| Fewer hubs mean fewer options for fliers and Manchester United players moonlight for airline |
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In the newest round of airline mergers, some airports will lose a significant chunk of scheduled service and, in some cases, their regional hub status.For travelers in cities such as Cleveland and Memphis, Tenn., that means getting from here to there may soon be more costly and more complicated.Business travelers bear the brunt of the impact from hub downsizing, said Kevin Mitchell of the Business Travel Coalition. They travel to call on customers, prospective customers and governments in smaller cities. Fewer frequencies to these cities will result in higher prices, less productive travel and fewer options when there are air travel disruptions.In March, Delta Air Lines " which completed a merger with Northwest in 2008 " announced plans to cut about 25 percent of its current service at Memphis International Airport, which had been one of Northwest Airlines' three major hubs. Airline officials described the move as a necessary cost-cutting measure. [Read the full article] ST. LOUIS — Officials at Lambert Airport in St. Louis say it could take up to a full year to fully recover from the April 22 tornado.The twister that damaged hundreds of homes in St. Louis County made a direct hit on the airport. No one was killed but the airport was badly damaged, especially one of the concourses.Airport director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge told the St. Louis Airport Commission on Wednesday that preliminary engineering reports indicate restoration of Concourse C could take nine to 12 months.She says the structure is intact, but the roof must be replaced along with many of the windows in Terminal 1 that had been in place since 1956.Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.ST. LOUIS — Officials at Lambert Airport in St. Louis say it could take up to a full year to fully recover from the April 22 tornado. [Read the full article] A flight crew checking the cabin of a Qantas plane before takeoff found rats in a compartment holding medical equipment, grounding the plane for more than a day.The rodents had been in a cabinet holding a defibrillator. The plane returned to service Thursday morning, officials said.Passengers had not yet boarded the Sydney-to-Brisbane flight and were instead put on another plane.These travelers consider U.S. State Department travel advisories not a warning whistle to steer clear but a siren song to come and stay.Meanwhile, Thai customs officials found 431 turtles and seven freshwater crocodiles stashed in suitcases offloaded from a passenger flight from Bangladesh.The animals seized at Bangkok's bustling Suvarnabhumi airport were worth 1 million baht ($33,000), authorities said. [Read the full article] 
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