Robert Ism, new CEO of American Airlines, promises reliability as top travel season

An American Airlines Boeing 777-300ER took off from Sydney Airport, Australia on October 28, 2020.

Lauren Elliott | Reuters

Robert Ism, the new CEO of American Airlines, is looking for one thing this summer: reliability.

The airline grew faster than its major competitors last year, and occasionally passengers face major disruptions, due to routine challenges such as weather, as well as low staffing. Other carriers such as Southwest Airlines and Spirit Airlines faced similar problems which forced them to trim their schedules.

Now Isom, who took the helm of the largest U.S. carrier on March 31, says his priority is to ensure passengers can rely on Americans this summer and beyond.

“People really need to feel like they have control over their journey and we give them control by making sure they get where they want to go on time. I can’t be more blunt than that,” Ism told the pilots. During a company town hall last week, which was reviewed by CNBC. “Other airlines are really struggling.”

JetBlue Airways, a partner of Americans in the Northeastern United States, for example, told staff earlier this month that it would reduce summer flights by 10% to avoid mass cancellations and delays, CNBC reported. Alaska Airlines, America’s West Coast code-sharing partner, has announced a 2% power cut this spring due to a lack of pilots.

Retirement leads to recovery

Air travel has increased and passengers have shown that they are willing to pay for tickets two years after the epidemic, a trend that has helped carriers increase fuel costs. The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 2.3 million people on Friday, about 10% less than in 2019 but 57% more than a year earlier.

Isam said domestic leisure travelers are meeting the relatively weak demand for business and international travel.

March seems to be the best month in American history, he said. This was echoed by Del Bastian CEO Ed Bastian when the airline reported the results last week. American is ready to report first-quarter results and provide its second-quarter outlook before the market opens on Thursday.

Americans’ first-quarter power was close to 11% from the same period in 2019, it said in a filing last week. Delta, for its part, plans to fly 84% of its 2019 capacity in the current quarter, up from 83% in the first quarter.

“The priority is to work reliably,” Delta president Glenn Haustein said in an earnings call. “If this demand trend continues, we have a chance to take another tick up or we can pivot to the other side if we need to.”

US carriers have jumped on the bandwagon to handle travel rebounds. The $ 54 billion federal pay-roll support airlines have won from Congress.

Airlines are facing pilot shortages, especially for small regional carriers that feed into their hubs, which has forced them to cancel flights or limit growth. Delta, American and Southwest pilots have picketed or complained of fatigue from tough schedules in recent months.

Isam said Americans have enough staff of pilots, flight attendant mechanics and customer service agents to handle summer travel.

“We’ve brought the schedule to a level that matches the resources we have,” Ism told the crew.

Other growth challenges include the acquisition of aircraft from manufacturers, including Boeing, which has been shutting down 787 Dreamliners for the past year and a half due to production errors. Americans say Boeing’s woes have forced it to cut some long-haul international flights.

Disruption reduction

The airline is also working on ways to avoid such costly cascading delays for airlines and passengers.

The American has invested heavily in training and a command center at its Integrated Operations Center in Fort Worth, Texas, to help avoid delays.

One solution when bad weather occurs, which is common in its main hubs as well as major airports in Miami and Charlotte, NC service providers, is to work with air traffic control to establish ground delay programs that help avoid later cancellations, Steve Olson, Main Town If the IOC said.

Olson said accountability is important, and not just measuring how fast an airline bounces from disruption, but determining what impact it has on the airline’s crew, who have complained about long stays with schedules and hotel services. Flight attendants or pilots who are out of position for assignments during bad weather have added cancellations and delays.

Shanghai by Numbers: China’s Covid Lockdown

The Huangpu River divides the Chinese city of Shanghai between the old settlement on the west and the new financial center on the east.

Johannes Eisel | AFP | Getty Images

The latest wave of Kovid restrictions in China has forced millions of people – almost three times more than those living in New York City – to stay home and test for the virus in the Shanghai metropolis.

