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(CNN) — South Koreans may soon be able to travel on their own to North Korea under new rules being considered by their government. The South Korean Ministry of Unification, which oversees policy towards the country’s northern neighbor, has hinted that barriers to independent travel to the north could be removed in the future. The ministry’s deputy spokesman, Kim Eun-han, said individual tourism was not subject to sanctions and that “the government is actively reviewing to allow South Koreans to visit North Korea individually as long as the safety for the citizens can be guaranteed.”He added: “Allowing South Koreans with individual visas to visit North Korea is also being considered, but it is too early to let you know about the process or details as there are matters to be reviewed.”However, that doesn’t mean that South Koreans should start booking their vacations just yet. The two Koreas were divided along the 38th parallel after World War II and fought a conflict between 1950 and 1953. In 2018, the leaders of both sides committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and pledged to bring a formal end to the Korean War, which has never been declared over.However, tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased in recent months, as the North has ramped up missiles tests and its rhetoric against the United States, which is an ally of South Korea.Currently, there are only two ways for South Koreans to visit the North, which is nicknamed “the hermit kingdom” for its relative isolation.The first option is to go directly between the two countries — such as during a tourist trip across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) or a reunion of separated families at Mount Kumgang, a resort near the border.South Koreans still need both an official letter from the North and an approval from the South in order to travel this way.Pyongyang Pub, a North Korea-themed bar, has opened its doors in the South Korean capital — and it has raised a few eyebrows.The other choice is to visit via a third country, usually China. South Koreans who wish to visit the North for civilian-level exchanges would need an official invitation letter from North Korea, a visa, and the South Korean government’s approval. One of the foremost reasons for wanting ease of travel between the two Koreas is time. Speaking at the January 15 briefing, Kim said: “We see the urgency among the separated family members who are getting older every day, and are seeking various possible means to help them.”So what does this announcement from the South mean, if anything?If South Korean citizens were able to obtain visas to visit the North, then there would ostensibly be nothing stopping them from visiting as individuals. But without the protection of an established tour group, officials in the South are still skittish about being able to secure the safety of their citizens north of the border. North Korea currently has a small but tightly controlled tourism industry. Visitors should be expect to be monitored and observed by government minders and cannot go beyond the sites they are specifically permitted to visit.

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(CNN) — A unnamed Chinese traveler was caught red-handed when he attempted to smuggle 200 live scorpions out of Sri Lanka on Monday.The 30-year-old man was scheduled to fly to Guangzhou in southern China from Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport when authorities detected the live scorpions in his checked-in luggage, Sri Lanka Customs spokesman Sunil Jayarathna told CNN.Photos provided by Sri Lankan Customs show the scorpions packed inside at least seven plastic boxes.”These scorpions were collected from several areas in Sri Lanka,” Jayarathna said. “While the venomous scorpions are not deadly, they are protected.”Sri Lanka Customs said the live scorpions, which cannot be taken out of the country, were concealed in the man’s baggage.Sri Lanka CustomsJayarathna added that authorities released the man after he paid a fine of 100,000 Sri Lankan rupees (US$552). Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident.Scorpions are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine in herbal formulas that practitioners claim can help relieve pain in muscles and nerves, according to a notice from the Hong Kong Department of Health.Sri Lanka is a tropical island nation home to a diverse range of wildlife, and this is not the first time that air travelers have been caught trying to smuggle live animals out of the country.In 2014, a Chinese man was arrested in Colombo while attempting to smuggle swallow nests worth $50,000, according to CNN affiliate CNN News 18.

