Business Travel Tips

Flight attendants protested at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, after Transportation Security Agency lifted the bans over the items allowed on planes.

After the relaxing of federal security restrictions, passengers are allowed to bring previously forbidden items - such as screwdrivers and pliers smaller than 6 inches and scissors with blades smaller than 4 inches, aboard planes

Flight attendants gathered signatures from passengers for a petition asking Congress to reinstate the bans. Similar protests are expected in many more airports accross the USA.

However TSA spokesman Chris White explained:

“…the bans were lifted so the agency could refocus attention on explosives, which the agency considers the current top threat to aviation…”

(source)

The FAA has issued a temporary flight restriction for Super Bowl XL February 5 in Detroit.

The temporary flight restriction (TFR) will prohibit all general aviation flights within 10 nautical miles of Detroit’s Ford Field from 4 p.m. until midnight on February 5.

However Canada doesn’t agree with the restrictions, so the TFR stops at the Canadian border.

That means while Coleman A. Young Municipal Airport (DET) will be shut down , Windsor Airport (CYOG), which is even closer to the stadium, but located in Canada, will remain open.

(source)

As the result of a survey released by Carlson Wagonlit Travel stresses lining up for airport security checks is the biggest irritant for business travelers, Transportation Security Administration is considering a program to allow frequent fliers to skip the pre-flight security checks.

…The program, called Registered Traveler, would give passengers the option of paying an $80 a year fee and submitting to a background check. If they pass, they would be issued a card that would allow them to walk past the lines of people taking off their shoes and being patted down with an electric wand…

(source)

Individual airports would decide whether or not to participate to the program, which is currently being tested in Los Angeles, Washington, Minneapolis, Boston, Houston and Orlando.

According to a survey of 2,100 executives released by Carlson Wagonlit Travel, business travel expenditure is expected to grow in 2006 versus 2005.

It seems that threats such as terrorist attacks and bird flu outbreaks would not be a deterrent to executive travel.

25% of travelers polled stated that lining up for airport security checks as their biggest irritant; on the same matter 24% cited delayed flights.

Also, 61% said they were opposed to allowing the in-flight use of mobile phones.
 
(source)

Belgian airline SN Brussels launches a new price strategy enabling early bookers to save up to 45% on fares to 32 destinations.

Condition is that the ticket is booked at least 2 months before the departure date of the flight.

It is estimated that this year about 800.000 of the 5,5 million seats that SN offers to the market will be available at the new discounted early booking fares.

A SN Brussels release says:

The new pricing structure is not a one-off commercial ’stunt’ but rather a structural change which makes SN Brussels Airlines the most competitive airline on nearly all important routes, even for the most price sensitive customer. A fare comparison of similar full service airlines shows that SN is indeed extremely competitive.

SN was able to lower its fares thanks to its many cost efficiency measures : the abolition of paper tickets, the optimisation of the flight offer, lower costs for ground services, etc.
Moreover SN is determined to perform massive price efforts in 2006 in order to fill the empty flight seats.