As covid cases began to escalate in late February, Shanghai sought to control the outbreak through targeted, nearby lockdowns. The city, however, the center of global transportation, manufacturing, finance and commerce, decided in late March to implement a two-stage lockdown that would soon apply to all districts, usually forcing people not to leave their apartments.

Most people outside of China know that Shanghai is big, but rarely realize how big it is economically. The following numbers indicate the scale as an economic center of Shanghai – and may indicate the cost of the lockdown.

Size

GDP

World Trade Center

Shanghai is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, one of the two major rivers in China.

According to Bernstein:

  • Shanghai is home to the busiest port in the world, after Singapore.
  • Shanghai’s Pudong Airport is the third busiest cargo airport in the world after Memphis, Tennessee and Hong Kong.

According to Citi, Shanghai accounted for 7.3% of China’s exports and 14.4% of its imports in 2021.

Manufacturing and corporate centers

According to City, Shanghai is China’s:

  • Home of the most important semiconductor manufacturing plants, SMIC, Hua Hong and Universal Scientific Industrial.
  • Home to many auto producers: SAIC Motor, a joint venture of SAIC with Volkswagen and GM, Nio, Tesla and Ford.
  • Head office or a major hub for multinational corporations in China: Apple, L’Oreal, Samsung Electronics, P&G, L’Oreal, LVMH, Nike, Panasonic, Philips, Johnson & Johnson and General Electric, among others.
  • Foundation for Shipbuilders: Jiangnan, Zhanghua and Waigaokiao Shipbuilding.

Financing

Consumer Center

In Shanghai, official figures for 2021 show:

  • Average disposable income is 78,027 yuan ($ 12,288) – more than double the national average of 35,128 yuan ($ 5,531).
  • The average consumer spending is 48,879 yuan – also double the national average of 24,100 yuan.

US wholesale chain Costco has chosen Shanghai for its first Mainland China store in 2019.

And as of last year, Shanghai was home to the largest number of coffee shops in the country, with about 3 shops per 10,000 people, with Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Beijing having a ratio of about 2, according to Maituan.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

According to US News and World Report, Shanghai is home to three of China’s top 20 universities.

According to the official census, the number of foreigners living in Shanghai dropped to 163,954 in 2020, down 21% from a decade earlier. The southern province of Guangdong is now China’s largest expatriate, with more than 400,000.

In these 10 years the total number of foreigners in the country has increased by about 40% to 1.4 million people – or about 0.1% of the Chinese population.

Medical spaghetti grows aesthetically after the covid epidemic

The 22-year-old goddess Bruit decided to have a lip treatment at Upkip Medical Spa in Manhattan during the epidemic.

Source: Goddess Brute

Goddess Bruyette did not want to wait long. It was time for her lips to be filled.

After months of research, she decided last year to have a treatment at Upkip, in the upper east of Manhattan, that would make her lips thicker.

“I wanted my lips to be a more prominent part of my face and photos,” said Bruit, who vlogged his experience on his YouTube channel. “[Lips are] Something you can’t ignore. So it always bothers me. ”

Bruit, a 22-year-old pharmaceutical marketer who also writes contemporary fiction for adults, credits Kovid-19 for helping to pay for Juvederm lip fillers.

“The epidemic certainly gave me the ability to carry it,” he said. “So, I’m not going to spend money on something I’ve been wanting for years?”

With the Kovid protocol being relaxed and the Americans appearing at home two years later, medical spas – or medspas – such as Upkip – are seeking to maintain a trend towards beauty procedures.

Medspas is operated by licensed medical professionals but often the boutique looks and feels like a private service. They serve men and women equally and specialize in aesthetic services such as laser hair removal and medical grade-skin therapy.

MedSpas is seeing an increasing rate of customers coming up with more robust treatment plans, according to industry experts, with face and body treatments being doubled rather than individualized methods or advice.

At all income levels, Americans saved more money during the epidemic, allowing some to invest in their beauty, according to Moody’s Analytics estimates and official data.

