ROANOKE, Va. – November marked a busy month for air travel in Roanoke.
The Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport says it saw a 12.1 percent increase in passengers compared to November 2017.
November 2018 saw 60,708 passengers compared to 54,143 in November of 2017.
If this pace continues, the airport says 2018 could be the busiest year at the airport since 2007.
Copyright 2019 by WSLS 10 – All rights reserved.
Denver Weather Summary: 25 degrees
If you feel like you’re being nickel-and-dimed each time you travel, you’re not alone. Buzz60’s Sean Dowling has more.
Buzz60
Flying the friendly skies is about to get a little bit sweeter.
In 2019, United Airlines passengers will once again be able to enjoy a cult-favorite cookie on their next flight. Just after Christmas, the airline tweeted that it’s bringing the Dutch stroopwafel back into its snack rotation on all domestic flights this January.
But, of course, there’s a catch.
The treat will only be served on flights that depart prior to 9:45 a.m. local time, so passengers will need to head out early if they want to satisfy their (free) craving for something sweet.
United originally offered the stroopwafel, which is a waffle-style cookie filled with caramel that originated in the Netherlands, back in 2016 when the airline began offering free snacks again to Economy Class passengers. But when they added a maple-flavored cookie to the menu last June, United ditched the stroopwafel on morning domestic flights — much to many passengers’ dismay.
To say that plenty of cookie lovers are over the moon that the Dutch treat is returning is an understatement.
One woman even claimed her husband became such a fan of the cookie after eating a stroopwafel on their first flight together that they served the snack at their wedding:
Here’s what some other excited flyers had to say:
United even replied back:
In a video posted to United’s employee Twitter account, the airline demonstrates how to eat a stroopwafel, recommending setting it atop a cup of coffee first to heat it up, so the caramel inside becomes a little gooey, then it should be broken in half before eating it.
Of course, there were plenty of people who wished United would start serving healthier snacks or just focus on improving overall flight experiences:
Now let’s just hope the airline doesn’t remove it again like they did with tomato juice, which almost resulted in a real passenger revolt.
For those who are really digging the stroopwafel but can’t be bothered to take an early flight, McDonald’s has recently been serving up a Stroopwafel McFlurry at select restaurants in South Florida.
Tourism officials in Alabama are working hard for the opening of six places in Huntsville state, which were filmed in the Bollywood flick ‘Zero,’ with expectations that fans of Shah Rukh Khan, Salm
Many travellers, I find, are lousy at risk assessment. Judging from the questions (and heckles) that reach me on social media, they will worry deeply about the dangers of terrorism in Egypt or Tunisia, but not fret about the atrocious road safety record in each country (three times as bad as the UK in Egypt, seven times worse in Tunisia).
The Ebola virus is a vile scourge for some communities in west and central Africa, but poses almost zero risk for everyone else. Yet tourists cancelled trips to Kenya and South Africa to avoid being in the same continent as the few unfortunate carriers of the disease.
And even my close family and friends pay hundreds of pounds extra to avoid airlines they regard as “dangerous”.
For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just
£5.99
€6.99
$9.99
a month
With an Independent Minds subscription for just
£5.99
€6.99
$9.99
a month
Without the ads – for just
£5.99
€6.99
$9.99
a month
The fatality figures for 2018 may intensify that miscalculation.
According to figures provided to me by the Dutch aviation safety consultancy To70, 534 passengers died in commercial aircraft accidents last year.
If you wish to fuel your fear of flying, you could deduce that aviation became 41 times more dangerous in 2018 than in the year before – in which 13 people sadly died in plane crashes.
But that would be to draw entirely the wrong conclusion.
For a headline, try this instead: “Another incredibly safe year for airline passengers.”
That is not to diminish the tragedy of those 534 lost lives. But please place that number in the context of the 4.34 billion individual journeys that the International Air Transport Association says were undertaken in 2018, giving odds of better than eight million to one.
Not all airlines are equally safe. The UK and Ireland are, happily, at the extreme end of air safety: easyJet, Flybe, Jet2, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and Virgin Atlantic have never experienced a fatal accident, and Aer Lingus and British Airways have had outstanding safety records for decades.
I would not for a moment shun other carriers, because accidents are thankfully so rare that it is difficult to draw meaningful conclusions. But for nervous passengers anxious to learn something from the statistics, let me drill into the crashes last year with the highest death tolls.
The Lion Air crash in which 189 died happened in Indonesia, a country whose safety oversight has been a source of concern for Western governments.
Next, Cuba has had a poor safety record over the decades – partly attributed to the US economic embargo. But the domestic flight tragedy near Havana airport in which 112 people died involved a jet leased from a small Mexican firm. The plane was a 39-year-old Boeing 737. While aircraft age is no reliable indicator of danger, had I seen the jet from the departure lounge of Jose Marti Airport I might have had second thoughts about stepping aboard.