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Hong Kong (CNN) — A Hong Kong-based airline has apologized after it demanded a passenger take a test to prove she was not pregnant before boarding a flight to the US Pacific island of Saipan.Low-cost carrier Hong Kong Express came under criticism after a 25-year-old Japanese woman said airline staff required her to take a “fit-to-fly” assessment, which included a pregnancy test, when she was checking in for a flight at Hong Kong International Airport. “It was very humiliating and frustrating,” she told the Wall Street Journal, adding that the airline indicated the test was required for women “observed to have a body size or shape resembling a pregnant woman.”The report said airline staff then escorted her to a washroom and handed her a pregnancy test, barring her from boarding until the test came back negative.”We would like to apologize for the distress caused,” the airline, which was acquired by Cathay Pacific in July last year, said in a statement to CNN.Hong Kong Express has apologized for making a woman take a pregnancy test.Paul Yeung/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe statement said the airline was under pressure from authorities in Saipan to step up checks on passengers. “We took actions on flights to Saipan from February 2019 to help ensure US immigration laws were not being undermined,” it said.”Under our new management, we recognize the significant concerns this practice has caused. We have immediately suspended the practice while we review it.”Birth tourismSaipan, part of the US commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, has emerged as a favorite destination for “birth tourism” — the practice of foreign nationals giving birth on US soil to ensure their babies become American citizens. This is largely due to its distinct immigration policy from the US mainland, which allows citizens from some countries, such as China, to visit without a visa, even though they would need one for other parts of America.In recent years, birth tourism has become so rampant in the commonwealth that more babies are born to tourists than its permanent residents. In 2018, tourists gave birth to 582 babies on the islands, while only 492 were born to permanent residents, according to figures from the Northern Mariana Health and Vital Statistics Office. Chinese tourists accounted for most of the births — of the 582 that year, 575 involved Chinese citizens.The Northern Mariana Islands had a population of just over 50,000, according to US Census estimates in 2018.The popularity of birth tourism in Saipan has prompted authorities to take action, such as putting pressures on airlines to screen passengers. In July, the commonwealth’s House of Representatives also passed a resolution seeking to limit birthright citizenship on the islands.In the US, the legal principle of jus soli automatically confers citizenship upon babies born on US soil. While there is no federal law banning tourists who are pregnant from entering the US or giving birth in the country, the country has previously arrested individuals who ran “birth tourism” operations over conspiracy to commit immigration fraud and visa fraud.

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Corrientes, Argentina (CNN) — If the Everglades and the Serengeti had a child together, it might look a bit like the Iberá Wetlands of northeastern Argentina.Some 1.8 million years ago, the Paraná River — South America’s second-longest after the Amazon — carved a rambling path through Argentina’s Corrientes Province before shifting to its modern location farther west, scientists believe.The massive freshwater basin that remained became the world’s second-largest wetland (after the Pantanal in neighboring Brazil), harboring some 4,000 species of flora and fauna — almost 30% of Argentina’s total.Despite these superlatives, unsung Iberá lay in relative obscurity until December 2018, when it became not only one of the newest national parks in the Americas, but also the largest protected area in Argentina at 1.76-million acres, when combined with the surrounding Iberá Provincial Park. Now, international visitors have figured out that there’s a watery labyrinth of swamps, bogs and floating islands in northern Argentina ripe for safari-style adventures. “Iberá won’t remain unknown for much longer, so it’s really a privilege to visit in this early stage,” says Rafa Mayer, founder of Say Hueque, an Argentine adventure company that offers tours combining Iberá with nearby Iguazu Falls (one of South America’s biggest draws).To explore this remote region is to enter into a vast grassland that’s been carved out like a block of Swiss cheese by 75 shallow lagoons. Hidden within is everything from mud-crunching marsh deer to