According to a report by market research firm ReportLinker, in 2021, the U.S. medical spa market was worth $ 4.8 billion. The United States currently accounts for 37.7% of the global Medspa market, which is projected to reach $ 25.9 billion by 2026, according to the report.

According to the American Med Spa Association, all injections are among the three most popular methods of Medspas. These include:

  • Neuromodulators are used to soften facial muscle activity and reduce wrinkles, such as Botox,
  • Hyaluronic acid fillers, temporary skin fillers, such as Juvederm,
  • And is used for micronidaling, skin tightening and acne scars.

Alicia Bernal, manager of the Z-Center for Cosmetic Health in Sherman Oaks, California, says many consumers are looking for an immediate resuscitation as the epidemic stops, while others are looking for long-term effects.

“People now want their best to see that they’re coming out of covid. So they want to treat their skin, and they’re investing more in ways that give them long-term effects versus just giving injections. You only have short-term results,” Bernal said.

The personal services industry as a whole was hit hard at the beginning of the epidemic when establishments like saloons, barber shops and spaghetti were closed for weeks or months. According to the International Franchising Association’s 2022 Economic Outlook Report, the industry has made a comeback since then, hoping for overall employment, new locations and output to surpass pre-epidemic levels.

“I think we’re seeing this as a year where everything is going to get brighter and we’re going to move on to something more exciting,” said Christina Russell, CEO of Wellness franchise Radiance Holdings.

Impeccable Medspa in East Syracuse, NY specializes in aesthetic methods such as body sculpting.

Courtesy: Medspa

A 2021 survey, conducted by skincare brand StriVectin and surveying 2,000 Americans, found that zoom calls significantly affected consumers’ attention to beauty and skin care. According to the survey, 44% of consumers have studied how to look better in video calls and 33% are frustrated when considering cosmetic procedures.

And the increased facetime spill-over has had an impact, with more and more full-body beauty treatments moving forward.

Body shaping and contouring account for 18.8% share of the global medical spa market, according to ReportLinker Industry Report. A special service, called Qwo, saw a significant jump in interest.

Qwo, the first FDA-approved cellulite injectable – manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Endo International and cleared for use in the United States in July 2020 – is considered by the company to be a cornerstone treatment for cellulite.

Maniha Mahmoud, co-owner of Aesthetica Medspar in Parames, New Jersey, says Spati is seeing a lot of interest in Qwo until the summer months.

“Before, cellulite was really hard to deal with because cellulite is not caused by how hard you work or what you eat,” said Mahmoud. “And a lot of people give filler injections around their buttocks, but that doesn’t really address cellulite.”

Mahmoud explains that cellulite is caused by the butt’s fiber bands which, when hardened against the skin, give the effect of a ripple. After weight gain, fat cells can push against the skin to give the skin a dull appearance.

Liposuction, a popular surgical body scalping service, is also in high demand at Medspace, such as Fleece Image Medical Aesthetics in East Syracuse, New York.

According to owner Katie Dean, the demand for liposuction, along with weight loss treatments with prescriptions, has increased among clients over the past year and has not decreased since.

“Our weight loss department was busy with the epidemic because a lot of people gain weight by working from home, not having to go out in public,” Day said.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the exact name of the American Med Spa Association.

The risk of China’s 2022 coveted lockdown inflation is greater than in 2020

Bernstein analysts found that China’s automobile and component exports more than doubled in 2021 compared to a year earlier, with China’s exports growing by 30% overall.

E Fan | Visual China Group | Getty Images

BEIJING – China’s latest cowardly lockdowns pose a greater risk to global inflation today than in 2020, Bernstein analysts say.

This is because the world has become more dependent on Chinese products since the epidemic began, analysts said in an April 8 note.

In 2021, China’s share of global exports increased to 15.4%, the highest since at least 2012.

China’s exports have increased over the past two years as the country was able to control the initial covid outbreak and resume production within weeks, while the rest of the world struggled to contain the virus. China has maintained its zero-cue policy, while other countries relaxed control last year.

