During January and February 2014, Lufthansa will reduce flights between Frankfurt, Germany and Bogotá, Colombia to five weekly (from six).  

 

Qantas

 From December 20, 2013 to January 10, 2014, Australia-based Qantas will add a fourth weekly flight between Sydney, Australia and Santiago de Chile, with the new service operating on Fridays. 

 

TACA Peru (part of Avianca Group) is expanding service on several routes from its Lima hub. Earlier this month, it increased Lima - Cali, Colombia service to six weekly (from three), and increased Lima - Porto Alegre, Brazil service to daily (from three weekly). As of December 1, the airline will fly daily between Lima and Guayaquil, Ecuador (from five weekly) and between Lima and Mexico City (from four weekly). On that same day, it will increase Lima - Havana, Cuba service to five weekly flights (from four), and will increase Lima - Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic service to four weekly flights (from three).

 

Starting December 7, Argentina-based Aerolineas Argentinas will introduce a sixth weekly flight between Buenos Aires and Caracas.

 

Aerolineas Argentinas will also begin nonstop service between New York JFK and Buenos Aires Ezeiza airport starting December 15.

 

American Airlines has decreased flights between New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and São Paulo's Guarulhos International Airport to 12 weekly flights, from 14.

 

Aeromexico will initiate service to Ecuador with six weekly Mexico City - Quito, Ecuador flights starting on December 16.

 

Aeromexico will also add three new routes from Mexico to the U.S. state of California: It will begin flying between Guadalajara, Mexico and San Francisco on December 12; flights will include Business Class service. It will also begin flights between Guanajuato International Airport in León and San Francisco International Airport on December 12, and flights between León/ Guanajuato and Sacramento will begin on December 17.

Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport

 

AirFrance will add a fifth weekly service (on Tuesdays) to its seasonal flights between Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport and Cancun, Mexico starting on December 3.

 

Avianca expects to begin flying between San Salvador, El Salvador and Newark Liberty International Airport on December 1. Newark is located in New Jersey, in the New York City metropolitan area.

 

Delta Air Lines is adding several flights between the U.S. and Central America. It will run daily New York JFK - San Jose, Costa Rica service between December 19 and March 30. And the airline plans to begin weekly service between Los Angeles, California (U.S.) and Liberia, Costa Rica on December 21.

 

Delta Air Lines is also increasing frequency on several routes: Flights between Guatemala City and Los Angeles, California (U.S.) rose to eight weekly early this month (from seven), and flights between Guatemala City and Delta's U.S. hub in Atlanta, Georgia will increase to 15 weekly on December 3 (from eight).

 

U.S.-based JetBlue Airways announced an expanded winter schedule between the U.S. and the Caribbean, which will bring its flights to that region to an average of 200 daily. On November 20, it will launch new service between Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (Illinois) and San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

 

JetBlue

On December 5, JetBlue plans to launch new service between Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Florida) and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as well as between Port-au-Prince and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. The Port-au-Prince routes are still awaiting government approval.

 

JetBlue also plans to deploy its new, larger, Airbus A321 aircraft to boost capacity on routes between New York JFK and Bridgetown, Barbados; Nassau, Bahamas; Santiago, Dominican Republic; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and San Juan. In 2014, the airline plans to launch new service between New York's JFK and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as between Port of Spain and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood.

 

 

As of November 25, Rouge will also begin flying between Toronto and Orlando, Florida (U.S.), increasing service to five daily round-trips on December 20.

 

U.S.-based American Airlines will drop its service between New York's JFK Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport after December 1. 

Avianca Brazil will be ready to join the Star Alliance by the second quarter of 2014. 

United Airlines App

 

U.S.-based United Airlines launched an all-new mobile application designed specifically for the iOS7 platform. Its new features include "travel cards" for boarding passes, MileagePlus loyal program cards, United Club cards and other information, as well as a travel wallet feature that groups together upcoming reservations and flight status information in a single location. Customers can now also purchase Travel Options add-ons and book award travel on multiple segments through the app.   

 

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) will make gate-to-gate gadget use on European flights possible by the end of this month.

 

With the upcoming merger between U.S. carriers American Airlines and US Airways a near certainty, the two airlines are working on plans for US Airways to pull out of the Star Alliance and transition to oneworld. The transition should begin early next year.

 

Netherlands-based KLM introduced lie-flat seats the new World Business Class on its 747s. Currently, five of the company's 747s are outfitted with the New Business Class, but all 22 are due to be converted by April 2014.

 

Hotel News

The Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort in Cancun, Mexico plans to open its 14,000- square-foot convention center, the Moon Palace Arena, in December. The Arena will include eight meeting rooms (of around 11,000 square feet each), an exhibition area and foyer, an outdoor terrace and boardrooms. The venue can host up to 10,000 people.

 

Hyatt is taking over operations of two Mexican resorts: The Dreams Puerto Vallarta resort will be rebranded Hyatt Ziva Puerto Vallarta, and the Dreams Cancun will be rebranded Hyatt Ziva Cancun.

Hotel Punta Islita

 

The opening of the 57-room Hotel Punta Islita in Guanacaste, Costa Rica marked the 50th location for Marriott International's Autograph Collection and its first in Central America.

 

Loews Hotels and Resorts now lets guests make reservations via Twitter at all of its hotels outside Orlando, Florida. Travelers tweet a booking request to @Loews_Hotels, with the hashtag #BookLoews, and a Loews employee continues the conversation over Twitter. To process payment information, the employee will tweet a link to a secure chat.

 

The Quin Hotel opened in New York City, near Central park. Formerly the Buckingham Hotel, its 205 rooms include Nespresso coffee machines and free Wi-Fi, and the hotel offers a fitness center, restaurant, wine bar and meeting suites and spaces that can accommodate up to 125 people.

 

In Florida, b2 Hotel Miami Downtown debuted with 243 guest rooms, free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel, customized spa services, a B Active fitness center and more than 1,000-square-feet of function space.

 

Hotel group SBE will open the 69-room Redbury South Beach in Miami Beach in early December. The hotel includes a restaurant, rooftop pool and event space, access to computers, iPads and printers, as well as complimentary car service within a three-mile radius. Guests have access to amenities at SBE's other nearby properties, the SLS Hotel South Beach and The Raleigh.