Editor's Note: Some linked articles may be behind subscription paywalls.
1. Trump administration to cut 10% of flights if shutdown persists
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the government would cut 10% of air traffic at 40 of the country’s busiest airports if the shutdown continues, the New York Times reports. The airports will be named later today.
The cuts will begin Friday in an effort to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers who have been working without pay since mid-October.
“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators tell us we can take action today,” Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Bryan Bedford said at a news conference with Duffy.
The announcement comes just weeks before Americans will celebrate Thanksgiving. AAA’s latest forecast predicts 2.4 million planned to travel by air for the holiday. Last year, TSA screened more than 3 million passengers, a new record, during last year’s Thanksgiving week.
2. October layoffs increase 175% year over year
A new report from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts in October, a 175% year-over-year increase, according to a news release. It’s also a 183% increase compared to job cuts announced in September.
“October’s pace of job cutting was much higher than average for the month. Some industries are correcting after the hiring boom of the pandemic, but this comes as AI adoption, softening consumer and corporate spending, and rising costs drive belt-tightening and hiring freezes. Those laid off now are finding it harder to quickly secure new roles, which could further loosen the labor market,” said Andy Challenger, workplace expert and chief revenue officer for Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
Through the month of October, U.S. employers announced nearly 1.1 million job cuts, a 65% increase compared to the same period of 2024. It’s also a 44% increase compared to all of 2024. Year to date, job cuts “are at the highest level since 2020 when 2,304,755 cuts were announced through October,” according to the release.
3. Host raises full-year RevPAR outlook in latest earnings call
On the company's third-quarter earnings call, Host Hotels & Resorts President and CEO Jim Risoleo said that the hotel real estate investment trust outperformed expectations across key metrics, CoStar News' Bryan Wroten reports. In light of the performance results, Host raised its full-year outlook for revenue per available room to 3% and comparable total RevPAR growth of 3.4% over last year, which exceeds the previously announced guidance range.
"We delivered better-than-expected comparable hotel Total RevPAR growth of 0.8% over the third quarter of 2024, driven by strong transient demand leading to improvements in room revenues and ancillary spend. Comparable hotel RevPAR also outperformed our expectations, increasing 0.2% over the third quarter of last year, driven by higher rates across the portfolio and improving leisure transient trends in Maui," Risoleo said in the REIT's latest earnings release.
In the third quarter, Host completed the sale of the Washington Marriott at Metro Center and continued portfolio reinvestments.
4. Bank of England holds on interest rate
The Bank of England opted to keep its key interest rate at 4% Thursday, ending a pattern of quarter-point rate cuts every three months since August 2024, the Wall Street Journal reports.
While other European central banks have also held on their key rates recently, the BOE indicated that further cuts will come, which differs from recent reports from the European Central Bank and Sweden’s central bank.
“We still think rates are on a gradual path downwards, but we need to be sure that inflation is on track to return to our 2% target before we cut them again,” said Bank of England Gov. Andrew Bailey.
5. San Francisco hotels see continued performance growth
In the U.S., year-over-year hotel performance was varied during the week of Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, according to data from CoStar. Hotel occupancy in the U.S. declined by 2.6% to 59.3% while average daily rate increased 0.4% to $156.09. Revenue per available room dipped to $92.54, a 2.3% decrease year over year.
San Francisco continues to see growth across all three key hotel metrics with a 13.8% increase in occupancy to 71.5%. For RevPAR, the market saw a 33.1% increase to $165.31, and for ADR, a 17% increase to $231.17.
Tampa, Florida, had the biggest dip in occupancy — a 24.6% decline to 60.5% — due to elevated displacement demand after Hurricane Milton last year. Meanwhile, New Orleans faced the largest decreases in ADR and RevPAR, a 23.9% decline to $168.61 and 38.3% dip to $104.29, respectively.