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Volume 5, Issue 37, September 11, 2007 |
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After posting all-time highs for air traffic in 2000, airline travel suffered a body blow in 2001, but intrepid travelers have bounced back. The number of Americans flying had increased every year since 1981, but 2001 broke the mold, and it wasn’t until 2004 that 2000’s U.S. air-traffic levels were surpassed.
The pattern of year-over-year growth is now back in place. Almost 750 million passengers enplaned in the United States in 2006, and 2007 is on track to set a new record, with international travel growing at a faster pace than domestic flying. On average, 7.4 million passengers are flying internationally on U.S. carriers each month in 2007, with more than 70,000 international flights being flown.
Records are also being broken abroad. The International Air Transport Association reports that July — the most recent month tracked — set new records for passenger traffic, up 6 percent over the previous year with an all-time high average load factor of 81 percent among IATA’s 240-plus member carriers.
That’s the good news, but the bad news is related: July was also the worst month on record for flight delays in the U.S., up 26 percent over the previous year.
The best news: Neither American nor United Airlines, each of which lost two aircraft with all souls on board on Sept. 11, 2001, have had any fatal crashes since that day, and there have been no fatal airline accidents on any U.S. airline, including commuters, for more than a year. 
Since last year’s anniversary of the World Trade Center tragedy, a new page has been turned. The first steel columns for the Freedom Tower rose in December, and construction has now reached ground level. The overall site at Ground Zero will keep a team of 120 architects busy on what is expected to be $16 billion worth of construction. World Trade Center 7 was completed in 2006, and three more towers are set to begin construction in 2008. You can keep up with the progress at WTCRising.com.
In the finalized plans, the Memorial Plaza will comprise 8 acres of the 16-acre site. “Reflecting Absence,” the design chosen for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum from more than 5,200 entries, will have waterfalls cascading into recessed pools descending into voids on the footprints of the original towers. The names of the 2,980 people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks (in D.C. and Pennsylvania as well as at Ground Zero) and in the 1993 WTC bombing will be engraved in an “endless ribbon” around the base of the pools. The site will also be planted with at least 300 oak trees to establish a contemplative space set off from the city’s bustle. Visitors will descend behind the veils of water to view the rock and remnant of the original site. The memorial is slated to open in 2009, the museum in 2010, and the Freedom Tower in 2011, with the other three towers following in 2012.
London now boasts a brand-new hotel on the banks of the Thames. The Radisson Edwardian New Providence Wharf offers spectacular views of the river and 169 individually designed guestrooms, plus a fine-dining restaurant and a spa. Rates start at $480 a night.
Miami’s new South Terminal Concourse J has just opened, with its own customs and immigration facilities, two new security checkpoints, and 15 new gates capable of handling international flights. Airlines that are moving into the new terminal, which consists of the former main-terminal concourses E through H plus the new J building, are the Star Alliance and SkyTeam carriers including Delta, Lufthansa and LAN; OneWorld carriers will now be grouped together in the North Terminal, formerly Concourses A through D.
New destinations, lounges and mileage opportunities come along with the announcements of new airline members of alliances. The latest: Hong Kong-based Dragonair has joined OneWorld, raising the number of China destinations served by that alliance from 10 to 22. And SkyTeam, which Global Traveler readers have voted best alliance for the last two years, has added three new members: Air Europa of Spain, Copa Airlines of Panama, and Kenya Airways.
If you’re flying American Airlines out of San Francisco (SFO) through Sept. 30, here’s a heads-up: You can’t use cash for on-board purchases. With an eye to going all-cashless, American is testing reactions to a program that would accept only credit or debit cards onboard its flights. Testing will be limited to the main cabin, and receipts will be available on request. The airline will be soliciting feedback from passengers and flight attendants during the pilot program.
Hotel Arctic
Postboks 1501
DK-3952 Ilulissat
Greenland
tel 299 94 41 53; fax 299 94 40 49
www.hotel-artic.gl
It was about 10 p.m. when I first arrived at the Hotel Arctic — a small, modern property situated on a hill overlooking the village of Ilulissat and Disko Bay, on Greenland’s west coast. My dinner appointment was waiting for me in the hotel’s Restaurant Ilo, where I was greeted by one of the most surreal views I have ever seen.
The sight of a shimmering blood-orange sun hovering over a bay filled with towering icebergs was totally unexpected, even though I’d read up on the area first. The restaurant’s outdoor deck, where a barbeque buffet of whale, seal, reindeer steaks, fresh shrimp and halibut, Danish potatoes and salads had been set up for guests, was a spectacular setting. Walking out to the buffet table, it was impossible not to be overwhelmed by the sky, which turned from blue to purple to dark maroon as the summer evening wore on, or by the icebergs, which were sparkling white one minute, turquoise and pink the next.
