Kobe’s new one-lane wonder

A new airport in Kobe, Japan, is expected to open Feb. 16, making it easier to reach this cosmopolitan city of 1.5 million people on Japan’s southern coast. The new airport is designed to serve more than 3 million domestic passengers a year and some international charter flights.

An airport tram, the Port Liner, will whisk riders and their luggage in 16 minutes to the city center’s Sannomiya station.

There are no direct commercial flights from Los Angeles to Kobe, but connections from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport (not Tokyo’s Narita International) to Kobe’s one-runway airport are available through JAL, All Nippon Airways and Skymark Airlines. The journey takes almost three hours by bullet train from Tokyo to Kobe, compared with one hour and 15 minutes of flight time. Travelers to Osaka’s Kansai International Airport would probably still take the 30-minute rapid express train to Kobe.

Janet Eastman

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Wireless check-in at Southwest

SOUTHWEST Airlines customers last week found a new way to beat the crowds.

Passengers can now check in for flights using wireless-enabled devices such as Blackberries, although they will still need to visit airport kiosks to get boarding passes. Passengers with computer access, of course, can continue to check in and print out boarding passes from their home or office.

Wireless access “gives [passengers] a better chance to get that ‘A’ boarding card,” said Southwest spokeswoman Angela Vargo, referring to the first group allowed to board the plane. Southwest does not offer reserved seats. Check-in is allowed 24 hours ahead.

For more information, visit www.southwest.com and click on the “Wireless Access” link on the home page. If you have a wireless device, you can use it to access mobile.southwest.com for details.

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Cruises canceled, rerouted around New Orleans

DELTA Queen Steamboat Co., the New Orleans-based cruise line known for its riverboat excursions, is pulling its American Queen out of service this year. Its two other boats will resume regular sailings in April, calling on Baton Rouge, La., instead of New Orleans, said spokeswoman Lucette Brehm.

Earlier the company canceled some cruises and rerouted others after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

The American Queen, under charter to a private company working on disaster relief, had been expected to resume service by May 30. But the company decided there is not enough demand to support three vessels on upriver itineraries, Brehm said.

Delta Queen will resume service April 21 with a seven-night trip from Baton Rouge to Memphis, Tenn. The Mississippi Queen will resume service April 23 with a seven-night round trip out of Memphis.

Explaining the decision to bypass New Orleans, Brehm said, “We wanted New Orleans to be back to its optimum.... There are still a lot of things that are not back to normal.”

For information: (800) 543-1949, www.deltaqueen.com.

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Irked passengers may not disembark

SOME passengers on the Queen Mary 2 were threatening a sit-in when the cruise ship reached Rio de Janeiro on Thursday to protest a last-minute change in itinerary, the vessel’s operator said last week.

The world’s largest and most expensive ocean liner left New York on Jan. 15 and was scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Feb. 22. It was carrying more than 2,500 passengers when it hit the side of a Florida shipping channel Jan. 18, damaging a motor. The cruise cut stops in Barbados, St. Kitts and Salvador, Brazil, to make up for lost time, said Eric Flounders, a Cunard Line spokesman.

The line offered 1,000 passengers who had been scheduled to disembark in Rio de Janeiro a 50% refund to make up for the missed stops, Flounders said. But some passengers were unhappy with the offer and told the captain they would refuse to leave the ship, he said.

Cunard is owned by Miami-based Carnival Corp.

Associated Press

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Airline notes

United Airlines on March 4 is to begin nonstop Saturday service between LAX and Cancun, Mexico. On June 8, the service will go daily on Ted, United’s low-fare carrier .... Delta Air Lines is also expanding service to Mexico. Among new nonstops will be LAX to Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, starting April 15; and LAX to Cancun, starting June 3.... Hawaiian Airlines on June 9 will begin flying nonstop once a day between San Diego and Kahului Airport on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

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-- Compiled by Jane Engle