NCL to sail from New Orleans year-round
Norwegian Cruise Lines announced that they will base a ship year-round in New Orleans.
A year-round cruise program out of New Orleans is also a first for NCL. The move brings more good news to the Big Easy two days after it won the Super Bowl.
The Norwegian Spirit has been based in New Orleans seasonally since 2007. Year-round, the Spirit will operate weekly, seven-day western Caribbean cruises from April 2011 through April 2012.The 2,000-passenger Spirit will call in Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; and Belize City, Belize.
Southwest Airlines facing FAA safety investigation
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Southwest Airlines for violating safety directives, the third time in two years.
The investigation, confirmed by an FAA spokesman, focuses on an issue that embarrassed the airline just two years ago: how it complies with safety directives governing the maintenance of aging aircraft. It also resembles a case from last year, when the FAA found that a Southwest maintenance contractor used unapproved parts on 82 planes.
In the latest case, FAA inspectors think Southwest and a Seattle-area repair station failed to follow federally approved procedures when they carried out repair work on sections of the fuselage.
IATA: Airline CFOs confident demand, profitability will continue to improve
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) says that airline CFOs from around the world reported an improvement in business and are confident that conditions will improve.
The organization yesterday released the results of its latest “Airline Business Confidence Index” quarterly survey of global airline CFOs and cargo heads conducted last month, noting that “for the first time since January 2008 a majority said profitability had improved in the previous quarter (2009 Q4)” and “76% expect profitability to improve over the next 12 months.” It cautioned that the improvement was “from a very weak base, so. . .it will still take many quarters before demand, yields and revenues recover to levels seen in early 2008, let alone catching up to the 2-3 years of growth lost due to the recession.”
(Photo: Anders Adermark/Flickr Creative Commons)