Over the past few weeks, mainland China has dealt with its worst cowardly wave in two years through lockdowns and travel bans, which foreign business leaders have described as tougher than in early 2020. Like Shanghai.

Bernstein’s J. Huang and a team said in a report, “We believe the macro impact of the China lockdown could be significant and something that the market is still not pricing.”

Compared to pre-epidemic levels, Shanghai export container costs are five times higher and air freight rates are twice as high, the report said, referring to similar strains during supplier delivery. “Therefore, there will be high exports of inflation, especially to China’s major trading partners but at the same time there will be a delay in recovering China’s own demand.”

Reflecting the supply chain disruption, Chinese electric car company Neo announced production shutdowns over the weekend, with some production resuming on Thursday. German carmaker Volkswagen says its factories on the outskirts of Shanghai and in Jilin’s Uttar Pradesh were closed until at least Thursday.

Given that these recent lockdowns are coming at a time when global supply chains are already under pressure … we believe that the impact of these lockdowns on global inflation and growth outlook could be much greater than in 2020.

Bernstein’s analysis shows that China makes the lion’s share of foreign demand for containers, ships, rare earth and solar modules – along with mobile phones and PCs.

Chinese factories no longer complete the final assembly for those electronic products but also manufacture components such as LCD panels and integrated circuits, the report said, pointing to a rapid increase in exports of those parts in 2021.

China’s first quarter trade data showed steady growth in exports. As of Monday, the country’s producer price index and consumer price index rose faster than expected in March.

China, a growing car exporter

Since the onset of the epidemic, China has become a significant player in the auto industry, especially in the electric vehicle supply chain, Bernstein reports.

Analysts point out how automobile and component exports grew by an average of 119% in 2021 over the previous year, surpassing the overall 30% increase in China’s exports. The country is responsible for about 74% of global battery cell production, the report said.

China is the world’s largest auto market and in recent years has begun to promote the development and purchase of electric vehicles, primarily through subsidies. Foreign automakers attracted to the market have started to introduce electric vehicles for China in the last few years.

Now, Tesla, BMW and other automakers are increasingly building electric cars in China to export to other countries, Bernstein reports. Chinese state-owned automakers SAIC and Chery Hall are the top exporters of passenger cars from China in terms of size, including fuel-powered cars, the report said, citing growing sales of Chinese-made cars in Chile, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

While the report does not discuss the specific impact of the Covid lockdown on the auto-related supply chain, analysts point out that several Korean and Japanese automakers faced production disruptions when the Covid forced Wuhan to lockdown in 2020.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

According to the China Passenger Car Association, in March, passenger car exports rose 14% year-on-year to 107,000 units, with new-energy vehicles up 10.7%. The report cites external uncertainty and the impact of declining exports to Europe.

China is responsible for almost all car exports The Bernstein report states that 3.7% of car sales out of the country in 2021, although less than 2% in the previous two years.

– Michael Bloom of CNBC contributed to this report.

Jim Kramer says investors should have these 5 industrial stocks as they wish

Jim Kramer of CNBC on Thursday proposed a list of five industrial stock investors investors should consider adding to their portfolios.

“Where the market has been chasing growth at any price for years, we are now in a post-momentum, pivot environment where Wall Street wants tough companies with easy fair valuations,” said the Host Mad Money.

Kramer names five industrial stocks that fit this requirement.

Here is the list:

  1. Ordinary electric
  2. United hire
  3. Haumet aerospace
  4. Textron
  5. Johnson control

To come up with this list, Kramer started with nine industry names. He said he dropped PACCAR and Cummins because the freight industry, including trucking rates, was facing a recession. He also dropped out of Stanley Black & Decker and Fortune Brands Home & Security to avoid housing stocks when mortgage rates skyrocketed.

The top nine industry companies came from Kramer’s curated list of S&P 500 companies that were included for reasonable valuation and great earnings growth. The same list used Kramer to pick the best travel and leisure, financial and semiconductor stocks earlier this week.

“I spent a whole week highlighting these stocks, and now you have twenty to pick from. I want you to put them on the shopping list,” he said.

