The Blimp, a bastion of travel 70 years ago, may be making its way back in to our society as a cruise ship for  the air. There are prototypes coming out (as seen above) that show the luxurious travel opportunities of slow flying across the country at low altitudes to see the countryside and travel in splendor. Very cool.

This is not a Blimp. It’s a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It’s the Aeroscraft, and when it’s completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft’s weight. The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body—driven by huge rearward propellers—generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising. During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent.

This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010. Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason: The craft would have a range of several thousand miles and, with an estimated top speed of 174 mph, could traverse the continental U.S. in about 18 hours. During the flight, passengers would peer at national landmarks just 8,000 feet below or, if they weren’t captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants, even a casino. via Popular Science

When going on a cruise, there are many opportunities to experience the unique nature of the islands the cruise ship is taking you to, you have to remember that there are some risks. The cruise ship typically has no liability for you while you are off ship unless on an excursion that is sponsored by the ship.

While a seasoned traveler will understand the risks associated of going outside the plan, many others who are not as savvy may expect to always fall under the cruise ships umbrella. Unfortunately when we travel we tend to relax and lower our guard. This may not be what you want to hear going on vacation, but the alternatives of not being prepared in a foreign country can be much worse.

When cruise line passengers participate in onshore excursions like the one that killed 12 people in Chile, they need to take their own legal precautions and not rely on cruise ship company liability, experts said on Thursday.
Passengers need to be particularly careful when they choose tours that aren’t affiliated with the cruise line, said Paul Ruden, senior vice president for the American Society of Travel Agents. That appears to be the case in Chile, according to the cruise line.
Ruden acknowledged some people choose local operators that don’t coordinate with cruise lines because they may offer cheaper tours.
“If you’re comfortable being out on your own, that’s fine, but you’re taking the same risk of being out on your own that you would anywhere,” he said.

Read the rest at CNN.com

Go! Airlines, the new subsidiary of Mesa Airlines, has entered the inter-island market in the Hawaiian islands. With Aloha and Hawaiian Airlines just out of bankruptcy, the marketplace looks like it has a battle on its hands. And  with a introductory price of $39 one way, Go! wants to capture marketshare and pressure  the  already weak carriers.

Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group Inc. said its new “go!” airlines will start flying between Honolulu and Lihue, Kahului, Hilo and Kailua-Kona on June 9.
Mesa is one of the nation’s largest regional carriers with 182 jets, 5,000 employees and annual revenues of $1 billion. Flying to over 170 cities under the America West Express and other brand names, it is the largest company to enter Hawaii’s exclusive interisland market, dominated for decades by Hawaiian and Aloha airlines.
“It is strategically the most important endeavor that we’ve embarked upon since I’ve been with the company,” said Jonathan Ornstein, Mesa’s president and chief executive.
Hawaiian and Aloha both recently emerged from Chapter 11 reorganization and are responding quickly.
The night before Mesa’s scheduled news conference in Honolulu, Aloha and Hawaiian announced they were selling a limited number of $39 seats through April 7 for travel June 9 through Sept. 30. That’s nearly half the usual lowest fares.via WTOP.

See our previous post on Mesa entering Hawaii.

The cruise story of the day is the horrible fire supposedly cause by a cigarette. The ship, the Star Princess, was quickly taken to Jamaica. Damage was extensive and damaged 150 cabins on the Star Princess before the crew was able to put out the fire.

The American died after suffering cardiac arrest, Princess spokeswoman Julie Benson said without releasing the victim’s name.

A company statement said two passengers suffered “significant smoke inhalation injuries” and nine others had “minor complications.” The injured were being treated in the ship’s medical center, the company said. via Forbes

More Coverage on  the  fire aboard the Star Princess:

• Reuters
• BBC News
• CNN (Video)

Carnival Corporation stock took a tumble today, down 5 percent, after the news came out. It has been a difficult period for the cruise industry as low bookings, missing passengers, and other negative issues have been  in the news recently.

Delta Airlines in the face of a tough fight with its Pilot’s Union and working hard to emerge as a profitable company out of bankruptcy has worked hard revamping its schedule both internationally and domestically. They are planning on flying 1,000 flights a day out of Atlanta to 230 destinations around the world during the peak summer months and then ramping down the schedules the rest of the year. This is an increase of 30 destinations from last summer.

