If you do not count the increases in gasoline, renting a car will be fairly reasonable cost wise in 2008. The cost increases will be about 4 percent or less, owing mainly to the weakness in Detroit and the deals car manufacturers will be offering the large rental car companies.

Automobile renters with corporate accounts are not expected to see much of an increase as the bargaining power for the companies is still very strong. So if you are a small businessman or family looking to rent a car expect to see a modest increase in the price of a car rental when you travel.

The American Express Global Business Travel Forecast projects an increase in rental car rates next year of 4 percent or less.
Prices for airport car rentals “are a function of the number of people getting off of airplanes,” says consultant Neil Abrams, who advises companies on rental-car contract negotiations. “And as long as airline deplanements continue to rise . . . there will be some ability to raise” rates.
The National Business Travel Association forecasts a larger 2008 increase in rental car costs than does AmEx: 5 percent to 7 percent. But AmEx takes into account off-airport rentals, while NBTA does not.
Abrams and the NBTA expect the average rental rates paid by big corporations that can negotiate high-volume discounts with rental-car companies to rise only a bit, if at all.
To the extent that big corporations succeed in getting volume discounts, small companies and entrepreneurial business travelers will bear the brunt of rental-car companies’ expected revenue increases.
Gasoline prices also are likely to increase total spending on rental cars. via  IndyStar.com.

In response to heavy lobbying and a system that has not been certified, the passport requirements that were to go into effect at the end of next year have pushed it back a year. This will allow the systems to be set up properly, and give the lobbyists another year to spread their money all over Washington to the politicians.

The extension was added to the appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
Congress originally set Jan. 1, 2008, as the date that all travelers entering the United States from other countries in the Western hemisphere would be required to have a passport. The Department of Homeland Security proposed moving up that deadline to Jan. 8, 2007, for cruise ship and airplane passengers.
Now Congress has pushed back the passport deadline for land and sea travel to June 1, 2009. Passports or other secure documents could be required earlier than this date if the government makes a lower-cost identification option available and installs the technology to read these cards at entry points.
Congress didn’t change the passport deadline for air travel. Airlines already ask passengers for passports for international travel, even in the Western hemisphere, so the new requirement won’t disrupt air travel, according to the Travel Industry Association of America.  via the Dayton Business Journal

State Farm has gotten approval from the state insurance regulators to raise the policy premiums 50 percent in Florida. The scary part is that State Farm was asking for a 79 percent increase and had to settle for the 50 percent bump. The rates will effect new and current customers.

The rates, more than a $1,000 increase on a $2,000 premium, are effective Aug. 15 for new customers and Nov. 15 on renewals. State Farm Florida first sought an average 79 percent increase when it asked for higher rates in May, but the company withdrew that request earlier this month.

State Farm officials have said they sought the rate increase to enable the company to continue to underwrite coverage in the state. Other companies also have sought rate increases.

Allstate Floridian has pursued a different strategy, dropping Florida customers to reduce its risk from hurricane damage. Allstate has plans to drop 350,000 home policies. In March, the company had 529,000 Florida homeowners’ policies.

Nationwide has a pending request to increase rates by 71 percent on the 261,000 policies it has in Florida. via The Quad-City Times Newspaper

America West/US Air are looking for money anywhere they can find it. They have gone so far as to put advertising on the air sick bags on their flights. While pricing has bot been determined, the company is thought to be targeting companies like Dramamine to grace the covers of the thier air sick bags.  

Passengers should see the new, commercialized sickness bags in September, he said.
The ads are just the latest initiative the company has used to squeeze out a bigger profit.
America West, which merged with US Airways last year, had the first advertisements in the industry on tray tables, the first airline gift cards and the first in-flight meals for sale.
“Little things like that work,” said Michael Boyd, president of the Boyd Group, an aviation consulting group in Evergreen, Colo. “Barf bags have a lot of shelf life — people aren’t barfing as much in planes as they used to.”
The new bags drew a few chuckles among US Airways passengers at the company’s hub at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.
“I would honestly pay no attention to an ad if I got sick,” said Nathan Vierra, 19, a student. “But hey, if skateboarders can sell ad space on their T-shirts, I guess why can’t an airline sell ads on barf bags?” via  MSNBC.com.

