The briefing in brief: United Airlines and others cut flights due to soaring fuel prices. Friday is another doomsday for the TSA shutdown and the crisis could drag on for many more weeks. Hilton brings Yotel and its in-airport, by-the-hour pod hotels into the fold. More club lounges open at DFW. Toronto/City Airport now has U.S. Customs pre-clearance. Hotel and tourism taxes are rising fast, too. And more.

HERE COME THE FLIGHT CUTS DUE TO SOARING FUEL PRICES
Here's what we know: Brent crude, the global standard, is selling for about $110 a barrel, up 80% in the last three months. WTI, the U.S. standard, is selling at just under $100 a barrel, up from around $60 a barrel in January. Jet fuel? Selling for $4.56 a gallon, up from $2.50 on the day before Iran hostilities erupted on February 28. That's not only unsustainable, but it also outstrips the airlines' ability to offset the added cost with fare increases. The solution? Cutting some flights that are suddenly unprofitable. United Airlines said on Friday that it would cut capacity by at least 5% in the weeks ahead. Some will come from what the carrier expects to be federally mandated flight cuts at overscheduled Chicago/O'Hare Airport. More cuts will come from cancelled capacity that would have flown to Tel Aviv and Dubai. The rest will be spread around the network. Meanwhile, SAS Scandinavian says it will dump 1,000 scheduled flights in April. And on the other side of the world, Air New Zealand is weighing an even larger retrenchment after cutting about 1,100 flights through early May. A route at risk? ANZ's thrice-weekly nonstops between New York/Kennedy and Auckland. Ultra-long-haul runs are especially vulnerable because aircraft used on these nonstops burn large amounts of fuel just to transport the fuel needed to make the long distances. And if airlines do keep those long hauls running, severe price hikes are inevitable. Case in point: Cathay Pacific. It hiked fuel charges by 100% or more on all its flights. On itineraries from Hong Kong to the United States, that represents a $300 fare increase.

FRIDAY IS A NIGHTMARE DAY FOR THE TSA SHUTDOWN
Mark Friday, March 27, on your calendar of existential travel doom. That's the day the nation's 50,000 TSA checkpoint agents will miss their second full paycheck. Since the partial Homeland Security shutdown began on February 14, the agents have received only one check and that covered only about 30% of their work. Friday is also when Congress is scheduled to begin a two-week Easter/Passover recess. And since Republicans and Democrats are talking past each other, the crisis may extend at least another three weeks. Inevitable conclusion: More agents will quit for other gigs, much higher callout rates by other agents--and longer and longer airport security lines. They're already stretching to two hours or longer at airports in Houston and Atlanta. Lines also are growing elsewhere as they begin to close security lanes due to insufficient staffing. Do travelers have any recourse? Not really, but here are some tips:
         Make sure your Known Traveler Number, passport info and PreCheck credentials are in order in your profile at each airline you'll use in the weeks ahead.
         Opt in to TSA Touchless ID, the agency's newish name for its facial-recognition technology. It's already in use at dozens of airports. The opt-in process is often as simple as ticking a checkbox in your profile with your preferred carrier.
         Download your airport's app and check its TSA wait times carefully. Most airports seem to be updating wait times more frequently in recent days.
         Try to use one of the 20 airports that have privatized security checkpoints. San Francisco (SFO); Orlando/Sanford (SFB) and Sarasota (SRQ) in Florida; Kansas City (MCI); and Rochester (ROC), New York. Contract security agents there are being paid and wait times are normal.
         Fly nonstop whenever possible, or, if you must connect, try to do it at an airport that doesn't require a terminal change and a second trip through security.

HILTON CORRALS YOTEL AND ITS IN-AIRPORT PROPERTIES
Hilton has created still another soft brand of independent properties. It's called Select by Hilton. First in? The Yotel chain of about two dozen pod-style hotels. Yotel has properties in city-center locations such as New York, Tokyo and Glasgow, but the chain may be best known for its in-airport, rent-by-the-hour facilities called Yotelair. There are Yotelair properties at Amsterdam Schiphol, Istanbul, London/Gatwick, Paris/CDG and Singapore Changi. Hilton and Yotel say the brand will be integrated into Hilton's reservation system and Hilton Honors later in the year.

TORONTO/CITY GETS U.S. CUSTOMS PRE-CLEARANCE STATION
Close-in Toronto/City Airport (aka Billy Bishop) now has a U.S. Customs pre-clearance station. That means flyers headed to the United States clear customs and other formalities before departure. The station, which opened March 10, also processes travelers with NEXUS cards. Porter Airlines maintains a hub at YTZ and flies to about a dozen U.S. cities from there. Air Canada is hubbed at Toronto/Pearson (YYZ), but competes with Porter at YTZ on several routes. Now that pre-clearance facility is in place, Air Canada says it will launch flights from YTZ to New York/LaGuardia on March 29. It promises service to three other U.S. destinations later this year. In case you don't know it, Toronto/City sits on an island in Toronto harbor and is connected to downtown Toronto with an underground (and underwater) pedestrian tunnel.
        Dallas/Fort Worth, already one of the country's best airports for club lounges, now has two more. Plaza Premium has opened two near Gate D15 in Terminal D. One is a standard Plaza Premium Lounge, the other is the upgraded Plaza Premium First Lounge. Access to the basic club is available via Priority Pass. Entry to the First Lounge carries a $45 additional charge. Plaza Premium already has a smaller club in DFW Terminal E.

BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
It's not just oil-addled airfares that are rising. Travel taxes and fees are going up, too. Chicago this week approved a measure to raise the hotel tax to 19%. That's the highest rate in the nation. Meanwhile, in Scotland, a 5% hotel tax becomes effective in Edinburgh on July 24. And Rome's first report on its new fee to view the Trevi Fountain is sure to convince other cities to consider similar levies. More than 225,000 people paid the 2-euro (US$2.30) fee in February, the first month that the Trevi charge was imposed.
        U.S. passports are now a bit harder to get. The U.S. State Department has told about 1,400 not-for-profit public libraries that they may no longer act as Passport Acceptance Facilities. State claims that federal law prohibits the practice. Libraries have facilitated passport applications for decades without incident, however.
        Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, is now the world's largest city. According to a new United Nations report, Jakarta is home to nearly 42 million people. Nine of the ten largest cities are in Asia. The only exception? Cairo, which ranks seventh with 25 million people.