What You Missed This Week: Travel News Roundup

We publish a lot of stories every week on Gadling. Sometimes you might miss one or two. Don’t spend your weekend combing for the must-read stories. We’ve gathered everything that was popular from the last week. Here’s your one-stop, weekly roundup.Most Read
Singapore Airlines Cancels the World’s Longest Commercial Flights

Most Unbelievable that it’s Even an issue
Majority of British Air Travelers Surveyed ‘Don’t Trust’ Female Pilots

Most Likely to Teach You a New Acronym
2014: The Year of the Traveling PANK?

Most Likely to Directly Impact Your Travels
Airbnb Is Having a Media Moment

Most Popular on Social Media
Pushing and Shoving Speeds Up Venezuelan Subway Boarding

Most Popular on AOL Travel
8 Hours in Ann Arbor, Michigan

Singapore Airlines Cancels the World’s Longest Commercial Flights

The longest commercial flights in the world — Singapore Airlines’ flights 21 and 22, running between Singapore and Newark, New Jersey — are slated for cancellation The Economist’s Gulliver blog reports. The flights traverse 9,525 miles in about 19 hours.

Qantas’s 8,576-mile route between Sydney and Dallas now has the top honor, according to USA Today, with Delta’s Atlanta to Johannesburg flight (8,434 miles) a close third.
Singapore Airlines cancelled the flights as part of a deal with AirBus, the Economist writes, in which “Singapore will get five new A380s and 20 new A350s, and the manufacturer will buy back the A340-500s that the airline uses on its super-long-haul routes.”

2014: The Year of the Traveling PANK?

One of the biggest possible travel trends in the Americas during 2014: PANKs. No, they’re not a new competitor for Spanx, but rather professional aunts, no kids. These women are spending billions traveling with their nieces and nephews according to Euromonitor International’s Global Trends Report, as reported by the International Business Times.

Melanie Notkin, chief executive at Savvy Auntie, an online community for aunts and godmothers, told the International Business Times she estimates there are 23 million PANKs in the United States who spend $9 billion annually on children.Other 2014 travel trends Euromonitor International identified include

  • peer-to-peer travel increasing in Europe
  • budget carriers in the Middle East adding more services
  • African’ safaris becoming more suitable for children
  • concierge assistance via mobile devices growing

Majority of British Air Travelers Surveyed ‘Don’t Trust’ Female Pilots

Fifty-one percent of British air travelers “don’t trust” female pilots, citing their inability to handle pressure, according to a poll conducted by U.K.-based travel site sunshine.co.uk and reported by The Daily Mail.

Twenty-six percent of respondents said the pilot’s gender was irrelevant while 14 percent were less likely to trust a male pilot. Respondents who did not trust a man heading the cockpit, cited their “hot headedness” and ability to be easily distracted as reasons for their distrust.One possible reason for the unease about female pilots: their relative rareness. Ten percent of respondents said their previous crews had been exclusively male. And the Huffington Post points out a 2010 FAA report that notes of the 266,000 commercial pilots in America, only about 8,715 were female.

United Increases Miles Needed to Redeem Some Frequent Flyer Rewards

United Airlines revised its frequent flyer rewards program last night, “upping the number of miles needed for some of its most popular awards,” according to USA Today.

United spokesperson Rahsaan Johnson told USA Today the change was made to “to account for the increased cost of providing transportation.” Last month, United reported third quarter earnings of $379 million, up from $6 million the previous year but below the all-important analysts’ expectations.

Of course, you probably didn’t like United anyway: earlier this year the carrier finished dead last in the 23rd annual national Airline Quality Ratings, which ranks airlines based on U.S. Department of Transportation figures. United received more complaints than any other carrier.