It looks like all air traffic in and out of southern California is stopped as a power outage at the main radar facility occurred.

Tell me how this is possible.

A power outage at a radar facility Tuesday cut communications and brought incoming and outgoing flights in Southern California to a standstill, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said.
“We lost everything. We lost all power to phone lines, computers, everything,” said Allen Kenitzer, a regional spokesman for the FAA.
The outage at the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center was reported around 6 p.m., Kenitzer said, and the cause was not known.
The center is located in the high desert near Palmdale. via ABC News

A man on a flight from LaGuardia to Tampa St Pete was subdued by passengers in first class as he attempted to gain access to the cockpit of a Delta Air Lines flight. He has been taken into custody, but this is a great example of how a 9/11 would have a hard time occurring. No one will stand still for someone creating an inflight incident.

A man who tried to force his way into the cockpit of a Tampa-bound Delta Air Lines jet was undergoing mental evaluation on Friday, Tampa International Airport officials said.
Passengers said the man ran up the aisle toward the cockpit door just before the flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport was about to land in Tampa on Thursday night.
Passengers in the first-class section of the plane tackled and subdued the man, who was turned over to police after the McDonnell Douglas MD-88 landed. Airport spokesman Lewis Miller told a local television station that the man was unarmed and that his intentions were unclear.
Cockpit doors on all U.S. airliners have been locked since the September 11 hijackings.

US News Article | Reuters.com.

The Space Shuttle Discovery is expected to launch out of The Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the 1st of July. If you have never witnessed a Space Shuttle launch live, it is one of the most spectacular events in modern times. The launch is scheduled for July 1st, but the launch window is from the 1st to the 19th of July.

If you are planning on being down in the Central Florida region, it is a great day trip to attempt to see a launch or to visit the facility and museums.

Directions to The Kennedy Space Center

Order Tickets to Launches or Kennedy Space Center Attractions.

The crew and fellow passengers are a bit nervous after a passenger on a Virgin Atlantic flight died of what seems to be ebola. The flight that landed yesterday carried the woman whom was vomiting and ended up unconscious on the flight to London.

The unnamed woman is understood to work at an embassy in the African kingdom of Lesotho.
Before boarding a Virgin Atlantic flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow she visited a doctor complaining of flu-like symptoms.
She was allowed to fly, but during Flight VS602 to the UK she suffered a violent fit which left her unconscious.
Cabin crew and passengers rushed to her aid but towards the end of the flight she began to vomiting.
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When the Airbus A340-600, carrying 267 passengers and crew, touchdown at Heathrow she was rushed to nearby Hillingdon Hospital, West London.
Her symptoms matched those of the viral haemorraghing fever, ebola. The results of a post mortem are awaited. via Mirror.co.uk

In a weird story, a Southwest flight heading from Baltimore to Providence had to turn back as there was no one in the control tower to handle the flights landing, so the plane had to return to Baltimore. The flights passengers had to sleep at the airport overnight.

Southwest requested that the tower remain open past its typical midnight closing time. Southwest is  claiming that the tower refused to stay open and the flight had to return  to Baltimore, while the FAA is reporting that Southwest did not need someone in the tower to land.

But let me ask this question, if the pilot landed without  someone in the tower and their was a problem, would that be the smartest and safest move? I think someone in the FAA screwed up and they are covering their proverbial behinds.

It was so sad, and we were treated like cattle,” said Michelle Harvey, who was flying home from Baltimore with her mother.
“And then when we were flying, the pilot got on. He sounded greatly distressed. He said, ‘There’s no one at the tower in Providence. We have to go back.’ We were about 10 minutes out. Ten or 15 minutes out,” Harvey said.
The passengers had to camp out overnight at the airport in Baltimore.
Passenger Jillian Costa shot home video of the ordeal.
“This guy right here,” Costa said, talking about the video, “he slept in the corner with an oxygen mask on. It was terrible, with a piece of newspaper underneath him.”
Costa was traveling with an infant, and she wasn’t the only one.
“I had no formula. Nothing. He’s been in the same diaper since 1:15 this morning,” Costa said.  via TurnTo10