The number of passengers flying with companion animals grew rapidly in recent years, with some saying the animals helped them overcome anxiety and other issues.
The Christmas Day bombing in downtown Nashville led to phone and data service outages and disruptions over hundreds of miles in the southern United States, raising new concerns about the vulnerability of U.S. communications.
As a homebound nation increasingly shops online for holiday gifts, private express carriers FedEx and UPS have cut off delivery service for some retailers, sending massive volumes of packages to the Postal Service and creating major delays.
The earlier-than-usual deadlines come as more people turn to online shopping during the pandemic, creating a logjam for shipping companies as well as delivery delays. The U.S. Post Office admits that processing plants are “overwhelmed.”
Nearly 1.2 million people passed through U.S. airports Sunday, the greatest number since the pandemic gripped the country in March, despite pleas from health experts for Americans to stay home over Thanksgiving.
U.S. online holiday sales are expected to shatter previous records. Adobe Analytics, which measures sales at 80 of the top 100 U.S. online retailers, predicts a total of $189 billion in online holiday sales, a 33% increase compared to last year.
Other than tracking schools and long-term-care facilities, the state doesn’t post any identifying data on a website or dashboard where people can identify COVID hot spots and track their spread.
With airlines imposing mandatory mask requirements on flights amid the coronavirus pandemic, many unhappy passengers have made headlines for being removed from flights for refusing to wear a mask.
The pain is evident across the globe, where airlines have rescinded earlier forecasts that called for traffic to gradually increase toward normal levels during the fourth quarter.
Combined with earlier losses reported by Delta and United, the four largest U.S. airlines have lost at least $10 billion in each of the last two quarters. A recent uptick in passengers, however modest, has provided some hope.
People have incrementally returned to the skies, but in far fewer numbers than normal. The seven-day average as of Sunday was 871,513, or 35.6% of the equivalent week last year.
FedEx and United Parcel Service are girding for their biggest test yet in the e-commerce era, with the holiday shopping season pushed ever earlier and stretching the limits of shipping networks already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finding those higher speeds can be a challenge. While telecom operators have been rolling out 5G networks, significant boosts in speed are still uncommon in much of the world, including the United States.
Aviation leaders had hoped to be included in a broader pandemic relief package, but once it became clear that the White House was done negotiating, industry leaders quickly shifted focus to a stand-alone bill.
House Democrats on Friday proposed a new $28.8 billion bailout for the airline industry after the carriers began furloughs of more than 32,000 workers to cut costs during a pandemic that has devastated air travel.