howling monkeys, sunbathing caimans and the world’s largest rodent (the capybara). Mayer says that, despite the recent buzz, the wildlife-rich park still receives only a small number of visitors, “but that´s the main reason why the local culture is so authentic and the fauna so vigorous.” The birth of a new national parkMuch of the Fernández Lagoon is covered in floating reed islands.Mark JohansonThe existence of Iberá National Park is intrinsically linked to the work of Rewilding Argentina, part of Tompkins Conservation. Set up by former Patagonia CEO and American conservationist Kris Tompkins and her late husband Doug (co-founder of The North Face), the organization works in Argentina to create national parks that can combat biodiversity loss. The Tompkins have also been the driving force behind 10 million acres of new national parkland in neighboring Chile.Iberá National Park was a project two decades in the making. It stems from 395,000 acres of former cattle ranches and rice farms that the couple purchased, restored and then donated to the federal government to ensure its long-term protection. Kris Tompkins, who spends several months of each year living in the park, modeled it on American national parks, with atmospheric lodges built of natural materials, well-signed hiking paths and myriad educational opportunities. The lodge, which is located on an old estancia (cattle ranch) dating to 1896, has a heady National Geographic vibe. Huge animal photos hang on walls in thick wooden frames while brick-like tomes on sustainability, wildlife and conservation turn every corner into a reading room.Visitors can hike around a caiman-filled lagoon just steps from the lodge or race rheas (ostrich-like roadrunners) on mountain bikes down the red-dirt roads that bisect nearby grasslands. They’re also treated to lectures on local biodiversity, regional conservation efforts and the importance of parklands. Rewilding Experience runs a more budget-friendly lodge called Posada Uguay along the edge of the Fernández Lagoon (the best waterway for kayaking), as well as a rental home called Estancia Iberá near the Iberá Lagoon (which is better for boat trips). As the name implies, the goal of visits to each of these properties is to become entrenched in the newly flourishing wildlife, much of which has been “rewilded” and is now habituated to the presence of non-threatening humans.The return of the animalsA dedicated jaguar center will release as many as five jaguars back into the wild in 2020.Rafael Abuin”Rewilding” is the effort to restore natural processes and reintroduce missing species to an environment, and Iberá is the site of the largest and most ambitious rewilding project currently underway in the Americas.Five locally extinct or endangered native species — including the giant anteater, green-winged macaw and pampas deer — have been reintroduced here since the project began in 2007. In early 2020, the project will enter its next phase with the release of as many as five jaguars into the wild.”For an ecosystem to function properly, the apex predators (animals at the top of the food chain) need to be present,” says Rafael Abuin, the project’s communications director.A dedicated jaguar reintroduction center opened in 2015 on San Alonso, an isolated island within the park, and it currently holds seven cats. The older cats, who’ve come from zoos, can’t safely be released back into the wild. But their babies (two were born here in 2018) will join young orphans donated from Brazil as the first big cats to roam these lands in nearly a century.Abuin believes that this will be a game-changer for both restoring the ecological balance and kick-starting a greater eco-tourism industry that can boost the rural economy. “From South Africa to India, what moves money in wildlife tourism is the chance to see a big cat,” he says, adding that Iberá “has the potential to become the best destination in the world to see a jaguar in the wild.”Watch out for caimans and piranhas Boats depart from Carlos Pellegrini for tours of the Iberá Lagoon.Mark JohansonWhile the Tompkins name may loom large over Iberá, tourism here began in earnest three decades ago with the town of Colonia Carlos Pellegrini (population 900). It was here, thanks to the efforts of local authorities creating a new provincial park, that pelt hunters traded their weapons for binoculars and embarked on a new life as rangers and wildlife guides.To this day, Carlos Pellegrini has the most developed tourism industry in the wetlands with a handful of locally run inns, campgrounds, restaurants and shops that sell artisan goods, including wood-carved animals and handwoven baskets. Adventure outfits in town offer either hiking, kayaking or boat tours to the floating reed islands within the Iberá