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1. Hotel Equities, Springboard Hospitality form strategic merger
Hotel Equities and Springboard Hospitality have combined their operations and portfolios through a strategic merger, CoStar News Hotels' Bryan Wroten reports. Both companies will continue to operate under their own names.
Atlanta-based Hotel Equities is a hotel ownership, management and development firm and has 200 properties in its portfolio. Springboard is a third-party management company with 51 hotels and resorts in 14 states. Ben Rafter, CEO of Springboard, is now the CEO of the combined company, and Brad Rahinsky, formerly president and CEO of Hotel Equities, will be the combined company's chairman.
"This next chapter for the combined company establishes scale with expanded regional insight and entrepreneurial agility to support owners across every asset class," Rahinsky said in a news release.
2. India-Pakistan conflict disrupts commercial flights
Several airlines in Asia, including Taiwan's China Airlines and Korean Air, are rerouting or canceling flights to and from Europe, and about a dozen Indian airports were closed in light of fighting between India and Pakistan, Reuters reports.
India conducted several airstrikes on Pakistan early Wednesday in retaliation to a terrorist attack that left 26 civilians dead in the disputed Kashmir region last month, the New York Times reports. Reuters reports that there were 57 international flights operating in Pakistan's airspace when India struck.
India's top airline IndiGo said it is canceling 165 flights until Saturday morning.
3. Hotel Indigo brand heads into era of growth
Hotel Indigo, an upper-upscale boutique brand in IHG Hotels & Resorts' portfolio, is heading into an era of growth, with IHG committed to doubling the brand's footprint, CoStar News Hotels' Natalie Harms reports.
The brand currently has 170 hotels and 23,000 rooms open with a pipeline that nearly matches those figures, said Carol Hoeller, vice president of global brand marketing for Hotel Indigo and Voco Hotels at IHG, on a recent episode of the Hotel News Now podcast.
"I think the lifestyle market has really been a huge growth segment for the hotel industry at large," Hoeller said. "As we saw the guests' needs evolve and our performance starting to elevate, we wanted to bring our design along with that."
4. Real ID deadline arrives
Starting today, U.S. travelers without a passport will finally be required to have Real ID-compliant identification to board domestic flights, the Wall Street Journal reports. The concept of a Real ID requirement was created back in 2005 in response to 9/11, but the deadline to obtain the identification was repeatedly extended.
Travelers who don’t have a Real ID will face extra security precautions at the airport, but will ultimately still be able to fly, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
“We intend to follow the law,” Noem told lawmakers during a House committee hearing. Still, “we will make sure that it is as seamless as possible and that travelers will get to stay on their intended itinerary.”
5. Texas airports delay, cancel flights due to severe weather
Heavy rainfall, flooding and tornado warnings in Texas led to thousands of flight delays or cancellations Tuesday, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport had more than a thousand flights canceled or delayed on its own since last week.
The weather pattern, known as an omega block due to the jet stream's shape, traps a high-pressure system over the northern Plains with lower pressure systems on either side, the article states. That can push stormy weather to the south. North Texas recorded 5.22 inches of rain in April, 2 inches more than the monthly average.