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Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Greatest Generation to be honored in Grand Rapids
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Greatest Generation Celebration to honor those who served in World War II is being planned for later this summer in Grand Rapids to mark 80 years since the war ended. The includes a variety of events including a parade through downtown Grand Rapids. Organizers say they wanted to honor the sacrifices made while some WWII veterans are still around to see it. Brian Hauenstein is a co-chair of the committee planning the events. 'We really feel like this 80th anniversary is our last-ditch effort to say to the very few that are remaining, 98 years plus is how old they are now, and we really want to say one last time, 'Thank you so much for creating a world where we can live freely,'' Hauenstein said. Muskegon County Muskegon event to commemorate D-Day with ship tours, reenactment The legacy of his grandfather is one of many stories that will be honored. 'He was called up into active service at Fort Sheridan, Illinois soon sent off to Iceland where he was aid to camp and when a plane went down, that they'd shot down, a German plane prior to U.S. involvement in the war, he recovered a codebook and carried that to Bletchley Park where, as many know, code-breaking took (place) on the British side,' Hauenstein said. That book was crucial in the effort to break German codes and understand what the Nazis were planning. Friday is the anniversary of the D-Day invasion by Allied forces in Normandy, France. 'He was involved in the D-day invasion planning, the deception plots that took place around D-Day,' Hauenstein said. The Greatest Generation Celebration begins Sept. 1 and lasts a week. It is scheduled around Sept. 2, which will mark 80 years since the WWII officially ended. Joel Westphal came up with the idea for this celebration and is the chairman of the committee. 'It was the culmination of 1,300 days of conflict, over 400,000 Americans killed and we have to remember that the end of the war created a major celebration here in this country,' Westphal said. 'There was never really a large celebration here in Grand Rapids after the end of the Second World War and so it's a combination of trying to reengage that memory and also to thank those who sacrificed.' The celebration begins on Labor Day with a parade through downtown Grand Rapids followed by a flyover with WWII-era planes. People attending the parade can make a donation and have a sign made honoring their loved ones who served that can be carried around for the community to see. Michigan WWII soldier buried 83 years after death Other events include the Greatest Generation Day at LMCU Ballpark, speakers at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, and a Victory Ball celebration at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo. 'It takes a massive effort of time. My time, our committee's time and it also takes a lot of sponsors,' Westphal said. The organizers say all the work is the least they can do to show appreciation and make sure their sacrifices are not forgotten. 'A big part of what we are doing here today is to connect that younger generation. Those that are just coming into the world. Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Daughters of the American Revolution and help them understand the sacrifices that were made,' Hauenstein said. For a complete schedule of events and to learn how to donate, you can visit the . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Business Journals
24-04-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
United, Delta cut capacity as tariffs impact travel demand
Concerns about the economy's direction amid a trade war are reshaping both leisure and business travel. Some major U.S. airlines are cutting capacity and growth plans in response to a shifting economy. Consulting giant Deloitte said in its 2025 travel outlook the inflationary impact of significant tariffs recently imposed by the Trump administration could be a drag on otherwise strong travel demand. As a tariff-heavy trade policy from President Donald Trump has taken shape since then, a late-March report issued by Deloitte said consumers have expressed less interest in discretionary spending. Chicago-based United Airlines Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: UAL) CEO Scott Kirby said during a recent conference call with investors the weaker economic environment has led to softer travel demand. UNLOCK EVERY ARTICLE Get Started For Only $9 GAIN ACCESS TO EVERY LOCAL INSIGHT, LEAD AND MORE! Become A Member Meanwhile, international travel to the U.S. has flagged as well. Non-citizen international air-travel arrivals to the U.S. were down 9% year-over-year in March, before full details of the tariff policy were known, according to the International Trade Administration. In response, two major airlines so far — Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE: DAL) and United — have said they are reducing planned capacity increases later this year. United has also accelerated the retirement of some of its aircraft, and its domestic capacity growth will be 4 percentage points lower than its original plan for the year, Chief Financial Officer Mike Leskinen said on the company's first-quarter earnings conference call. Delta, meanwhile, will keep its capacity in the second half of the year flat with the prior year, which is also a decrease from prior expectations, said President Glen Hauenstein on the company's recent earnings conference call. The hit to demand has been particularly heavy among visitors from Canada, which was among the first countries targeted by the Trump administration's tariffs. Aviation-analytics company OAG reports flight bookings from Canada are down more than 70% for every month from April to September when compared to last year, reported The Business Journals' Joanne Drilling. Hauenstein said Delta has also seen 'a significant drop-off in bookings' from Canada and a 'mixed bag' from Mexico, which was also initially targeted for tariffs alongside Canada. As of now, goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement are not subject to higher tariffs. 'I think we will be looking at Canada and Mexico as places that we probably want to reduce our capacity levels as we move forward,' Hauenstein said. United Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella said on the airline's earnings call that passenger volume from Canada is down 9% year over year, and those originating from Europe are down 6%. Domestic travelers opt for budget-conscious trips For travelers within the U.S., any changes on planned air travel has more to do with economic uncertainty. About 29.6% of respondents to Morning Consult's consumer sentiment survey, as of April 21, said right now is a bad time to make a major household purchase, up from about 24% at the start of the year. Consumer sentiment has worsened overall amid the back-and-forth rollout of the new tariffs. "Economic uncertainty is going to affect how tightly people hold onto their wallets," said Mallory Dumond, a supervisor for travel agency Travelmation LLC. "Discretionary spending is not going to be going to first-class airfare to Europe, or any sort of leisure travel." Anecdotally, Dumond said she is seeing her own clients opt for road trips rather than air travel. There's a similar dynamic at play on the business-travel side, as companies preparing for a downturn will be looking to cut costs as much as they can. Larger airlines have started consolidating their operations into hubs, seeking greater efficiency, Dumond said. That leaves smaller regional airports for lower-cost carriers. It has also created a general divide in how business and leisure travelers fly, she said. Leisure passengers are willing to make a longer drive to an airport with a better schedule of departures, while business travelers are sticking with the airports closest to them — and are more willing to forgo loyalty to a larger airline in favor of a budget option. Get more stories like these every day in your inbox by subscribing to The National Observer newsletter.
