Thank you for watching Kalkine TV, hope your Friday morning is going
well so far. We have some trending travel news to share. I’m Sage.
The metaverse and NFTs are revolutionising customer loyalty schemes and increasing
engagement through immersive experiences. Etihad Airways
of the UAE announced the release of their 1st NFT collection “EY-ZERO1” earlier this month.
This comes concurrently with the recently unveiled Dubai Metaverse Strategy, where Dubai is ready to
position themselves as the number 1 city in the region for the metaverse economy through the
creation of 40k jobs through increasing the number of blockchain an metaverse company’s by 5 times.
There are reports that Neom the country’s futuristic city has been experiencing
setbacks worth billions of dollars. The metaverse infrastructure could
be the pillars of support required to continue with their plans.
Etihad’s NFT series will be of 3D Etihad Airways Boeing 787
Dreamliner. The 2003 collectibles went on sale 21 July and are symbolic of the year
Etihad was established. NFT fan tokens have been doing very well in the sporting domain and
this series will feature Etihad’s Manchester City FC themed aircraft and Greenliner.
The purchase of the NFT’s will offer a one year Etihad Guest
Silver membership as well as 10 lucky draw complimentary airline tickets with
Etihad. NFT’s will be available to purchase from the Etihad Guest Reward Shop where the airlines
7 million loyalty programme customers can use frequent flier miles to make a purchase.
In other airline news.
Delta Air Lines has changed it’s strategy announcing the purchase of 100 Boeing 737
Max 10 aircraft. Usually in favour of the Airbus planes, this is the first order
for Boeing planes Delta has made in over a decade, being worth close to $13.5 billion.
The purchase includes an option for 30 more
The 737 Max Boeing aircrafts were involved in the fatal crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and
2019. Atlanta-based company was the only airline carrier in the US who had not ordered any Boeing
planes in preference of the Airbus fleet. The U.S. lifted the grounding in November 2020.
The share prices have been volatile for cruise ships this week with steady
rises from Norweigan Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean and Carnival Corp,
before decreasing sharply today 7.28%, 8.24%, 11.18% respectively.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has discontinued a program that tracked cases
of COVID-19 aboard cruise ships in the U.S. and reported the findings to the public.
The initiative, called the COVID-19 Program for Cruise Ships,
ended Monday, according to the government agency.
Princess Cruises, a major industry player, is encouraging vaccinated
and unvaccinated passengers alike to come aboard. The cruise line updated its guidance
Monday with the CDC's announcement, saying it can now accommodate more unvaccinated
guests on sailings "without burdensome exemptions or vaccine status justification."
Carnival Cruise is leading peers lower on Thursday after pricing one of the year’s
largest equity sales at a steeper discount than usual.
The world’s largest cruise line fell 13% after the sale priced 102
million of shares at $9.95 each overnight, according to a statement. The deal raised
about $1 billion that Carnival says it might use to address 2023 debt maturities.
Carnival has now diluted its stock by about 86% since the start of the pandemic, he added. It’s
making investors jittery, as CCL had they just raised $1B at
10.5%? Will there be more equity raises coming to address other debt maturities?” The current
offering is priced at close to 10% discount on Wednesday’s close the biggest discount to date.
Azamara, an upmarket cruise line, also pounced on the news,
announcing on Tuesday that it's dropping pre-cruise COVID-19 testing requirements
for guests effective July 25, except at ports where country regulations still require it.
Royal Caribbean said it is awaiting updated guidance from the CDC before amending its existing
protocols. Currently, the company requires adult guests who sail from U.S. ports to be vaccinated
and to provide a negative PCR or antigen test taken no more than two days before they board.