More than 3 million Chinese traveled by planes during the week-long National Day holiday, which ended last week, an official with the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC). From October 1 to 7, CAAC dispatched 26,459 domestic flights carrying 3.03 million travelers, up 6.8 percent and 17.5 percent year-on-year, respectively, statistics from CAAC showed.

Bombardier Aerospace announced today that Caribbean Aircraft Leasing (BVI) Limited, an affiliate of Stanford Financial Group of Houston, has signed a contract to acquire three new Q300 50-seat turboprop aircraft on behalf of its regional airline affiliates, Caribbean Star Airlines Limited and Caribbean Sun Airlines Inc. The firm order is valued at $49 million. The three Q300 aircraft are scheduled to be delivered commencing the second quarter of 2006.

The British, Canadian and United States governments have all issued travel advisories warning its citizens traveling to Trinidad and those already in the country to be cautious against violent attacks. Reports are that all such travel advisories to Trinidad will remain in effect until further notice. The travel advisories have come in the wake of what the countries consider as a continuous and growing pattern of violent crimes against locals as well as foreigners.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)´s culture commission passed Monday a resolution aiming at protecting and promoting cultural diversity. The 40-page resolution reaffirms the “sovereign right of countries” to pursue policies aimed at “protecting and promoting the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory” and in international trade.

Mark Travel´s six Caribbean vacation brands –Funjet Vacations, TransGlobal Vacations, US Airways Vacations, United Vacations, Vacations by Adventure and ATA Vacations- which account for approximately 130,000 passengers annually to the Caribbean, have expanded their product lines in the Caribbean region this winter. Some specifics include United Airlines´ flights offered by Funjet and United Vacations from Chicago (O´Hare) and Washington (Dulles) to St. Lucia and St. Maarten and new service on Spirit Airlines to the Turks and Caicos via Funjet.

Self-service check-in will be available for international travel at Sydney Airport as early as next year thanks to a Memorandum of Understanding between the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Sydney Airport Corporation Limited (SACL) that was signed last week. The agreement is the fifth of its kind signed by IATA and leading international airports as part of the industry association´s Simplifying the Business program. This agreement sets the stage for a 16 Common Use Self-Service (CUSS) kiosk type-trial at Sydney Airport´s International Terminal followed by a staged rollout that could lead to significant growth in self-service availability.