States and Nova Scotia,'' Hamm said in a release. |
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| FLash | United pilots cut deal on pensions, face 15 per cent pay cuts
United Airlines pilots would drop their opposition to the carrier's much-decried plan to eliminate traditional pensions under a tentative contract deal approved by union leaders. The concession was disclosed by the United branch of the Air Line Pilots Association on Friday, a day after the group's leadership accepted the new cost-cutting contract agreed to by negotiators earlier this week. Facing a worsening financial outlook not only at bankrupt United but industrywide, union leaders late Thursday unanimously recommended ratification of the concessionary five-year contract when rank-and-file pilots vote on it early next month. Pilots will take 14.7 per cent pay cuts if it is adopted, on top of the 25 per cent to 30 per cent reductions already put in place last year when United used the leverage of federal bankruptcy law to shrink its labour contracts. |
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| FLash | N.S. workers errect Christmas tree at site of fatal cargo jet crash
On a small clearing overlooking the shattered tail section of a Boeing 747, a fully decorated Christmas tree teeters in the wind. Topped by an angel, the evergreen was erected this week as a tribute to the seven crew members who were killed in October when their MK Airlines jet crashed just beyond a runway at Halifax International Airport. The jet's huge tail snapped off when the aircraft struck a berm and crashed through the nearby woods in a ball of fire. The workers have been toiling for weeks to clean up the debris. |
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