Lagoon. The indigenous Guaraní used to navigate Iberá’s lagoons in pole-driven canoes. Modern operators have added motors to the equation, but still use poles to push in and out of the shallower edges. That’s because the lagoons only drop to a maximum depth of about 10 feet, depending on rain levels.Trails accessible from Carlos Pellegrini include Sendero de los Lapachos, which passes through a forest frequented by howler monkeys, and Sendero Paso Claro, which offers the shade of the region’s signature caranday palm trees. All paths skirt the Iberá Lagoon, which is home to enough caimans and piranhas (as well as local legends of hunters going missing) to make you think twice about taking a dip.How to get thereMost towns on the edge of the Iberá Wetlands have a strong gaucho culture.Mark JohansonInterest stirred by the new national park has led many other communities situated at the portals to Iberá (entrances lie off a ring road that circles the wetlands) to begin diversifying from agriculture into tourism.Portal Cambyretá has added campgrounds and short trails to view the newly reintroduced green-winged macaws. Meanwhile, the colonial-style village of Concepción (near Portal Carambola) now offers stylish lodging options, including La Alondra´i, as well as gaucho-style horseback riding and horse-drawn boat trips deep into the wetlands.Accessibility remains an issue no matter where you sleep. The closest airports to Iberá are in the regional capitals of Posadas (to the northeast) or Corrientes (to the northwest), which can be more than four hours away, depending on the destination. Many visitors opt for the luxurious (by overland standards) sleeper bus from Buenos Aires to the city of Mercedes, south of the park, where onward connections can be arranged to Carlos Pellegrini or the three Rewilding Experience properties.Mark Johanson is a freelance journalist based in Santiago, Chile. His writing has appeared in Lonely Planet, Men’s Journal, GQ, Newsweek and The Guardian, among others. You can follow him on all social channels @MarkontheMap.

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Editor’s Note — For the latest information on the location of fires, visit the website “Fires near me.” Melbourne (CNN) — Australia wants you to know that it’s not all blackened and charred.The bushfires that burned millions of hectares in the southeast are still burning, but they’re fewer in number and recent storms have drenched debris that might otherwise have gone up in flames.The fires came at the worst time of the year for local tourism operators. The money they make over the summer school holidays keeps them in business for the rest of the year. But this year, instead of juggling reservations, they’re counting the cost of cancellations. And they desperately want tourists to come back.While Australia’s best advertising minds brainstorm their next slogan, we’ve come up with a list of places to go to aid local recovery in the hardest hit areas — Victoria and New South Wales, starting in the Australian capital, Canberra.CanberraCanberra wouldn’t normally be the first stop on the list for incoming international tourists, but it’ll put you in easy reach of towns recovering from the fires.More than 90,000 people visit the Parkes radio telescope each year. The moving parts of the telescope weigh 1,000 tonnes, as much as two Boeing 747s.David McClenaghan, courtesy of CSIROYou’ll find the CSIRO Parkes telescope about 300 kilometers north in NSW. Watch “The Dish” before you go. Batemans Bay, NSW In January, the Boat Shed fish shop would be busy with customers. This year, thousands of tourists were forced to flee in early January as the fires approached.Hilary Whiteman/CNNFrom Canberra drive 1.5 hours south to Batemans Bay. This is where you’ll find Jacob Crooke, the owner of JJ’s at The Marina, who is also an amateur lyricist. After the fires, the restaurateur found himself humming the tune to 70s hit “Baby Come Back” and was inspired to write his own song. The title “Canberra come back,” refers to Australia’s capital city, where the town gets most of its business. Restaurant workers took the mic, while Crooke’s “protégé”, 16-year-old fishmonger Joel Ware, edited the video in between his normal job of peeling prawns. It now has thousands of views on YouTube. Batemans Bay is a favorite weekend escape for locals. It sits at the point where the Clyde River meets the sea. The river, also known by its traditional Aboriginal name of Bhundoo, is one of the purest water sources in Australia. It runs from high in the mountains, through three National Parks and 10 state forests. Water holes along the way are popular with locals and the native platypus, which scoops food from mud at bottom of the river. Owner David Burnett says business is the worst