Delta has identified 22 high-demand destinations where its summer schedule will be expanded during May and June. These include: Baltimore, Dallas Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Seattle.
“As we prepare for Delta’s busiest summer travel season ever, we are seeing increased demand for travel via Atlanta as more customers choose the convenience of flying through Delta’s largest hub to connect to nearly 230 worldwide destinations,” said Bob Cortelyou, vice president of network planning.
“Delta will fly to more destinations this summer from Atlanta than any other previous year.” via CheapFlights.com.

A tour bus  carrying passengers from the Carnival Cruise Lines Millennium has crashed outside Santiago Chile leaving at least 11 people dead and many others injured . The bus was returning from visiting a National Park and was traveling on a poor section of road that ran along a cliffside.

“We have confirmed 11 people killed,” Poli said. He said some of the dead were thought to be from the United States but did not have an exact number or identities.
The crash occurred as the tourists returned to their Bahamas-registered Millennium cruise ship after visiting the nearby Lauca National Park.
“We still do not know the causes of the accident, but the road in that was has several cliffs and is very curvy,” Poli told the Associated Press by telephone via  Yahoo! News.

An interesting article over at CNN about how upscale hotels are now providing upscale meals to go for their guests to eat on the plane. The reason is to build loyalty, but what an intelligent idea. I wonder if the idea could translate to airport kiosks. The food court has McDonald’s, Chinese, Sbarro, and The Peninsula Gourmet.

 Now, many are offering the meals in takeout bags or boxes to well-heeled travelers forced to fend for themselves as airlines scale back food service. It’s a way for the upscale hotels to attract repeat business and luxury travelers.

“I don’t want to be down on the airport, but once you get there, you’re limited to whatever fast food they have,” said Pamela Morris, 32, who travels frequently as special projects director for an economic development council in Colorado.

Morris recently ordered a poached chicken breast pita sandwich with tarragon mayonnaise from the flight food menu of the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City during a business trip to Washington, D.C.

“It was perfect for what we needed it for,” she said. “It was filling and fresh, and it was easy.”

The trend toward gourmet travel offerings by hotels began to take off when high fuel prices and competition from no-frills carriers forced many domestic airlines to trim costs by closing kitchens, industry observers said. via CNN

A list  has been announced by the European Union of airlines that have been banned from flying into these European countries. Many of the airlines are from Africa and have been banned in the individual countries but the EU has decided to create a common list for the countries to use.

 The ban applies to cargo and passenger carriers from Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Liberia judged to have an “inadequate system for regulatory oversight” or insufficient safety standards. It will be enforced by all 25 EU nations, plus Norway and Switzerland.

EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said the EU was barring 50 carriers from Congo alone, 14 from Sierra Leone and seven from Swaziland, virtually ensuring that all airlines operating from those countries were prevented from flying to Europe.

He said some planes used for flights to Europe and possibly elsewhere were “flying coffins,” adding that safety controls in the listed nations were too weak.

The EU moved to set up a single list after several fatal airline crashes in Greece and Italy last year and the fatal crash of Egypt’s Flash Airlines in the Red Sea in June 2004, which killed 148 people, mostly French tourists.

The Egyptian airline was not on the EU list, as it had gone bankrupt, Barrot said.

Barrot said the high number of listed Congolese airlines was partly due to years of civil war, after which old military planes, many manufactured in the former Soviet Union, were converted for civilian and cargo use.  via the Chicago Tribune

My wife, the flight attendant, stays in hotels 2 to 3 nights a week and it is amazing the difference in quality of the hotel rooms she stays as she travels around the country. One night she will be in a 4 star hotel in downtown San Francisco and the next she will be at a less than stellar hotel/motel with no other businesses within range of the property.

Now with a reinvigorated hotel industry, many hotels are not  bidding on the  contracts for flight crew rooms. The rates airlines are paying for hotel rooms are closely guarded secrets as they do not want other companies to see these rates or other hotels in the area to bid on the contracts. The rates are not high, but crew rooms tend to be the worst in the hotel (think ice machines and elevators) and they are  filled year round.

Unless a hotel is running at 80 percent occupancy or better, it’s not a bad idea to have some flight crews, Berger said. The advantage they offer is that they are in the hotel seven days a week and 365 days a year, and that means some income for hotels during, say, Christmas, Thanksgiving and the dead of winter, when they otherwise might be relatively empty.  via Sacramento Business Journal

I will be curious to see the difference between the availability and convenience of the hotels that used by the flight crews. It could be a vicious circle for the airlines as room rates are going up and quality of the hotels that will bid on their business is going down. The  flight crews may  have to adjust to being in lower end properties in this time of airline bankruptcies and discord.