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American Morning

Travel Ailing

Aired April 21, 2003 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: With the images of the war in Iraq and the SARS scare sweeping the globe, the travel industry is being counted down and out. American -- or excuse me, airline losses for the first quarter of 2003 are estimated at around $3.5 billion, worse than they were immediately after September 11th. But you can't just blame SARS and the war for the industry's problems. I had a chance to sit down with Mark Orwall, editor of "Travel and Leisure" magazine. I asked him about the troubles of large carriers, like United and American.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK ORWALL, EDITOR, "TRAVEL & LEISURE" MAGAZINE: Well, it's a confluence of circumstances. Some people have called in the perfect economic storm. You have the war in Iraq, you have the bad economy, you have rising jet fuel prices, which are hitting historic highs, you have the SARS outbreak, which is impacting huge parts of the world, all coming together at once. And the airlines -- some people might even say that bad management on the part of some of the larger airlines is contributing to it. So there are any number of factors that are contributing to the airline woes.

COLLINS: But still, there are people who want to travel, something like 81 percent of people are still planning to take spring or summer trips, right?

ORWALL: People use the phrase "pent-up demand for travel," and I think that's pretty accurate. A recent survey by the Travel Industry Association of America said exactly that -- 81 percent of Americans are planning to travel this spring and summer.

What they want to know is how does the airline industry situation impact them directly. What's it going to mean for them? And that's why everybody's kind of got their eyes and ears open about the next several months.

COLLINS: Right. So let's talk about that. What are some of the cheap flight deals, both internationally and domestically?

ORWALL: Well, first off, let's talk about Northwest Airlines, which has a lot of flights to Asia. They've pulled back some of their flights obviously to the areas that have been hardest hit by SARS, but they're still flying to Asia. Right now, you can fly, for example, from Atlanta to Tokyo for $590. Normally that would cost almost twice that amount. So that's a great deal on Northwest.

The thing is about this deal and others, you've got to act fast. You have to buy your tickets by April 29, fly by May 31, and that's true with most of these deals. Another airline deal domestically, let's talk about that, America West Airlines has a deal going on right now cross-country, one of the cheapest deals I've seen in a long time for cross country flights, $158 to go from Long Beach, California to New York City. That's a totally an amazing price. Again, you have to act fast, buy it by April 25, fly by May 18 for that deal.

COLLINS: So if you hear about this, do not delay.

ORWALL: Jump on the deals. The other thing that their airline prices have done is impacted the package vacation deals. These are the people who gave you the hotels, the airfare, all the other perks in one price. For example, pleasant holidays is a well-known vacation packager. What they're doing is they have a Hawaii package. You get five nights at Royal Lahaina (ph) Hotel in Maui.

COLLINS: Sounds good to see.

ORWALL: You get a car rental every day, you get round trip airfare from either L.A. or San Francisco. This is a five-night package, $423 per person. You'll be hard pressed just to get the airfare from the West Coast for that price.

COLLINS: That's right.

ORWALL: One other deal that I looked up, a lot of people are interested in cruising these days, and there's a company called Travel Outlet. It's a travel agency. They have booked a lot of the cabins on the Carnival Fantasy on April 27. It's a four-day Bahamas cruise. You can get an inside cabin for $149, an outside cabin for as little as $199.

You can hardly stay in a Motel 6 for that price for four night, so a lot of great deals out there.

But, as I said, they may not be here a month from now. As more and more people start booking their trips, the airlines are going to say, well, we don't need to offer these. So if you find a good deal, book it.

COLLINS: So do you think these deals are going to spark the demand?

ORWALL: I think that it's going a long way. People have indicated over the last couple of years that the lower prices are enough to make them overcome their fears, their insecurities about traveling, and that's probably right now going to be the best thing to motivate people to get up and travel, is those low fares.

