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E L L I O T T' S TRAVEL NOTES
Travel news, opinion and analysis

May 17, 2004

Jet Fuel Crisis Looms For Airlines
Airlines are battling losses as supplies of jet fuel dip close to record lows in some regions and its price soars. Many refiners are sacrificing jet-fuel output to make gasoline instead. Refiners are making less jet fuel because gasoline is more profitable, and fuel imports from Asia have dried up because of soaring demand in China, said aviation-industry analyst John Chapman, the president of Chapman Aviation Fuels Consulting in Phoenix. The industry consumes 18 billion gallons of fuel a year. Bloomberg | Posted 6:30 a.m.
-- Herald: Output is down 7.2 percent; worse to come
-- Chronicle: Airlines 'wondering if scraping is iceberg'

• Remember all the analysts who predicted the airline industry would recover in 2004? Where are they now? Maybe air travelers will remember this fiasco in November, when they head to the polls. Send us your comments.

Car Law Requires Insurance Disclosure
The Rhode Island House of Representatives has passed legislation sponsored by House Majority Whip Rene R. Menard to require vehicle rental companies to clearly lay out the restrictions on the collision insurance they promote to customers. Automobile rental companies routinely encourage their customers to purchase a collision damage waiver, a collision insurance police for their rental car. State law already requires rental companies to put specific text into the collision waiver contract disclosing its restrictions and telling customers that they may already have collision coverage for rental cars through their regular auto insurance plan or their credit card companies. Insurance Journal | Posted 6:45 a.m.

Virgin Waits For Double-Decker Plane
Virgin Atlantic says it has delayed plans to introduce Airbus' mammoth 555-seat A380 double-decker until late 2007, more than a year later than originally planned. Virgin said on Monday it faced trouble with airports, notably Los Angeles, making the needed preparations to accommodate the large plane and with sourcing components needed to customise the all-new A380's vast cabin. "We have agreed with Airbus to push back the delivery dates of the A380," a spokesman said. "The first was originally going to be delivered in the summer of 2006...we're now able to take the first around the end of 2007." He said Virgin remained committed to its six orders, but would now not take delivery of the following five until 2008 and 2009. Reuters | Posted 7 a.m.
-- Star: First A380 flight scheduled for next year

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• And finally ... from the mailbag. My commentary about the commoditization the travelers drew an angry response from a travel agent. "Customers have become an enormous pain in the ass over the past few years," he wrote. "When you quote someone a fare they say, 'I found it on the internet for X-dollars less.' You search the Internet only to find a passenger has gone to the first page of a Web site where they list prices 'starting at' and don't bother to see if it's available or not. This is a time waster. And it also demonstrated that people don't understand that airlines - not travel agents - set prices. Are we supposed to say, 'Well, we'll let you have it at that price,' even though we don't set the fares? Are they trying to bargain? What a waste of time." Posted 7:10 a.m. | Send us your comments.

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