• A look at Capacity of the Big Three U.S. Airlines and Their Most Important Airports: With international airline lift capacity in 2020 running at less than a tenth of what it managed in 2019, last year has become a benchmark year for analyses of the industry. From anna-aero (“anna” is the acronym for Airline Network News and Analysis), we have this detailed review of the major USA legacy airlines—American, United and Delta. As the report’s summary introduction explains, “Across these three airlines and 18 airports … American and United each had two airports within the top-five against one for Delta. Of course, Atlanta overshadows the others, with almost exactly three times as many seats for Delta as the median volume. Stripping out each carrier’s largest airport, United’s remaining top-five airports had an average 38 million seats against 35 million for American and ‘just’ 25 million for Delta.” For the complete report and article, click here.
• A Most Challenging Time for U.S. Tourism’s “Jewel”—its National Parks: “During a Great Depression radio address from Glacier National Park, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared, ‘there is nothing so American as our national parks’,” author Jim Morrison tells us in an article in the latest Smithsonian magazine, adding, “Amid another national reckoning, it’s natural for today’s Americans to turn to the parks for a respite from the restrictions of pandemic life.”
But, Morrison points out, “the promise of wide-open spaces comes with a set of complications, especially with crowds gathering at popular viewpoints, cultural sites and trails. As parks across the country began reopening in phases during May, they did so with a cautious eye on the risk to visitors and to the people who keep the parks, tour companies and nearby towns running.”
Click here to read the complete article, which explores issues faced by some of the more popular U.S. national parks which, as a whole, comprise what is arguably the most popular travel brand of America.
• TUI and Booking.com to Partner: Earlier this month, the tour and travel industry’s largest tour operator, Hanover, Germany-based TUI, and Booking.com—it is more or less in a tie with Expedia.com for title of world’s largest OTA— announced a strategic global experiences, activities and excursions partnership, providing millions of Booking.com customers worldwide with direct access to the rapidly growing activities segment of TUI and its digital subsidiary Musement. The contracts have been signed and the cooperation starts this summer 2020. The key points stressed by the two companies in making their announcement were these:
—Booking.com customers will eventually have direct access to a product portfolio of more than 70,000 tours and attractions globally through TUI subsidiary Musement, launching incrementally on Booking.com over the coming months.
—The partnership includes a robust offering that’s also relevant for domestic and local tourism
—As global travel restrictions begin to relax on a local level, customers will be able to start booking Musement’s tours and attractions inventory via Booking.com starting this summer.
For the complete news release on the announcement, click here.
