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1. Trump administration to deploy ICE agents in airports
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are arriving at airports across the U.S. on Monday, the New York Times reports. The reported goal of this deployment is to help Transportation Security Administration agents dealing with long lines and delays due to the partial government shutdown.
TSA agents have gone a full month without pay as a result of the partial shutdown, affecting only the Department of Homeland Security. Hundreds of agents have since quit, and many others are calling out.
"ICE personnel, including agents from Homeland Security Investigations, are planning to be at 14 airports, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The airports span the country, including Kennedy and LaGuardia in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Houston and Phoenix," reads the NYT article.
2. LaGuardia Airport closed following deadly collision
Two pilots were killed and over 40 other passengers were injured following an Air Canada Express plane's crash Sunday night into a Port Authority fire truck on the runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The airport is expected to remain closed until 2 p.m. Monday as the investigation into the crash continues.
According to the New York Times, over 500 flights to and from La Guardia have been canceled — over half of the flights scheduled for Monday — which impacts tens of thousands of travelers.
3. Signs of hope for hospitality, according to industry data
Across a handful of data presentations at the Hunter Conference, hotel and travel data experts shared why there's room for optimism amidst the industry's macroeconomic headwinds, including the continued K-shaped economy and the decoupling of hotel performance and U.S. gross domestic product.
"We live in some really weird times," said Jan Freitag, CoStar's national director of hospitality analytics. "Normally, GDP growth drives demand. That wasn't true last year, and normally, because we can reprice our our hotel rooms every night, we're able to outrun inflation. That wasn't true last year either."
In spite of this, the presenters pointed to improvement in hotel demand for February and consumers prioritizing spending on experiences over goods as signs for hope for the industry.
4. Historic floods plague Hawaii islands
Thousands of residents on Hawaii's Oahu island were forced to evacuate their homes amid rising floodwaters over last week and into the weekend, reported the Associated Press. It's the worst flooding the islands have seen in over 20 years, resulting in a reported $1 billion in damages. No deaths have been reported so far, said Molly Pierce, spokesperson for Oahu’s Department of Emergency Management.
Over 2,000 people were still without power Sunday afternoon after Hawaii. In addition to Oahu, Maui also faced heavy rains. The source of the downpour is a winter storm system known as “Kona lows,” which include "winds that bring in moisture-laden air," per the AP.
5. FIFA cancels 2,000 Philadelphia hotel rooms ahead of World Cup
FIFA canceled reservations for 2,000 hotel rooms in Philadelphia, local news channel 6ABC Action News reports. The organization had 10,000 rooms originally reserved for the FIFA World Cup, according to information from the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association.
Ed Grose, president and CEO of the association, told the station that it was the four Center City hotels that were most affected, and FIFA didn't provide a reason for the cancellations. He added that he doesn't yet know how this will affect hotel prices.
"While we were not excited about that, it's not the end of the world either," Grose said. "These are rooms that are going to be put back out on the marketplace and sold to fans who want to come to Philadelphia."