Need to ship a panda? No worries! FedEx has you covered. The company seems to have cornered the panda-transport market, moving its first back in 2000 from China to Washington, D.C. 

Since then, it has moved pandas to Paris, Edinburgh, Memphis and, as of yesterday, Toronto. The zoo there is now the proud owner of two pandas thanks to a deal signed by China’s former President Hu Jintao and Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The bears will stay there for five years before moving to the Calgary Zoo for another five years and then returning to China. Researchers and zoologists and romantics across the panda-loving universe are hoping the pair will breed and birth a few cute little pandas along the way.Continue reading...

After more than a year’s worth of rumors, plenty of negotiations and three earlier attempts at merging, US Airways and the bankrupt American Airlines—which made a last-ditch effort to revamp their image earlier this month—have finally agreed to come together and be one. While they're now moving in together and sorting through their stuff, the actual marriage and formal union won't be completed until the third quarter of this year.

In an $11 billion all-stock deal, the two big brands are joining to create the world’s largest airline—but investors and consumers alike are pondering if bigger is indeed better. The new company, which will fly under American’s name and revamped logo but be run by US Airways CEO Doug Parker, is predicting that it “will produce annual savings and new revenue totaling more than $1 billion by 2015,” Bloomberg reports.

"American Airlines is one of the world’s most iconic brands," Parker stated in the merger announcement press release. "The combined airline will have the scale, breadth and capabilities to compete more effectively and profitably in the global marketplace. Our combined network will provide a significantly more attractive offering to customers, ensuring that we are always able to take them where they want to travel, when they want to go."Continue reading...

It's fitting that on Valentine's Day, American Airlines and US Airways would release a video proclaiming their $11 billion union and why they're so compatible. It's not so much a "how we met" story as a "Learn how we will combine the best of both airlines" story. More on the lovebirds at http://aa.com/arriving and in the press release.

Passengers stuck inside the plane trapped in the melting tarmac at Washington’s National Airport last July or who happened to be nearby the gent who stripped naked at the Portland International Airport last April to protest the TSA screening process, you might not think that air travel has gotten better recently. 

But the Wall Street Journal’s annual Middle Seat airline scorecard wrapping up airlines' 2012 performance is now out and it showed some improvements industrywide. The percentage of planes pulling in within 15 minutes of when they were supposed to went up to 79 from 76 the year before. Flights cancelled went down to 1.4% from 2.1% in 2011. Fewer bags were lost. Of course, it helped that fewer planes were flying last year, which eased congestion at the gate.

One airline in particular was likely doing the most celebrating: Delta. It had been the worst-ranked airline in 2010 but took a few measures in the past two years to get back to the top. “Careful study of when and where cancellations are most likely, and adjusting spare aircraft availability to keep flights moving if there is a breakdown helped, as did a rebuilt baggage system at its Atlanta hub to reduce lost luggage,” the Journal reports.Continue reading...

It's a safe bet that the unabashedly iconoclastic head of the Virgin empire, Richard Branson, will continue to raise eyebrows in 2013, just as he has done in years past. The latest Virgin Atlantic branding campaign, the airline's first in two years, is just the latest example of Branson brashness that's quite out of the ordinary.

In a two-minute commercial that could pass for an X-Men trailer (and which Adweek calls "stylish, fantastical, tongue-in-cheek"), Virgin Atlantic has fun showing how a group of extraordinary children grow up to be extraordinary employees with superhuman abilities at an airline that is "flying in the face of ordinary." The global spot (watch below) will run in 30-, 60-, and 90-minute television commercials, with elements adapted for digital and cinema use, and slyly references the brand's wannabe-superhuman founder.Continue reading...

Loews Hotels found its name in the news in recent days because the fire-alarm system of its Nashville hotel was set off by a drunken two-time Olympic gold medalist, snowboarder Shaun White. His schoolboy antics led to the whole place being evacuated and a contrite apology from the snowboarder. Not exactly the kind of security Loews wants to be known for.

Now the hotel chain is the first hospitality brand to participate in a first-of-its-kind security partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. U.S. citizens who sign on to Loews’ loyalty-rewards program, YouFirst Platinum, gain complimentary enrollment into the DHS’s Global Entry program and allows guests to expedite airport screening with TSA PreCheck.

"Partnerships are integral to the way we do business as a brand," stated Loews Chairman Jonathan Tisch. "Our collaboration highlights the importance of the public and private sectors working together to improve hospitality for all our guests, whether that be at our hotels or traveling through an airport."Continue reading...

Air New Zealand has always had a good sense of humor and a willingness to try new things. A few years ago, the airline ran an ad featuring naked employees with uniforms painted onto their bodies. Then the airline introduced a sleazy mascot named Rico that it thankfully killed off (but not without grabbing some attention with the death, of course).

The airline with the social media fairy just announced at the San Diego Comic-Con that it has signed a two-film co-branding deal with New Line Cinema and MGM for Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, which will have it using Hobbit-branded aircraft, according to Marketing Magazine.

New Zealand, of course, is where the majority of principal photography was done for the film. Fans of Peter Jackson's earlier Lord of the Rings trilogy, which also struck a marketing partnership with Air New Zealand, often fly the airline to get over to New Zealand to see where some of their favorite scenes were put on film.Continue reading...

JetBlue Airways and Air China are partnering in a landmark arrangement for both airlines. The agreement marks JetBlue's 20th partnership and its first partnershipwith a Chinese carrier.

Later this summer, Air China and JetBlue will launch interline connections between their networks at New York/JFK as well as at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Then, subject to government approval, China's national airline this autumn plans to enter into a codeshare with JetBlue and place its “CA” designator on flights operated by JetBlue.Continue reading...