it’s been in his 26 years at the park. “There are people filtering through, but nothing like normal,” he tells CNN Travel. “We didn’t have any fire damage here in the park, but there was enormous damage to the forests around. But that will all regrow. Within three months those blackened tree trunks will be beginning to shoot green.”MoruyaThe view from a South Coast Seaplane flight over Moruya and the New South Wales coast after the fires on Sunday, January 19.Tim Gilbo, South Coast SeaplanesFrom Batemans Bay, drive south down the coast to Moruya. There’s a local airport with regional flights to Sydney and Melbourne. South Coast Seaplanes is back in the air, now that the smoke has cleared. The plane takes off and lands in the Moruya River — the same river used by water bombing aircraft to douse the flames. From the air, you’ll see areas damaged by fire, lush green coastal forests and the New Zealand fur seal colony on nearby Montague Island. Visit Moruya town center for local shops and restaurants — and some seriously good coffee at Alfresco Coffee on Church Street.NaroomaDuring the New Year’s Eve fire, the Narooma Golf Club offered shelter to around 500 people. Cars and caravans were parked on the green.Narooma Golf ClubContinue down the coast to Narooma, where local tourism guides say there’s a 98% chance of seeing a whale during peak season between May and November, when some 30,000 whales make their way along what’s known as the “Humpback Highway.” At Narooma, the view from the cliffs along the coast is extraordinary. Head to a lookout, or play a round at Narooma Golf Club, one of Australia’s most scenic courses. The 3rd hole is known as “Hogan’s Hole” because actor Paul Hogan, of “Crocodile Dundee” fame, once played a shot for a TV ad, hitting the ball over an ocean cliff to the top of a nearby green. The Narooma golf course in greener times — with superb views across the ocean.Brendan James, Golf NSWMore recently, the Narooma Golf Club offered shelter to evacuees from the nearby town of Cobargo on New Year’s Eve. About 500 people spent the night there, with some parking their caravans on the green. “We’re just hoping that people will come back and our February will be busier than it usually is,” says Tracey Vaughan, the club’s assistant manager.CobargoAustralia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison was heckled by residents living in the bushfire danger zone who were angry with the government’s response to the fires.This small town is now infamous as the place Prime Minister Scott Morrison was heckled in early January for his slow response to the fires. “You’re out, son, you are out,” one local yelled. Many homes were lost in the area and it will take time to rebuild, but the town is open for business. “We’re endeavoring to open as much as we can,” Myers says. The local bakery, coffee shops and cafes are still open, but the town has had to cancel the annual Cobargo Folk Festival, one of the year’s biggest events. Stay the night in Cobargo Hotel or drive to nearby Bermagui on the coast. BegaHome of the famed cheese brand of the same name, Bega is one of the bigger country towns in the southeast, with a population of around 4,000. It has a rich Indigenous history dating back thousands of years, but is now better known as prime dairy country. There are bike tracks through the town to work it off afterwards.Eden Smoke obscures the view across Twofold Bay during the height of the bushfires in early January. Hilary Whiteman/CNNFrom Bega, make your way down to Eden on the coast at Twofold Bay, one of the best places to see the southern migration of humpback whales. Eden’s whale watching season is between August to late October/early November, when the town holds its annual whale festival, which includes a colorful street parade. Other times of the year, there’s fishing, kayaking tours and birdwatching tours. Some of the bush surrounding Eden was burned, but the town itself remained untouched by the recent fires. From nearby Merimbula, take a flight to Melbourne and use that as your base to discover Victoria.Blackwood, VictoriaMartin Street Coffee is considered one of Victoria’s top coffee roasters.Martin Street CoffeeThis tiny town is less than an hour outside Melbourne by car, but it feels like the middle of nowhere.Blackwood Ridge, in Wombat State Forest, is the country’s only totally off-grid nursery and restaurant. All the ingredients are picked fresh from the nursery garden, or are sourced as close to home as possible. Fans of Melbourne’s world famous coffee scene will be relieved to know the famed Martin St. Coffee has a Blackwood branch that serves “Avo Fetta smash.”Clunes The Clunes Booktown Festival takes place every May. Visit VictoriaNot far from Blackwood is Clunes, best known for the annual “Clunes Booktown Festival,” which sees the town’s population swell from fewer than 2,000 people to several thousand in May. The rest of the year, visitors come to see one of the best preserved towns of Victoria’s gold rush era. The main street has appeared in films, including the original 1979 “Mad Max,” starring a young Mel Gibson. Drop into Quigley & Clarke for lunch or dinner in the beautiful 1860s Criterion Hotel. MetungCoastal Metung lies four hours east of Melbourne at the end of the Great Alpine Road.Visit VictoriaFour hours east of Melbourne, you’ll find the seaside town of Metung, which sits on the picturesque Gippsland Lakes. Metung is in Gippsland, a vast area that stretches from east of Melbourne to the New South Wales border. There are many places in Gippsland that haven’t seen flames, but are suffering from name association with fire-ravaged regions. Metung is the place to go for seafood, water sports and fishing. It also has a rich Indigenous cultural history — learn more about it on the Bataluk Cultural Trail.Lakes Entrance The coastal town of Lakes Entrance is in east Victoria. Visit VictoriaFrom Metung, take a boat to Lakes Entrance, a bigger town where you can wander for kilometers along the scenic coast, taking in the views and sea air. Fishing boats regularly pull into the pier, selling freshly-caught fish to the public. Grab an ice cream and pull on a jumper — it may be summer but temperatures are cooler along Australia’s south coast.Wilsons Promotory National Park If you look closely, you can see a boat in the foreground, which shows the immense size of Skull Rock, off the coast of Victoria.Pennicott Wilderness JourneysFor a closer look at Victoria’s stunning south coast, hit the water in an amphibious boat. See the southernmost tip of the Australian mainland and one of the country’s other great monoliths — Skull Rock, also called Cleft Island. This is not a rock you can climb — partly because it’s home to thousands of barking fur seals. For other places to visit in Australia’s fire-hit regions, see the local tourism websites — Visit Victoria and Visit NSW. Locals want international visitors to know they’ll be welcome. In the words of Jacob Crooke’s tune, “Canberra Come Back” — “we are strong, but we just can’t live without you.”

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(CNN) — Some airline brands die forever. Others, it seems, go into suspended animation, waiting to be reborn when the time’s right to take to the skies once again. Which is why, on January 12, a Boeing 767-300ER touched down on the runway at New York’s JFK airport, bringing with it a US brand name that had vanished several years earlier.Miami-based Eastern Airlines’ inaugural flight to New York from the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil was the first flight to carry the once legendary Eastern name since the failure of the two earlier airlines — the first in 1991 and the second short-lived iteration in 2017.The flight took some in the aviation industry by surprise, not least because they considered Eastern an unlikely brand to come back from the dead, given the original’s troubled final years.The new airline has made upbeat claims that its mission is to provide flights to what it believes are “under-served” areas — that currently includes its service to Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city, and one to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana.Steve Harfst, Eastern Airlines president and CEO, is optimistic about both the airline and its name, saying “people remember [it].” It’s “a powerful name.” But what exactly do people remember?Is it “the successful story?” asks aviation expert Ahmed Abdelghany. Or the airline’s “failure in the late ’80s?” What’s in a name?Eastern Airlines launched January 12, 2020. From FacebookAbdelghany, associate dean of research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona, Florida, isn’t convinced adopting the name Eastern in any capacity — in spite of a new logo, design and more — is a useful marketing strategy.After all, many US and Latin American travelers probably have never even heard of the airline — much less flown on one of its airplanes.Harfst accepts this reality but isn’t fazed, especially as he insists: “We’re not trying to be the old Eastern.” The original Eastern sprang to life in 1926 as Eastern Air Lines — note that extra space in the name — when the aviation industry was still in its swashbuckling days. Several smaller operations merged to create an operation that initially flew mail routes but evolved into a passenger service before the advent of jet planes. It eventually became a major US domestic aviation player. In contrast to the tiny 2020 version, it grew to command a sizable fleet of aircraft and employed