SkyBus ends service; Lufthansa adds Seattle
Airlines
Lufthansa Airlines will begin nonstop flights on March 30 between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Frankfurt, Germany. Meanwhile, the discount carrier SkyBus Airlines will end its Columbus, Ohio-Bellingham service Jan. 6.
Lufthansa’s service will be the fifth nonstop route between Seattle and Europe. The airline will use a 221-seat Airbus A330-300 aircraft. Sea-Tac already has nonstop service to four European cities: British Airways to London, Northwest Airlines to Amsterdam, SAS to Copenhagen and Air France to Paris.
Columbus-based SkyBus, which offered $10 seats on flights between Bellingham and Columbus, is pulling out of the Seattle area as well as terminating service from San Diego and trimming service from Burbank, Calif.
The no-frills carrier citied higher fuel costs along with the need to redeploy its fleet on shorter routes.
SkyBus promises to sell at least 10 seats on every flight for $10, although most one-way tickets on the Bellingham route this month were priced in the $175-$230 range. Those who purchased tickets for travel after Jan. 6 will get refunds.
The decision to pull back “had nothing at all to do with response to the service, which has been very good, literally from day one,” said spokesman Bob Tenenbaum. “There was a belief, which turned out to be true, that there would be a lot of demand,” he said. “In the summer there were instances when those flights were selling out weeks ahead of time.”
Flight delays
Airlines’ on-time record
is the worst in 13 years
Travelers were less likely to be stuck on a delayed flight in September, but the airline industry’s record of delays this year remained the worst in 13 years.
The nation’s 20 largest carriers reported an on-time arrival rate of 81.7 percent in September, up from 76.2 percent in the same month a year ago, the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics said.
Seattle-based Alaska Airlines had the second worst on-time arrival rate, with only 73.3 percent of flights on time.
Southeast Airlines was the worst, with just 63.4 percent of flights on time; Aloha Airlines was the best, with 95.4 percent on time.
Europe
EU expands
passport-free zone
Nine mostly eastern European countries will join the European Union’s passport-free travel zone in December.
Car, train and boat passengers between the eastern countries and most of western Europe will no longer need to show passports as of Dec. 21.
Passport checks on air passengers will cease when the summer flight schedule takes effect in March. The move affects travel in and out of Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Mediterranean island of Malta, which all joined the EU in 2004.
Travelers will still need to show passports when entering and leaving Britain, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania.
Mount Rainier
Officials eye closure
of Carbon River Road
A year after flooding ravaged Mount Rainier National Park, park officials are bracing for another storm. This time they could face a flood of public discontent as they ponder permanently closing Carbon River Road, an unpaved five-mile artery that accesses the most popular trails and campground in the park’s northwest corner.
Not only does the road give visitors access to Carbon Glacier, but the corridor is also home to bull trout, spotted owls and marble murrelets, all threatened species. The road was damaged Nov. 6-7, 2006, when 17.9 inches of rain fell in 36 hours.
Carbon River Road has been closed to vehicle traffic since the flood, making access to the popular Carbon Glacier Trail and Ipsut Creek Campground difficult.
Top destinations
Here’s where
we like to go
The top 10 most popular destinations from Seattle, according to Yahoo, are: Las Vegas, Honolulu, Vancouver, Boston, Ocean Shores, Portland, Paris, New York City, San Francisco and Leavenworth.
Compiled by Times staff and news services