COLLINS: As I said, sounds good to me. Mark Orwall, managing editor of "Travel & Leisure." Thanks so much for being here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Most important thing to remember for sure about that is what he said kind of in the middle. These deals are not going to last long, so get out there and pick them up if you can.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired April 21, 2003 - 09:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: With the images of the war in Iraq and the SARS scare sweeping the globe, the travel industry is being counted down and out. American -- or excuse me, airline losses for the first quarter of 2003 are estimated at around $3.5 billion, worse than they were immediately after September 11th. But you can't just blame SARS and the war for the industry's problems. I had a chance to sit down with Mark Orwall, editor of "Travel and Leisure" magazine. I asked him about the troubles of large carriers, like United and American.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK ORWALL, EDITOR, "TRAVEL & LEISURE" MAGAZINE: Well, it's a confluence of circumstances. Some people have called in the perfect economic storm. You have the war in Iraq, you have the bad economy, you have rising jet fuel prices, which are hitting historic highs, you have the SARS outbreak, which is impacting huge parts of the world, all coming together at once. And the airlines -- some people might even say that bad management on the part of some of the larger airlines is contributing to it. So there are any number of factors that are contributing to the airline woes.

COLLINS: But still, there are people who want to travel, something like 81 percent of people are still planning to take spring or summer trips, right?

ORWALL: People use the phrase "pent-up demand for travel," and I think that's pretty accurate. A recent survey by the Travel Industry Association of America said exactly that -- 81 percent of Americans are planning to travel this spring and summer.

What they want to know is how does the airline industry situation impact them directly. What's it going to mean for them? And that's why everybody's kind of got their eyes and ears open about the next several months.

COLLINS: Right. So let's talk about that. What are some of the cheap flight deals, both internationally and domestically?

ORWALL: Well, first off, let's talk about Northwest Airlines, which has a lot of flights to Asia. They've pulled back some of their flights obviously to the areas that have been hardest hit by SARS, but they're still flying to Asia. Right now, you can fly, for example, from Atlanta to Tokyo for $590. Normally that would cost almost twice that amount. So that's a great deal on Northwest.

The thing is about this deal and others, you've got to act fast. You have to buy your tickets by April 29, fly by May 31, and that's true with most of these deals. Another airline deal domestically, let's talk about that, America West Airlines has a deal going on right now cross-country, one of the cheapest deals I've seen in a long time for cross country flights, $158 to go from Long Beach, California to New York City. That's a totally an amazing price. Again, you have to act fast, buy it by April 25, fly by May 18 for that deal.

COLLINS: So if you hear about this, do not delay.

ORWALL: Jump on the deals. The other thing that their airline prices have done is impacted the package vacation deals. These are the people who gave you the hotels, the airfare, all the other perks in one price. For example, pleasant holidays is a well-known vacation packager. What they're doing is they have a Hawaii package. You get five nights at Royal Lahaina (ph) Hotel in Maui.

COLLINS: Sounds good to see.

ORWALL: You get a car rental every day, you get round trip airfare from either L.A. or San Francisco. This is a five-night package, $423 per person. You'll be hard pressed just to get the airfare from the West Coast for that price.

COLLINS: That's right.

ORWALL: One other deal that I looked up, a lot of people are interested in cruising these days, and there's a company called Travel Outlet. It's a travel agency. They have booked a lot of the cabins on the Carnival Fantasy on April 27. It's a four-day Bahamas cruise. You can get an inside cabin for $149, an outside cabin for as little as $199.

You can hardly stay in a Motel 6 for that price for four night, so a lot of great deals out there.

But, as I said, they may not be here a month from now. As more and more people start booking their trips, the airlines are going to say, well, we don't need to offer these. So if you find a good deal, book it.

COLLINS: So do you think these deals are going to spark the demand?

ORWALL: I think that it's going a long way. People have indicated over the last couple of years that the lower prices are enough to make them overcome their fears, their insecurities about traveling, and that's probably right now going to be the best thing to motivate people to get up and travel, is those low fares.

COLLINS: As I said, sounds good to me. Mark Orwall, managing editor of "Travel & Leisure." Thanks so much for being here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Most important thing to remember for sure about that is what he said kind of in the middle. These deals are not going to last long, so get out there and pick them up if you can.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com