thousands of people.With a heyday that coincided with the 1940s and ’50s golden age of air travel, Eastern could perhaps be viewed through the prism of those fondly recalled times. The troubled yearsBut, says F. Robert van der Linden, curator of air transportation and special purpose aircraft at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, the myriad ways the carrier was plagued throughout the last 10 to 15 years of its existence are more likely to define its legacy. Linden cites labor troubles and a litany of management issues the company was ultimately unable to resolve. “People don’t necessarily have happy memories of it,” Linden says.Safety-wise, Linden notes, the original Eastern airline was fine. But dogged by profitability and leadership issues, it began to falter just as US carrier Delta was expanding its share of the market.This Curtiss-Wright Condor T-32 passenger transport aircraft used by Eastern Air Lines in 1934. Museum of Flight Foundation/Getty ImagesAs carriers began adding international routes to their offerings, some of the domestic demand which once cemented Eastern Air Lines as a major player in the competitive skies decreased, Abdelghany explains. A brief venture into West Coast flights did nothing to help the struggling airline. Eastern’s second coming in 2015 fared little better, ending just 18 months later and releasing the name for licensing by the new operation.In with the newThe new Eastern’s inaugural flight from Guayaquil to JFK, on the other hand, took off without a hitch. In Ecuador, a ribbon-cutting and announcement signified the launch, but there was little else in the way of ceremony. The apparently minimalist approach to advertising concerns some, including Linden. “You do have to advertise,” he says, adding that he hadn’t even heard about the new airline’s launch until CNN Travel contacted him for comment. “One of the hardest things on this planet is starting a new airline,” Linden says. Razor-thin profit margins, competition and demand that changes by the day are all considerable barriers. Plus, there’s staffing and design and reliability — all key pieces in an airline’s big-picture success.An underwhelming debutThe newly launched Eastern Airlines aims to appeal to budget-conscious passengers who have flexibility in their travel plans.Courtesy Eastern AirlinesSo far, publicity for the new airline has been negative. Eastern CEO Harfst says he’s aware of a harsh criticism following an imperfect debut return flight from JFK to Guayaquil. While the inaugural flight left on time and arrived early, the same could not be said of the reverse route. Delays lasting several hours and a claim that Spanish-speaking travelers had difficulty finding Spanish-speaking flight crew members were among the issues discussed at length in a searing review by travel website The Points Guy.CEO Steve Harfst says Eastern Airlines’ flight attendants are citizens of the markets the airline serves. Courtesy of Eastern AirlinesThe list of grievances also included no online check-in, lack of signage at the airport, no TSA pre-check, no celebratory speech about the launch, significant delays and a lack of communication around them, a stale-looking cabin and untrained flight attendants.Acknowledging the delays and saying there’s work to do, Harfst disputes the claim that Spanish speakers were nowhere to be found. “All of our flight attendants are citizens of the markets we serve,” he said. He insisted Eastern’s service would thrive on demand for a low price point carrier at a time when airlines are limiting baggage allowances and/or charging high fees for additional baggage. Eastern isn’t levying extra charges for its standard luggage allowance.”We’re trying to provide a compelling reason for Ecuadorians to visit New York … We believe our wide body, long-range aircraft has an advantage over the smaller aircrafts,” Harfst says.Despite the airline’s underwhelming debut, marketing manager, Gabi Harfst — the CEO’s daughter — said it would soon be carving a more distinctive identity, telling CNN Travel: “Eastern will unveil its new, modern livery in the next few months.”The airline is also expected to soon announce new connections to South American markets. Prices on its initial route are cheap. A search on ticket prices reveal Eastern is is undercutting rival budget carrier JetBlue by nearly $200.Abdelghany views Eastern’s arrival with skepticism, calling it a “very risky business model” because of tough competition. Linden also warns of tough business hurdles and says the markets Eastern aims to capitalize on aren’t as underserved as its CEO believes. It’s “capitalism” plain and simple, Linden says. “I won’t say it’s cruel, but it can be. Win big, lose big.”

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