AIRPORT REPORT
- The SkyTeam Alliance has opened the first part of its co-branded lounge at Terminal 4 of London/Heathrow airport. The lounge, opposite Gate 10, is open to first class, business class and SkyTeam Elite flyers.
- This is just what McCarran Airport in Las Vegas needed: an airport bar named after Sammy Hagar, the rock guitarist and singer. It’s the second location for Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill; the first opened last year at Kahului Airport on Maui.
- Delta Rescinds Some of Its New Baggage Charge: Delta Air Lines last month announced it would charge coach passengers $50 to check a second bag on international flights. But now the airline has retracted some of the new fee, which went into effect on July 1. Nowonly second bags on U.S.-Europe routes will be subject to the fee. No other carrier has matched Delta’s fee.
- The former Novotel Hotel three miles from Toronto/Pearson airport has been converted to a 120-room Hotel Indigo.
- Pittsburgh finally has an international flight again. Delta Air Lines has launched nonstops to Paris/DeGaulle Airport, the first overseas flights since US Airways pulled its international service in 2004 as part of the closure of its once-large Pittsburgh hub.
DESIGN NOTEBOOK
Didn’t I Once Have a Flight on This Hotel Room? What’s all the rage in hotel design these days? Turning old aircraft into hotels.
- Down on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, the Hotel Costa Verde has just opened what it calls the 727 Fuselage Suite. It is what it claims to be: a hotel suite carved out of a 1960s-era Boeing 727 that once flew for South African Airways and Avianca Airlines.
- And just outside of Arlanda Airport in Stockholm is the Jumbo Hostel, which has carved 25 guest accommodations out of an old Boeing 747 that once flew for Singapore Airlines and Pan Am.
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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2009 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.
