TUI continues its upward trend at the beginning of the 2005 financial year. In the first quarter of 2005, the Group increased both turnover and earnings by divisions. And now the Germany-based group –Europe’s largest tour operator- is licking its chops to double revenues by 2008. In the first three months of 2005, TUI’s continuing operations reached 261 million euros, an increase of 13 percent. Tourism recorded 6.3 per cent growth, reporting an improvement in earnings by this sector year-on-year. In the first quarter, TUI also reported an increase in turnover by continuing operations. At 3.23 billion euros, it rose by eight per cent year-on-year.

Airbus Industry has plans in the pipeline to increase sales of aircraft to Central American countries by as much as 72 percent over the next twenty years for a grand total of $6 billion. In all, Latin American airlines will purchase a grand total of 1,223 airliners for as many as $100 billion over the next 20 years, according to Airbus Co.´s Marketing Manager Laurent Roauaud.

Organized by the Lodging Association of the Florida Keys, a workshop for the tourism industry has been scheduled for May 25 at Key Colony Beach City Hall in the Middle Keys, in which the lead presenter at the one-day-long gathering will be National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield. The workshop is divided in sessions: The morning gathering is to feature Mayfield´s outlook on the 2006 hurricane season as well as speakers from Monroe County Emergency Management, the National Weather Service office in Key West, experts in risk and insurance as well as a planned discussion on possible legal ramifications of not evacuating guests and employees during a mandatory evacuation.

Airbus Industry expects unit sales in Latin America to rise 9 percent this year, said the plane maker´s deputy director for the region, Rafael Alonso. The European Aeronautics Defense and Space Company (EADS) unit is in talks with new carriers that have been set up in the region, though the A380 super jumbo is unlikely to find a market niche there, he added. Airbus will sell 370 jetliners around the world in the course of 2005 and the Latin American region is no stranger to that market. Brazil´s TAM, the TACA Group and Mexicana de Aviacion have already voiced interest in buying Airbus liners.

The inventor of the first private spaceship predicted Wednesday that commercial manned space flight would move quickly from joyrides for millionaires to the general public and would spawn advances much as early computers opened the way for the Internet. Wearing a black leather jacket and 19th-century mutton-chop sideburns in his first-ever appearance before a congressional committee, Burt Rutan sketched a futuristic vision for the space tourism industry that was invigorated by the flights of his SpaceShipOne over California´s Mojave Desert last October to capture a $10 million prize.

Frontier Airlines said Tuesday it is seeking federal approval to expand its service to Mexico with a new flight to Cozumel and two additional flights to Puerto Vallarta. If the Transportation Department approves, service will begin in November, Frontier said in a statement. The low-cost carrier´s plan calls for a nonstop flight between Denver and Cozumel, between Kansas City and Puerto Vallarta, and between Salt Lake City and Puerto Vallarta. The service would be three times a week in each case.