Skift Travel Business – Spoken Edition

The Skift Airline Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter on the business of airline innovation. We look closely at the technological, financial, and design trends at airlines and airports. Brian Sumers writes and curates the newsletter, and we send it on Wednesdays. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. I can think of only one other major global carrier — ahem, United Airlines — that has received as much criticism over the past five years.

TUI Group has agreed to sell its French scheduled carrier Corsair to a German airline investor for an undisclosed sum. The German tourism giant has been looking to offload the airline for years as it doesn’t fit with the rest of the company’s business. Intro Aviation is buying a 53 per cent stake, TUI will initially retain a minority stake of 27 per cent, while Corsair’s employee benefit trust will take a 20 per cent stake.

Hundreds of the travel industry’s most-forward-thinking executives will gather for our third annualSkift Forum Europe in London on April 30.In just a few years, Skift's Forums — the largest creative business gatherings in the global travel industry — have become what media, speakers, and attendees have called the “TED Talks of travel.

Next up on our 2019 Global Forums schedule is our first-ever Skift Forum Asia! Happy to confirm we’relaunching a giveawayfor two lucky people to attend the conference in Singapore free of charge! We give away 2 tickets so you can bring a colleague and share the experience. We expect over 400 attendees representing 200+ companies, at the inaugural event.

The Skift Wellnessnewsletter is our weekly dispatch focused onwhat’s happening in wellness from a global business standpoint.Skift Wellness lives where wellness meets commerce, mindfulness meets technology, the yoga studio meets the boardroom, andhealth meets business. South by Southwest used to be known as a music festival with film premieres and tech activations. But there’s a new industry in town: wellness.

The Skift Airline Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter on the business of airline innovation. We look closely at the technological, financial, and design trends at airlines and airports. Brian Sumers writes and curates the newsletter, and we send it on Wednesdays. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here.

Carnival Cruise Line’s upcoming megaship landed a big name in the food world. Emeril Lagasse — New Orleans chef, restaurateur, and former Food Network host — is teaming up with the cruise operator to open his first restaurant at sea on Mardi Gras, which launches next year.The announcement is the latest marketing move by Carnival to partner with well-known personalities as a way to make a connection with travelers who are new to cruising or to the brand.

Even as Aeromexico grounded its Boeing 737-8 Max fleet on Monday night, becoming the first North American operator to stop flying the jet, U.S. airlines remained committed to it. They say they’re confident in the technologically advanced airplane, even amid growing concerns and new calls for caution.

Throughout the week we post dozens of original stories, connecting the dots across the travel industry, and every weekend we sum it all up. This weekend roundup examines hospitality. For all of our weekend roundups,go here. Airbnb Is Buying HotelTonight: Here’s What That Means. Will Airbnb stick to its boutique and independent-only stance on hotels? It could put it at a serious disadvantage when it comes to competitors like Booking or Expedia in the long run.

Japan Airlines (JAL) packed a roomful of delegates eager to know more about its new low-cost, long-haul carrier at last week’s Aviation Festival Asia. But details were scant, and the audience left without knowing a lot more. They found that the key basics are still under consideration, even though an air operator’s certificate for the new airline is imminent.

The Skift Airline Innovation Report is our weekly newsletter on the business of airline innovation. We look closely at the technological, financial, and design trends at airlines and airports. Brian Sumers writes and curates the newsletter, and we send it on Wednesdays. You can find previous issues of the newsletter here. Among U.S. carriers, United Airlines has been the most daring with its route network in recent years, adding flights to far-flung destinations.

The Skift New Luxury newsletter is our weekly newsletter focused on the business of selling luxury travel, the people and companies creating and selling experiences, emerging trends, and the changing consumer habits around the sector. For the last couple of years hotel brands have put a lot of effort into improving their communal areas in a bid to make them more appealing to millennial-minded consumers. But when everyone is going one way, it can make more sense to go the other.

We’re within the two month countdown toSkift Forum Europein London on April 30! This event is the first of five Forums we’re hosting around the world in 2019, so we’re making sure the kickoff program sets the bar high. Today you can view the complete program with all session topics for Skift Forum Europe: Defining The Future of Responsible Travel! This one-day conference will be action-packed from start to finish.

Throughout the week we post dozens of original stories, connecting the dots across the travel industry, and every weekend we sum it all up. This weekend roundup examines hospitality. For all of our weekend roundups,go here. Marriott Cites Growing Pains Following Data Breach, Labor Strikes: Being bigger, Marriott is discovering, may not always be better in the short term.

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. Please email Travel Tech Editor Sean O'Neill atso@skift.com if you have funding news. This week travel startups announced more than $8 million in funding. >>One Night, a mobile app for same-day bookings at independent hotels, has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The app offers stays at more than 200 hotels in 15 U.S. cities, plus in London and Bangkok.

When InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) announced on February 13 it would purchase luxury wellness hotel brand Six Senses for $300 million in cash from private equity firm Pegasus Capital Advisors, no one could have been happier about the deal than Six Senses CEO Neil Jacobs “We’re really excited about it,” Jacobs told Skift this week, primarily because of IHG’s strength in distribution and information technology, as well as development.

Caesars Entertainment‘s flagship product may be gambling, but lately the company’s biggest bet has been on catch-up tech investments in hotel tech. The newsiest and most eye-catching of these has been its experiment in on-demand mobile delivery of food. In the past three months, Caesars has been testing mobile ordering technology for food at eight properties nationwide, including the Linq in Las Vegas.

A sharp drop in fuel prices midway through the fourth quarter of 2018 was welcome. But it didn’t prevent U.S. airlines from paying 24 percent more for their fuel this fourth quarter versus last. So once again, industry margins declined. But not much. The country’s nine largest scheduled airlines that have reported (Frontier hasn’t yet done so) collectively earned a 9.7 percent fourth quarter operating margin, down just slightly from 10.4 percent a year earlier.

Throughout the week we post dozens of original stories, connecting the dots across the travel industry, and every weekend we sum it all up. This weekend roundup examines aviation. For all of our weekend roundups,go here. The Airline Industry’s Glass Ceiling Is Still Sky-High: A Skift Deep Dive:Aviation has terrible gender optics, and not just with pilots and engineers. The c-suite is nearly void of women for flimsy, unacceptable reasons.

Southwest Airlines Co. slid after saying the U.S. government shutdown hit sales harder than previously estimated. The political stalemate that ended last month will reduce first-quarter revenue by $60 million as the aftereffects linger, Southwest said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. When the discounter reported earnings late last month, it estimated an impact of $10 million to $15 million for Jan. 1 through Jan. 23.