Weekly Travel News Recap: March 3 – 9, 2013

On March 5th, the San Francisco Bay Bridge was transformed into largest LED light sculpture in the world.

Here are some of the relevant travel news headlines and stories from the previous week through today:

• TSA eases prohibited items list – The United States’ Transportation Security Administration has eased the carry-on restrictions for some items for the first time since the 2001 terrorist attacks. (DJ, previously)
• FAA will shut down numerous ATC towers – The FAA will close over 170 air traffic control towers at small and medium-sized airports as of April 7. (CNN)
• Fliers prefer pilots to have certain accents – A non-scientific survey says that passengers prefer their pilots to have New Yorker accents; the worst accent surveyed was Texan. (USA Today)
• JetBlue adds new Chi-PR routes – jetBlue has announced new nonstop routes from Chicago O’Hare International to San Juan, Puerto Rico. (NY Biz Journal)
• SF Bay Bridge becomes largest LED light sculpture – The Bay Bridge, connecting the East Bay to San Francisco, momentarily became the largest LED light sculpture in the world when an art installation came to life. (BBC)
• German flight will cater to comet tourists – A German travel agency is giving dozens of people the opportunity to get a close view of two comets set to pass close to Earth. (Reuters)
• A drone spotted… over Brooklyn? – A pilot from Alitalia reported spotting an unmanned flying craft on his landing approach towards JFK. (NYC Aviation)

Christian “Krzysiek“ Eilers is a twenty-something who constantly likes to look at the next flight out of JFK. His life goal is to visit every country in the world; as a young adult working full-time while also taking classes, he often settles on visiting the near countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean, knocking these off the list as it is less of a financial strain than Europe or Asia. Caffeine is his vice, and if he doesn’t have a coffee in his hands, then it’s probably a green tea. A native of New York City, when he is not traveling, he can find an abundance of cultural influences right in his own city, enough to keep him satisfied until the next country’s beckon cannot be ignored any longer.