In June Microsoft announced that they would introduce a new Flight Simulator game, something they haven’t done since 2006. It will come in 2020 for Xbox and Windows.
The game has entered a closed Alpha release. And now there’s leaked footage from the game itself.
India’s aviation market has been a mess. Jet Airways is out of business. oneworld member Kingfisher is no more. And Star Alliance member Air India is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
The government-owned airline is currently surviving on subsidies while the country looks for a buyer to take over the flag carrier. However they’ve committed to spend no more cash on the airline, and unless a buyer is found by June the airline is expected to run out of money and have to close.
American Airlines offers same day changes for $75, waived for Platinum Pro (75,000 mile) elite members and higher. The rules for these changes are more restrictive than United’s or Delta’s though.
Fortunately American appears to be experimenting with a more liberal approach to same day confirmed changes, specifically making more inventory available on certain flights to test if that’s something they’re willing to move forward with.
Seven months into the accident investigation Egypt announced that the cause of the crash was terrorism, with traces of explosives found on passenger bodies. Since the plane contained French passengers France conducted its own investigation, and provided assistance. French officials have cast skepticism about the terrorism claim suggesting that the long period of time that bodies were in the water would have made it impossible to identify trace explosives.
The Wall Street Journal obtained a leaked report the casts further doubt on the explanation offered by Egyptian authorities – repeated maintenance issues with the aircraft that went unaddressed.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
The top 10 airline routes in the world by how much capacity is scheduled are all generally in the Asia Pacific region. That includes the Mideast (Saudi Arabia’s domestic Riyadh – Jeddah) and it includes Australia (Sydney – Melbourne).
There’s not a single route in the top 10 in the U.S., Canada, or anywhere in Europe. A decade ago South America featured once – Sao Paulo to Rio – but that’s no longer in the top 10.
Over the last 10 years the number one and two airports by seat capacity – Atlanta and Beijing – have stayed constant, though both have grown in capacity. London Heathrow dropped from third biggest down to seventh. It doesn’t have the space to grow without a third runway.
A decade ago the list included Frankfurt, Madrid, and Dallas Fort-Wort but those have been outpaced over the last ten years.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Amtrak doesn’t have enough passengers. On many of their routes trains ride mostly empty. They have a cost problem and they have a ridership problem. The government train operator is addressing the cost of meals, Amtrak has lost nine figures on food service, but doing surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) little to address labor costs.
However they seem to see their ridership problem as a lack of revenue problem and they’er looking to generate more money out of each passenger rather than boost the number of passengers.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