Forbes
10-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Delta Air Lines Says Baby Boomers Flock To Europe Despite Stock Prices
Crowds visit the Colosseum in Rome in March 2024. (Photo by Emanuele Cremaschi) Shares in Delta Air Lines have declined steeply in 2025, reflecting the trend for the entire airline industry, but one thing has not changed for the carrier: baby boomers still want to fly to Europe. Delta President Glen Hauenstein has proclaimed, for more than a year, that baby boomers – the generation born between 1946 and 1964 – desire European travel experiences. At first, they flocked to Europe as part of the 'revenge travel' phenomenon, compensating for the inability to travel in the pandemic years. Now they travel because 'There's only so much time to go to Europe,' Hauenstein said on the carrier's first quarter earnings call on Wednesday. The call occurred as investors fretted about the impact of tariffs on the economy, about three hours before President Trump pulled back most of his immediate tariff threat. Hauenstein was making the point that while Delta's domestic business has been impacted by recession fears, its international business -- particularly in the transatlantic -- has remained strong. Ticket sales made Tuesday and recorded Wednesday 'are very strong for international through the summer all the way out to September, October,' Hauenstein said. 'So we are actually up significantly in transatlantic, for example, in cash sales year-over-year. 'It's people's intent to travel in the future,' he said, adding 'The cohort that is traveling right now has an average age in Delta One in the 60s, which means the baby boomers are traveling. And being a baby boomer, I can say this without fear of retribution, there is only so much time to go to Europe or almost so much time to go see Australia or Japan and so you've got this wealth effect where this cohort of retirees is wealthier than any other cohort even with the most recent rundown and they want to go do things.' Delta CEO Ed Bastian added that almost every Delta customer 'has household earnings on an annual basis of $100,000 or more which, by the way, represents 40% of U.S. households. So it's not an elitist definition by any means. That group of people is accumulated just since 2019, $35 trillion of overall wealth between their home real estate, market, etc.' In that context, Bastian said, a market pullback between $5 trillion to $7 trillion range will not deter travel. On Wednesday, Delta shares gained 23% to close at $44.27. The shares were up around 7% until the Trump administration announced a 90-day pause in reciprocal tariffs. On Thursday shares were down about 7% in morning trading. Year-to-date, at Wednesday's close, shares were down about 25%. Regarding international travel, Delta became the first carrier to publicly say that President Trump's tough talk regarding tariffs and some U.S. allies has not deterred long-haul travel that originates abroad. (Canada and Mexico origination traffic has been severely impacted.) Hauenstein followed United CEO Scott Kirby in saying that 80% of long-haul international travel originates in the U.S. As for travel that originates outside the U.S., Hauenstein said on the call that ' We have not seen yet a crack in rest of world to the United States. We're mindful that could happen, but we haven't seen it yet. 'One of the reasons we've biased towards U.S. point of origin is because the fares that we have been getting historically out of the U.S. are significantly higher than they are out of the rest of world,' he said. 'So over time, we've continued to push the percentage of sales that come onshore to where we sit about 80% of our long-haul international now is onshore U.S.' Later, Hauenstein said that if Europe-origination travel does decline, 'We're able to resell that, maybe not at the yield that we want, but there is enough demand to the U.S. from the entire world that we can mitigate most of that softness should it occur. To this date, it hasn't occurred.' He said such sales could target some passengers outside Delta's hubs in Amsterdam, London and Paris.