Here’s all the growth at a reasonable price, or GARP, Stock Cramer highlighted this week:

Jim Kramer says falling car prices suggest inflation could ease

CNBC’s Jim Kramer said Thursday that the headwinds on the used car market make it uninvestable, and its declining performance is also an indicator that inflation could cool.

“While everyone was worried about the 8.5% Consumer Price Index number – it’s a hot number – you might have noticed that the price of used cars and trucks was 3.8% lower than the previous month,” he said.

“While this is bad news for the used car industry, it could be a great sign for the wider economy because it means we are finally making some progress in bringing inflation under control,” he added.

The “Mad Money” host’s comments came after Carmax reported better-than-expected earnings but missed earnings in its most recent quarter. JPMorgan downgraded the stock due to concerns about how car capacity could affect Carmax’s performance.

“We’re finally seeing what is known as demand crunch. People don’t want to buy used cars if they have to pay so much. পর্যন্ত In the end, used cars can’t go up like this forever,” Kramer said of Carmax’s quarterly results.

He added that now is not the right time to own a used car stock, but he has an option to offer investors a chance to try their luck.

“If you insist on owning a used car game, I say go with Lithia …. I think it’s the wrong moment for that too, but if you don’t agree with me, that’s the way to go to Lithia,” he said.

He is also Dr. Used with Autonation, Sonic Automotive, Group 1 Automotive and Asbury Automotive and has some confidence in new car dealership performance.

“They benefit from a return to the supply of new cars, as automakers eventually get their supply chains in order. More importantly, these dealerships are actually profitable and their stocks are fairly reasonable. He said.

Sign up now Following every step of the Jim Kramer market for the CNBC Investing Club.

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See Bond and Ukraine The earning season continues to grow

Jim Kramer of CNBC on Thursday previewed what investors should be on their radar to prepare for next week’s earnings slate and the turbulent market ahead.

The “Mad Money” host says the Bond, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Covid Lockdown in China are “stories that are crucial to the treasury once again running roughshod over everything.”

Kramer also saw a preview of next week’s earnings roster. All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet.

Monday: Bank of America

  • Q1 2022 Earnings Release at 6:45 am ET; Conference call 8:30 am ET
  • Projected EPS: 75 cents
  • Expected Revenue: 23.13 billion

“We’re starting to see this behemoth assert itself as the number one bank in the world. I’m betting it won’t disappoint,” Kramer said.

Tuesday: Halliburton, Johnson & Johnson, Travelers, Prologues, Netflix

Halliburton

  • Q1 2022 Revealed hours before earnings; Conference call at 9 am
  • Launched EPS: 34 cents
  • Expected revenue: 4.2 billion

Kramer says Halliburton is a great company, noting that it is becoming one of the largest positions of charitable trust.

Johnson & Johnson

  • Q1 2022 Earnings Release at 6:45 am ET; Conference call 8:30 am ET
  • Projected EPS: $ 2.59
  • Expected Revenue: 23.64 billion

Kramer had nothing to say about Johnson & Johnson, only that it was “busy breaking itself down to make more value.”

Traveler

  • Q1 2022 Revealed hours before earnings; Conference call at 9 am
  • Projected EPS: $ 3.61
  • Expected Revenue: $ 8.03 billion

Travelers are “boring but really good,” Kramer said.

Prologues

  • Q1 2022 income disclosure tbd; Conference call at 12 pm ET
  • Projected EPS: $ 1.07
  • Expected Revenue: 1.09 billion

Kramer said that prologues are “a cacophony of greatness worthy of your trust.”

IBM

  • Q1 2022 disclosed after closing income; Conference call at 5 p.m.
  • Projected EPS: $ 1.39
  • Expected Revenue: 13.78 billion

“[CEO Arvind Krishna] Slowly growing business spins off, fast ones keep up. After IBM closes, there should be a time to shine when reporting, ”Kramer said.

