Business Travel Tips

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. government agency responsible for security in all modes of transportation, announced two new technologies have been deployed in the two convention city airports — Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The new technology includes passive millimeter wave and the hand-held spectrometer.

Passive millimeter wave, previously tested in mass transit and seaport environments, is a flexible, mobile technology that can detect the characteristics of explosives hidden on the body. It detects explosives or improvised explosive devices by analyzing energy generated by the human body.
It is completely safe, non-invasive and does not store information. The indicator produces a light on a red-to-green scale that suggests anomalies that could have security implications, including the presence of explosives.

The hand-held spectrometer, is an explosive detection device that can penetrate sealed containers in seconds and identify a wide range of solid and liquid explosives using laser technology. (source: TSA)

Thai Airways will offer nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Osaka, Japan, with connections to Bangkok, starting from October 26.

The flights will operate five days per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays with one scheduled flight per day.

- Schedule
Departure from Los Angeles at 12:10PM, arrival in Osaka at 6pm. The connecting service to Bangkok will depart from Osaka at 7:10PM.
On the return journey, departure from Bangkok at 7:30AM, arrival in Osaka at 2:40PM. From Osaka, departure at 3:50PM and land at Los Angeles at 9:15AM.

Concerning the mass flight delays that hit hardest the Northeast of the United States yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said that the situation around the country was returning to normal, with delays remaining in Atlanta and Chicago.

FAA spokeswoman, Kathleen Bergen in Atlanta, said the problem that occurred Tuesday afternoon involved a failure in a communication link that transmits flight plan data from the Georgia facility to a similar facility in Salt Lake City.
As a result, the Salt Lake City facility was having to process those flight plans, causing delays in planes taking off. She said the delays were primarily affecting departing flights.

Another FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere, during an early evening conference call with reporters, said Tuesday’s glitch appeared to be a software problem and the situation was returning to normal, though the Hampton facility was not yet processing flight plans again. (source)

Beginning October 26, Qatar Airways will operate a non-stop daily flight on the Doha – New York route.
The airline also announced it will switch its existing six-flights-a-week between Doha and Newark Liberty International Airport, via Geneva, to New York’s JFK Airport.

Under the new schedules, Qatar Airways will no longer operate flights between Geneva and New York.

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said:

“We are now preparing to go daily with our brand new Boeing 777s featuring lie-flat Business Class seats from October and offer unprecedented levels of space and comfort, which will truly give us an edge over our competitors in the Middle East and around the world. The move to New York’s JFK Airport is in response to passenger demand flying to one of America’s premier airports on the US east coast.”

Starting December 8, Qatar Airways is to launch scheduled flights to Houston, which at 17 hours, will be one of the longest flights in the world non-stop from Doha. (source).

According to a report published today by American Express Business Travel, domestic and international airfares reached record levels in Q2 2008.

American Express’ quarterly AmEx Business Travel Monitor shows the average domestic airfare paid increased 10 percent year-over-year, as the second quarter of 2008 marked a seven-year high in the average airfare paid by business travelers.

The international airfare reached highest level in nearly a decade.

The average international one-way airfare paid during the second quarter of 2008 set a new record, at its highest level since the inception of the Business Travel Monitor in 1999.
With an 11 percent increase in the second quarter of 2008, over the same period in 2007, international airfares reached nearly $2,000, with a final average of $1,980.

 
The report also shows more business travelers choose coach. The percentage of international business class tickets purchased was at the lowest level since the third quarter of 2004 at 49 percent. Increases in the percentage of tickets purchased in other classes of service show that companies are employing strategies to encourage travelers to trade down to other classes of service. (source)