<B> Inside Track</B>
<B>AA Expands, Challenges United Out West</B>
American Airlines last week announced a major expansion of service from the West Coast--directly taking on United Airlines in several key transcontinental city pairs, including 20 new flights in 19 markets, including seven new nonstop routes and additional frequencies in 12 city pairs. On May 1, American will introduce the 237-seat Boeing 777 on flights to Tokyo from Seattle and San Jose, as well as new nonstops between Seattle and New York-JFK, San Jose and San Diego and San Jose and Orange County, Calif. Also on May 1, AA will add one nonstop flight a day in six markets: San Diego-JFK, Los Angeles-JFK, Los Angeles-Chicago, Seattle-Chicago, Los Angeles-DFW and San Francisco-DFW. With the additions, American will offer 18 flights a day each way on both the Los Angeles-DFW and Los Angeles-Chicago routes, and 11 roundtrips daily in Los Angeles-JFK and San Francisco-DFW. On June 1, it also will launch new Los Angeles-Paris service, start flights between DFW and Anchorage, and increase nonstops from Seattle to Boston, DFW and Chicago, and between San Francisco and Chicago. On July 2, AA will start a daily nonstop between Los Angeles and Hartford, and will add one daily flight in each of two markets: Oakland-DFW and Seattle-DFW.
<a name="2"><B>Virgin To Restructure Commissions Today</B>
Virgin Atlantic today will begin paying 10 percent travel agency commissions for economy class, up from 8 percent, but will drop its payments to 5 percent from 8 percent for Premium Economy and Upper Class tickets. "Unlike other airlines," said Virgin vice president of sales and marketing Tim Claydon, "we have chosen not to implement commission caps or a tiered arrangement, which favors certain agents over others. There are also opportunities for travel agents to earn increased commission with Virgin."
<a name="3"><B>Agreement On Smart Card Standard?</B>
American Express Corporate Services today will announce the first dozen or so organizations to license the Smart Card multiple application framework that it offered up last year. Garnering support from other card networks, software companies, application and hardware manufacturers, as well as its long-time travel industry partners, American Express contends this is the next step toward global interoperability for smart cards.
<a name="4"><B>Delta Faces Suit On Shuttle</B>
Delta Air Lines pilots late last month filed suit against the carrier in New York federal court to block its plans to include a Comair-operated regional jet in its planned Boston-Washington Delta Shuttle service (<I>BTN,</I> April 26). Delta said the new route, scheduled to begin June 1, requires Delta Connection carrier Comair because the smaller airline owns the necessary slots at Washington National Airport. In unrelated news, the airline also said it will adopt the "J" booking class in CRSs for its new BusinessElite hybrid business/first class. After June 1, when the majority of Delta's B-777, B-767ER and MD11 fleet will have been reconfigured with the new product, the "C" code will refer only to Delta's traditional business class service on other aircraft.
<a name="5"><B>Korean Air Damaged By Safety Record</B>
Carlson Wagonlit Travel has followed the lead of Delta Air Lines and Air Canada in deciding to no longer put its passengers on Korean Air, pending further review. Other major agencies and some corporate accounts are rumored to have made the same choice. Korean's two North American codesharing partners made their decisions last month following the April 15 crash of a Korean Air MD-11 cargo jet that killed four people. That accident followed the August 1997 747-300 accident in Guam that killed 228.
<a name="6"><B>Developer To Unveil CRS Front End</B>
Automated Travel Systems, the New York-based travel software developer, soon will reveal details of its Project X, a front-end tool for the CRS that uses direct ATP feeds. Company founder Seth Perelman said the agency version will launch in June and a corporate product will be out by year-end.
<a name="7"><B>Balkan War May Cost Travel Industry</B>
PricewaterhouseCoopers announced late last month that deploying U.S. or NATO ground troops in Kosovo would lead to a major drop-off in travel, as would any spread of the fighting beyond its current borders, or a spate of terrorist warfare. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has banned flights of U.S. civilian aircraft in the combat zone and at least seven airlines--including United, Delta, British Airways and Lufthansa--have re-routed or canceled flights throughout the region. Meanwhile, Hungary reported nearly 420,000 hotel guests in January and February, a 1 percent increase over the same period last year.