Netflix

  • Q1 2022 Earnings Release at 4 pm ET; Conference call 6 pm ET
  • Projected EPS: $ 2.92
  • Expected Revenue: 7.94 billion

According to Kramer, the company’s customers need to charge more and it is not as bold as before.

Wednesday: Procter & Gamble, Tesla, United Airlines

Proctor and gambling

  • Q3 2022 earnings release at 7 am ET; Conference call 8:30 am ET
  • Projected EPS: $ 1.30
  • Expected Revenue: 18.70 billion

Kramer said he was “inclined” to make the company the largest position in his charitable trust as prices fell.

Tesla

  • Q1 2022 disclosed after closing income; Conference call 5:30 pm ET
  • Projected EPS: $ 2.26
  • Expected Revenue: 17.60 billion

Cramer’s bet that CEO Elon Musk will impress investors with a conference call.

United Airlines

  • Q1 2022 disclosed after closing income; Thursday conference call 10:30 am ET
  • Estimated loss: ক্ষতি 4.22 loss per share
  • Expected Revenue: 7.67 billion

Kramer says if the company reports a huge number of bookings this week, like Delta Air Lines, it will show that the travel industry is doing well.

Thursday: AT&T, Freeport-McMoRan

AT&T

  • Q1 2022 Revealed hours before earnings; Conference call 8:30 am ET
  • Transmitted EPS: 60 cents
  • Expected revenue: $ 38.24 billion

“I’m not a big believer in it,” Kramer said.

Freeport-McMoran

  • Q1 2022 Revealed hours before earnings; Conference call at 10 am
  • Projected EPS: 90 cents
  • Expected Revenue: $ 6.32 billion

“Copper is a terrible proxy for the Chinese economy, and Freeport will tell us where copper is going.” Dr. Kramer.

Friday: American Express, Schlumberger

American Express

  • Q1 2022 earnings release at 7 am ET; Conference call 8:30 am ET
  • Projected EPS: $ 2.39
  • Expected Revenue: 11.61 billion

Kramer said he believes Delta is “screaming and buying” in light of the bullish outlook on American Express travel.

Schlumberger

  • Q1 2022 earnings release at 7 am ET; Conference call 9:30 am ET
  • Launched EPS: 33 cents
  • Expected Revenue: 5.92 billion

“Will the Russians one day lose their oil production? I bet Schlumberger will be able to figure out what will happen if they stop drilling.” Dr. Kramer.

Disclosure: Kramers Charitable Trust owns shares of Hollyburton, Procter & Gamble and Wells Fargo.

The acquisition of Airbnb which could be the core of its next epidemic playbook

Hotel Tonight CEO Sam Shank

Ben Robertson

In this weekly series, CNBC looks at the companies that made the list of inaugural disruptors 50 years later.

Like many mobile-first, on-demand service-based companies that started in the early 2010’s, HotelTunite matched the two biggest disruptors in that segment.

“The world goes like this: with Uber, you push a button and get a car; with Grubbah, you push a button and you get food,” HotelTunite CEO and co-founder Sam Shank said during a June 2013 appearance on CNBC “Squawk Box. . “

“With us, you press a button, and you’ll find a place to stay,” he said. “We have an app for on-demand shelter.”

Launched in January 2011, HotelTunite wanted to popularize a segment of the travel and leisure sector that its founders felt was overlooked: last minute and same-day bookings.

“From the beginning, the idea was to bring the idea into the mainstream that spontaneous travel is more fun and rewarding,” Jared Simon, former COO and co-founder of HotelTunite, said in a recent interview. “Initially, it wasn’t an idea that was at least mainstream, and we’ve got a lot of pushbacks about the idea.”

But HotelTonight quickly gained traction as it leaned towards its mobile-first experience that resonated well with a younger, more cost-conscious population.

“At the time, the process of booking a trip was like buying a home or applying for a loan,” Simon said. “The amount of information and time you had to give up was to give up any kind of spontaneity on the trip and it felt like a transaction, not an experience.”

