Military

DATE=09/28/01

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE= TRAVEL SLUMP

NUMBER=5-50226

BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE

DATELINE=WASHINGTON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: President Bush is urging Americans to "get on the airlines" as he put it. But many people are not. Instead, they are canceling business and personal travel in such numbers that analysts say some of the nation's commercial airlines may find it difficult to survive. Correspondent Nick Simeone tells us about the fallout for the nation's travel industry from the terrorist attacks that used hijacked passenger planes as weapons.

TEXT: /// NAT SOUND OF TRAVEL AGENTS, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///

Six-twenty-five, arriving in at seven-thirty, and then there's one after that at nine-ten. . . .

/// END ACT ///

The employees here at Premiere Travel, outside Washington, are busy taking calls and booking trips many of them for business travel. Still, the travel industry as a whole is losing billions of dollars. Normally packed planes are flying half empty, amid fears of continuing threats to air safety. Hotels are reporting minimal occupancy and laying off workers. Even travel agencies are feeling the pinch.

Travel agents say clients are worried not only about the security of the nation's skies, but about being stuck away from home if there were another terrorist attack.

/// NAT SOUND TRAVEL AGENT ///

She's just all freaked out about it. . .

/// END ACT ///

Ramsey Bordcosh, Premiere Travel's managing director, has seen business drop by at least 50 percent.

/// BORDCOSH ///

We already heard this morning that Renaissance Cruise Lines was closing down. U-S Metro Jet (airline) closed down. So, any businesses that were operating on very low margins and losing money -- this is going to be the death sentence for them.

/// END ACT ///

/// OPT /// Delta Airlines chairman Leo Mullin who runs the largest airline at the world's busiest airport Atlanta's has announced he will go the rest of this year without taking a paycheck in a show of solidarity with the thousands of Delta employees facing layoffs. /// END OPT /// Other airlines have also announced massive cutbacks, which are beginning to ripple through the entire travel industry -- affecting mainly low wage service workers in jobs at hotels, restaurants -- even taxi drivers are affected.

/// KEEFE ACT ///

In the short term, there's no doubt in anyone's mind that the industry is going through historic losses right now. For the airlines, they were having a rough time already.

/// END ACT ///

Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the Travel Industry Association thinks some airlines -- already feeling the pinch of a slowing economy before the attacks -- may go bankrupt.

/// SECOND KEEFE ACT ///

America West has been saying that they feel they are going to have a hard time making it. U-S Air is having a hard time right now.

/// END ACT ///

Upscale resorts, spas, cruise lines and hotels are now slashing prices, hoping to lure back skittish vacation travelers with packages that would normally be priced out of their budget. British Airways says it will introduce special promotions for its trans-Atlantic Concorde flights, once the supersonic jet returns to service. (SIGNED)

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