The U.S. Transportation Department gave its approval on December 27 for a new all-business class airline to offer service between France and the U.S. The DOT’s decision clears the way for L’Avion, formerly Elysair, to launch its inaugural service between Paris (Orly) and New York (Newark) as soon as it’s ready to do so. L’Avion will fly 757 aircraft configured for 100 seats.

Sol Melia Hotels & Resorts has appointed Juergen Stuetz as the new Vice President of Corporate Sales for the Caribbean and Miami. This appointment reinforces the company’s sales strategy in North America and the Caribbean. Mr. Stuetz is responsible for the leisure sales and promotions strategies in North America and the Caribbean as well as directing the sales efforts for (Meeting Sol Melia) Group sales and business sales in North America and Canada.

The British have chosen London as their favorite travel destination for both overall and domestic travel in 2006, according to statistics released by HolidayCity.com. The data was collected from hotel bookings made in 2006 by HolidayCity.com’s customers.

Travel comparison website, travelsupermarket.com, monitored search trends for users researching an escape for the New Year festivities and discovered that the favorite destination for online consumers was Spain, accounting for a quarter of the flight searches.

Caribbean Escapes is launching their “new and improved” travel website www.Caribbeanescapes.com. The website features twenty five Caribbean destinations and the luxury resorts in the program.

Brazilian airline Varig will be forced to leave the Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline alliance, by the end of January, Star Alliance said recently, according to a news report posted on the its own website. The information reveals that Varig will no longer be a member of Star Alliance as of January 31, a decision prompted by the current restructuring of the airline in which the old Varig brand continued to be a Star Alliance member, operating a reduced flight schedule on behalf of a new company, VRG –the new Varig.