Simon said travelers often told them they had been “really mistreated by the current online travel agencies for many years” and tried to “prove that we can build a genuine partnership with them” instead of HotelTunite. This leads you to focus on things like simplifying the information you enter and providing more pictures and well-written descriptions of the rooms, features that Simon said are “now much more pervasive.”

Even the idea of ​​last minute booking was crippled by some candidates. Booking.com launched its own Booking Now app in 2015, which shut down almost two years later, when several other clones popped up around the world with similar business models.

Although Shank said in 2013 that the company would “not want to go into the whole travel market,” HotelTunite has become a more traditional hotel booking platform over time, expanding its booking window, adding a desktop browser version and even for their cost-conscious basis. More luxury hotel deals are being offered.

In 2017 it announced the $ 37 million Series E Round which took it to $ 463 million valuation, bringing its total funding from firms like Accel Partners, Battery Ventures, and First Round Capital to $ 126.9 million, according to Crunchbase. It has even entered into partnership agreements with the Madison Square Garden and the New York Yankees, which offer geo-local offers to fans at sporting events and concerts.

“We were fortunate to be in a place where we were the first mobile-only commerce app,” Simon said. “It gave us some latitude and some space to work because the larger behemoths have not yet figured out how to colonize that space, so we were able to pioneer some marketing ideas and other ways to reach customers that gave us a beach, and then Our MSG partnership has allowed us to take this one step further and in other areas besides the original product we were innovating. “

HotelTunite has reached a point where its platform has more than 25,000 hotels in about 1,700 cities worldwide.

Key CNBC Disruptors: Where Are They Now?

Airbnb finally acquired HotelTonight on its way to an IPO in March 2019 in a deal worth more than 400 million. Simon said the deal was something that was “just understandable,” because the companies were “very appreciative of the product.”

At the time, Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky said the move was “a big part of building an end-to-end travel platform.” The company also mentioned the demand for boutique hotels on Airbnb. Airbnb said at the time of the acquisition that the HotelTonight app and website would work as before, which is still true.

However, less than a year after the Kovid-19 epidemic hit, which presented a new set of challenges for Airbnb to navigate as well as try to build an end-to-end platform, HotelTonight is expected to be a big part of it. Was done.

Jet Kelly, managing director of equity research at Oppenheimer & Co., said HotelTunite was “operating quite quietly within Airbnb.”

“It wasn’t a big focus of the company just judging by the end like four shareholder letters, they don’t talk about it,” Kelly said. “When you see Airbnb ads, it says ‘Host made it possible.’ It doesn’t really shout at the hotel. “

An Airbnb spokesman declined to comment on the issue.

Andrew Boon, managing director of JMP Securities, said Hotel Tonight probably helped Airbnb accelerate its relationship with the hotels, adding that “it’s hard to say whether it succeeded or failed because something happened outside of Airbnb.”

Part of the challenge, Boon says, is to look at how travel trends are moving forward. Airbnb has benefited from the trend of passengers staying longer in alternative accommodation, often outside the main city center, Boone said. HotelTunite, on the other hand, was city-based, often appealing to customers who traveled for last-minute work or were late after a show or sporting event, travel and entertainment sector that did not bounce back.

Simon said he believed there would be a greater desire for “spontaneous travel” after the epidemic, which was HotelTunite’s initial guideline.

“I think it’s one of the changes we’re seeing that people recognize the value of experience and the value of not planning and the value of living as it comes,” he said. “Travel will be back, and we’re already seeing a lot of evidence of that. Hotels will be at the center of it.”

Sign up for our weekly, original newsletter that goes off the annual Disruptor 50 list, offering a closer look at companies like Hotel Tonight before acquiring them, and founders like Shank and Simon who continue to innovate across every sector of the economy.

Union of American Airlines pilots sues carrier over request for training

An American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner arrives in Miami, Florida, landing at Miami International Airport on December 10, 2021.

Joe Riddle | Getty Images

The American Airlines pilots’ union filed a lawsuit against the carrier in federal court on Thursday, a program that encourages pilots to assist in simulator training, adding staff and launching a career race to meet strong travel needs.

