New “most expensive” cities list names Tokyo in top spot

by Katie Hammel on

The results for Mercer’s 2009 Cost of Living survey are out, and while there are some changes, most of the rankings for the most expensive cities are just about what you would expect. Moscow, Geneva, Zurich and Hong Kong are expensive (duh), as are Copenhagen, New York, Beijing and Singapore, which all took spots in the top ten. Japan took top (dis)honors with Tokyo and Osaka taking the number one and two spots, respectively. London dropped a whopping 13 spots to number 16.

Some big moves were made by Caracas, which shot up to number 15 from 89 last year, and Dubai, which jumped from the number 52 to number 20 spot. Several U.S. cities became significantly more expensive – at least, according to the rankings. Los Angeles moved from 55 to 23, White Plaines jumped from 89 to 31, San Francisco went from 78 to 34, Honolulu climbed from 77 to 41, and Miami rose from 75 to 45. My home city of Chicago rounded out the top 50 list (which has more than 50 cities on it because some are tied) as it moved up from being number 84 last year.

The survey takes into account the average cost of over 200 items in each city including food, housing, clothing, transportation, and entertainment. The survey compares 143 cities and uses New York, with a base score of 100, as the measuring stick. In the top spot with 143.7 points, Tokyo is nearly 1.5 times more expensive than New York.

The cheapest city? Johannesburg, South Africa, which replaced Asuncion in Paraguay.

110 pounds of pot found on plane and flight crew arrested

by Jamie Rhein on

After three bags filled with 110 pounds of pot — cannabis to high brow folks — were found on a flight from Johannesburg to Heathrow after the plane landed, fifteen members of the cabin and crew were arrested.

From the BBC article, it’s not clear why all fifteen were arrested, but they are being questioned to find out what they know about how these bags ended up on their South African Airways flight. The British officials take drug smuggling seriously and are not too pleased. Anyone who knows anything about the bags is being urged to call the authorities. Check the article for the phone number.

When I read this story, it reminded me of a high school field trip gone amok.

“What bags?”

“What pot?”

“What? Who me?”

“It’s for medicinal purposes only. Really.”

I wonder if there’s a chance that whoever was traveling with the bags — not the crew — saw the authorities and bolted. A curious story, indeed.

What strange things have been found on planes?


(Click the pictures to find out.)

Fly in South Africa – and pay by the minute

by Scott Carmichael on

An upstart airline in South Africa is working hard to find somewhere to rent their planes and clear regulatory hurdles for their planned routes. Of course, upstart airlines are nothing new, they appear (and disappear) every month.

Airtime Airlines is different though, and grabbed our attention thanks to an innovative new pricing method.

The airline has taken a cue from the mobile phone industry, and plans to sell prepaid flight time, where passengers pay by the minute.

Basically, passengers will buy “air time” in advance. Flight time will cost 5 Rand per minute (about 53 cents) and the airline is quick to point out that the predetermined flight time is what you pay, regardless of any delays on the ground.

Of course, with just 3 routes (Durban to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth), the entire scheme sounds too wacky to succeed. If the whole prepaid plan doesn’t sound complicated enough, they are making things even harder by implementing fluctuating “top off rates”. The current rate of 5 Rand per minute could go up and down, depending on promotions and a host of other factors.

At the end of the day, the whole thing will result in fluctuating airfares, just like on every other airline in the world.

Still, upstart airlines are what shake up the industry, and we really need innovations like this to remind the legacy carriers that they are not going to get away with poor service and bad airfares forever.

(Airtime Airlines, via Wired)

UN: Urban Growth Set to Explode in Africa

by Josh Lew on

In 1950, there were only two cities in Africa with more than one million inhabitants. They were both in Egypt (Cairo and Alexandria). In the 2008 version of continent, there are more than 40 urban centers with populations over 1 million. A report by the UN Human Settlements Programme projects that the number of Africans living in cities will double by 2030 to more than 700 million.

The image of an urban Africa is not one that usually comes to mind. Much of the continent’s tourism is still based on wildlife and the natural beauty of rural areas. It’s too early to tell if the landscape will totally change in the coming years.

Large cities are not growing rapidly, but mid-sized cities of between 500,000 and 1 million people are the ones that the UN report focuses on. These upstarts are growing at a rate that will see them soon rival or even eclipse the populations of current African mega-cities like Johannesburg and Nairobi.

[More on the UN Human Settlements Programme report]

South Africa Gearing Up for World Cup…Maybe.

by Josh Lew on

In a little less than 2 years, South Africa will become the only country on its continent to ever host the FIFA World Cup. That is, unless FIFA decides that the country is unprepared and moves the world’s most watched soccer tournament to one of the alternate locations it has already selected. There are concerns about stadiums and infrastructure projects being completed on time. South Africa has announced that a stadium in Port Elizabeth will not be fully constructed by the time a major tune-up tournament is slated to be played there next summer. In addition, the country is plagued by power outages and high crime rates.

But South Africa seems unconcerned and claims that everything will be ready well before the first shot on goal. To promote themselves to travelers, the country’s tourist organization is beginning a major PR push on the BBC World Services Network. The campaign will include television commercial, documentary-style vignettes about destinations in South Africa and an online, user-generated travel guide. It remains to be seen if these efforts will help the country’s image. It could all be undone if FIFA pulls the plug on South Africa 2010.