Because Greenland is part of Denmark, many of the hotel’s furnishings are by noted Danish designers — meaning sleek, blonde-wood furniture and earth-toned fabrics. Greenlandic art fills the public areas and guestrooms, including original polar bear paintings by noted artist Buuti Petersen. When tourism to Ilulissat began to grow in the mid-1990s (the Ilulissat Icefjord is the big attraction), the hotel added five adorable, aluminum-sided, one- or two-person “igloos” overlooking the bay, accessed from the main hotel building by a cleverly raised boardwalk trail.
With Greenland’s ice sheet getting so much recent attention due to global warming, the hotel has had pardon the pun) a flood of international visitors lately. Germany’s president, Angela Merkel, left the property the day I arrived. During my visit I said a few words to Greenland’s Prime Minister Hans Enoksen, who I met at the restaurant’s buffet table.
The Hotel Arctic, 155 miles north of the Arctic Circle and considered one of Greenland’s best, would be rated a moderate, upscale hotel elsewhere in Europe. Room rates start at $200 a night, including breakfast overlooking the iceberg-filled bay; the “igloos,” which are only open from May to September, start at $230. The staff speaks English, Danish, and Greenlandic, and the hotel is within walking distance of the village of Ilulissat and its picturesque harbor.
Score: ••••• Ron Bernthal
Virgin Atlantic is running a sale for autumn and winter travel in both Economy and Premium Economy classes. The sale applies to flights to London (LHR and LGW) from Boston (BOS), Chicago (ORD), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK or EWR), Orlando (MCO), San Francisco (SFO) and Washington, D.C. (IAD). Economy fares start at $286 round trip for flights from Oct. 25 through Feb. 28 (excluding Dec. 17-Jan. 4), or $356 round trip from now through Oct. 24; Premium fares start at $668 or $862 round trip for those travel periods. No advance purchase is required, but tickets must be bought by midnight Sept. 12 and require a Saturday night stay.
Holiday Inn’s Stay Under the Green for Life sweepstakes has a big grand prize: 2.9 million Priority Club Points, good for stays at any InterContinental Hotels Group property or partner (value approximately $10,000). Oh, and the grand prize winner also gets a four-day, three-night trip to Daytona, Fla. in February 2008 for the Daytona 300 and Daytona 500 races, including airfare, hotel, rental car and race tickets. Four hundred and seventy-five other lucky prize winners get tickets to both races. Download the entry form; there seems to be no limitation on the number of entries, as long as each is mailed separately and postmarked by Nov. 15.
The Colorado Golf Road Trip gives a new meaning to “foursome.” Four Destination Hotels & Resorts properties — one each in Denver, Aspen, Vail and Telluride — are teaming up to offer packages that allow play at any course or combination of courses. The package includes two nights’ lodging for four, one round of golf per person, and a $30 gas card for travel between the resorts. Rates range from $800 to $1,278 for either two hotel rooms or a two-bedroom condo, depending upon the property. The packages, good through Oct. 31, are available at The Gant in Aspen, Destination Resorts Vail, the Telluride Mountain Lodge, and the Inverness Hotel outside Denver; call 866 831 3222 and use promotion code ROADTRIP.
Yotel, the in-terminal mini-hotel already open at Gatwick (LGW), is opening a Schiphol (AMS) branch by the end of the year. A cross between Japanese capsule hotels and airline first-class cabins, Yotel rooms range between 75 and 110 square feet, but are designed to be 4-star with electronically controlled sofas that turn into single or double beds, flat-screen TVs, a separate shower area with towels, products and hairdryer, and a touchscreen menu for ordering food from the galley. The Schiphol Yotel will be located inside passport control on Pier D, so it will only be available for transfer passengers and pre-departure. At Gatwick, rooms start at $110 a day or $50 for a four-hour minimum; the Dutch prices should be similar. By the way, the Yotel scheduled to open at Heathrow (LHR) Terminal 4 this month is now opening Dec. 1.
Airlines are battling for passengers along the California Corridor, to the benefit of travelers’ pocketbooks. Soon after Virgin America began flying between San Francisco (SFO) and Los Angeles (LAX), Southwest returned to SFO after a six-year absence, undercutting Virgin America’s introductory fares, and JetBlue also began serving SFO recently. With Southwest and Virgin America both currently charging $99 round-trip between San Francisco and L.A., and JetBlue charging $102 round-trip between Oakland (OAK) and Long Beach (LGB), the major airlines are also getting in on the act, not only cutting fares but flexing their frequent-flier muscle. United is awarding double miles for flights between SFO and six southern California airports, while American is doubling miles between SFO and either LAX or Orange County (SNA). Most of these deals are good through early October.