Fort Worth, Texas-based airline pilots are asked to come over the weekend to oversee pilot simulator sessions at one of the American training centers, usually conducted by specially trained Czech pilots. A Czech airman will still conduct the assessment.

In a note addressed to pilots, Lyle Hogg, vice president of flight operations training, said: “As demand continues to grow and we continue to recruit, we need to expand our pilot training capabilities to historically unprecedented levels.”

But the Allied Pilots Association argued in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas that it would constitute a change in the rules of work, which would require negotiations with the union.

Dennis Tajer, a spokesman for the union representing the pilots of about 14,000 American Airlines, said, “Management is making rules now as they go along.” “They are in crisis to get pilots through training. They are trying to get pilots as much as possible.”

The case comes at a time when Americans and other carriers are pushing for as many pilots as possible to get as many passengers back in groups as possible.

Here’s why health savings accounts can contribute to inequality

Good Brigade | DigitalVision | Getty Images

A popular way to save for out-of-pocket medical expenses could contribute to health-care inequality, new research suggests.

Health Savings Accounts are tax-exempt accounts for Americans, including high-discount health insurance policies. Federal law established them in 2003. Since then, HSA has grown rapidly as employers have adopted high-discount plans for their workforce to save money.

HSAs provide a three-tier break on income tax: contributions are tax-free, such as withdrawals for investment earnings and eligible medical expenses.

You mean, like, saltines and their ilk, eh?

See more stories here on how to manage, grow and secure your money for years to come.

When used optimally, according to financial advisors, they are one of the most effective ways to preserve and build wealth.

However, according to a new report published by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, black and Hispanic savers, women and low-income people are not using accounts as effectively as others, such as men, high-income and white and Asian savers.

Alumni groups contribute less money to HSAs, have smaller balances, and invest less often in these funds – dynamics that could reinforce and exacerbate existing health disparities across racial, gender and income lines, according to the report.

The report, written by Jack Spiegel, a research associate at the institute, states that “racial, ethnic and income-based inequalities are problematic in the use of HSA.”

“To the extent that those who have registered [in high-deductible health plans] Also, do not enroll in HSA, do not take full advantage of the tax benefits offered by HSA or do not save enough, it may be more difficult to pay for their medical expenses and may delay or abandon the necessary care. ” “Delaying or giving up care has a detrimental effect on health,” he wrote.

Inequality

According to the EBRI, about 58% of private-sector workers are enrolled in a highly-discounted health insurance plan. These plans usually carry a lower monthly premium but higher out-of-pocket costs. Total HSA assets exceeded 100 billion in January, according to Davenier, a consulting firm.

White account holders have an average HSA balance of $ 5,004, while black and Hispanic savers have $ 3,438 and $ 3,737, respectively.

This difference is not due to the length of ownership of the account; According to EBRI everyone has had their HSA for about the same amount of time (average three years).

Ethnic, racial and income-based discrimination in the use of HSA is problematic.

Jake mirrors

Research Associate of Employee Benefit Research Institute

Instead, it’s mainly due to contributions: White savers contribute an average of $ 1,806 to their account each year, which black and Hispanic savers receive by $ 494 and $ 412, respectively.

White and Asian savers also take larger and more frequent deliveries from their accounts than black and Hispanic savers, suggesting they are spending more money on health care, the report found.

The report does not elaborate on the larger socio-economic factors involved in the game. But the data reflect widespread wealth and income inequality among Americans.

According to the Federal Reserve, whites accounted for 84% of the সম্প 142 trillion in U.S. assets by the end of 2021. By comparison, blacks hold 4% and Hispanics 2.5%.

The average Black and Hispanic saver may have fewer ways to pay the HSA each year or to use other funds for out-of-pocket medical expenses (thus postponing HSA withdrawals and creating savings for future years).

The EBRI report is based on data from more than 11 million accounts. It uses zip codes (which are inconsistently white, black, non-white Hispanic or Asian) as a proxy for income, race and ethnicity.