Old age and poor maintenance are not unknown in Iran, again with American sanctions sometimes blamed. So a domestic flight on an elderly prop-jet is, in global terms, high risk – as it proved when 66 people lost their lives in the Zagros Mountains.
Kathmandu Airport has seen many more than its fair share of accidents, and I would fly in and out of the Nepali capital only on an established international carrier, rather than a small Bangladeshi airline.
What did all these calamities have in common? The characteristic that looks clearest to me is: they did not involve the types of airlines that you are ever likely to fly on.
Stay safe if you are driving to the airport. Then relax.
The Independent has launched its #FinalSay campaign to demand that voters are given a voice on the final Brexit deal.
Photo: AFP
It may not be a good time to invest your savings in gold, which is trading close to its all-time high, but this could be a good time to spend more on vacations because economy class airfare is 22% cheaper this year.
Gold was 20% more expensive in December 2018, compared to its price in the same month of the previous year, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics revealed on Wednesday. This may not surprise those keeping a track of gold prices lately, which surged to an all-time high of Rs68,000 per tola on December 20. By contrast, the price of economy airfare fell by more than a fifth this year.
According to the PBS data on inflation, prices of the basket of common goods and services increased 6.17% in December over the same month in 2017. The PBS uses this basket to track the prices of essential items an average household consumes every day.
Among the commodities and services that increased the most in terms of price were gas (85%), train fare (56%), CNG (30%), diesel (29%), iron bar (24%), petrol (24%) and mobile phone services (18%). This means from cooking to taking a train or bus up country and even making a phone call is going to cost more now compared to the same time last year.
Related: Suzuki jacks up motorcycle prices by up to Rs8,000
However, the increase in December prices was less than the previous month and indicates inflation has actually been slowing down since October when it reached 7%, its highest level of in four years.
Besides airfare, the price of vegetables and lentils also decreased in the last month of 2018. According to PBS data, tomatoes and onions are 50% cheaper this year while potato prices decreased by 36% and daal mash became 6% cheaper compared to December 2017.
In March 2018, the inflation rate was hovering around 3.25%, but prices had been going up since then. This was because of a rise in international crude oil prices and devaluation of the Pakistani rupee. As a result, prices were increasing. The recent measures taken by the government, such as increasing gas and electricity prices, which have 29.4% weight in the consumer basket, had pushed the prices further up.
The central bank has been raising its policy rate to fight inflation and achieve economic stability. In the last monetary policy, the State Bank of Pakistan raised its interest rate to a five-year high of 10%. The inflation rate could reach 7.5% by June, according to a forecast by the SBP.
United Airlines pulled back the curtain and revealed who will run regional carrier ExpressJet Airlines in the wake of the announcement that a new joint venture called ManaAir LLC has acquired ExpressJet from parent St. George, Utah-based SkyWest for $70 million in cash plus assumption of liabilities.
Not Available
Not Available
Not Available
United has indicated it is a significant minority investor in ManaAir, which said last week it will name Subodh Karnik as president and CEO of ExpressJet Airlines once the acquisition is complete in early 2019, pending financial and government regulatory approvals.
Karnik will join ExpressJet with more than 30 years of airline operations, finance, marketing and planning experience, including senior-level positions at Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL), Continental Airlines (which merged with United) and Northwest Airlines (which merged with Delta).
Read the full story on The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s website.
Turns out airline food doesn’t have to stay on the plane: Business-class meals can now be made at home with the new United Polaris cookbook, The Daily Meal reports.
But this isn’t the peanuts and pretzels served in coach. United Airlines shared an image of the cookbook featuring a recipe for “coconut soup with sambal oelek chicken” with the Free Press.
According to the United Airlines shop, the $29.99 cookbook features over 40 recipes from United’s executive chefs and chefs from The Trotter Project, which works to aid young chefs in the culinary and hospitality fields.
On its website, United said it’s “excited to be the official airline of The Trotter Project,” bringing gourmet options for United Polaris business class passengers and premium transcontinental service flyers, plus new dishes for international economy dining.
“A portion of proceeds (for the cookbook) will be donated to The Trotter Project to continue its mission of inspiring the next generation of culinary professionals,” a United spokesperson said Monday in an email.
As Travel + Leisure notes, other airlines have also ventured into cookbooks: Southwest Airlines published “Feel the Spirit, Savor the Fare” in 2006 and Delta put out a book of recipes compiled by flight attendants called “First-Class Meals” back in 1987.
Follow Aleanna Siacon on Twitter: @AleannaSiacon
More: Poop on planes and emotional support squirrels: 5 craziest travel stories of 2018
After the dragging incident, the airline made big promises about discovering caring. And, at least on some flights, a change is noticeable.