Airlines

New record set

for baggage fees

U.S. airlines collected more than $1.7 billion in baggage fees during the first half of the year, the largest amount ever collected in that six-month period.

Delta Air Lines once again claimed the title as the airline collecting the most: nearly $430 million from January through June. The slightly larger United Airlines — part of United Continental Holdings — followed with $351 million, according to a report from the Bureau of Transportation statistics released Tuesday.

Amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum under renovation

When the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam closed last Sunday evening, men began removing alarm tags from behind some of Vincent Van Gogh’s greatest masterpieces and quickly pulled the paintings down from the museum’s walls.

Fortunately, they were not thieves carrying out an epic heist, but curators preparing the works for transport to a temporary location across town, where they will be on display for the next seven months while the museum is closed for renovations.

In all, 75 pieces have been moved to The Hermitage, an Amsterdam dependency of the Russian state museum, where they will be on exhibit through mid-April.

The Van Gogh Museum, one of Amsterdam’s most popular attractions, is scheduled to reopen on April 25.

United Arab Emirates

Dubai’s in Vogue

Vogue’s fashion-loving fans will soon have a chance to drink in the magazine’s aura at a new cafe in Dubai.

The glossy’s global publisher, Conde Nast International, last week announced plans to open the Vogue Cafe in the glitzy Gulf emirate’s largest shopping mall by the end of the year.

The cafe will be surrounded by high-end fashion and shoe stores in Dubai Mall. The sprawling shopping center is located at the foot of the world’s tallest skyscraper, the 2,717-foot-tall Burj Khalifa, which is already home to a swanky hotel and several restaurants designed by Giorgio Armani.

Airports

Animal center planned for JFK

John F. Kennedy International Airport is going to the dogs. And cats. And probably birds and horses.

A new $32 million facility that will provide kenneling, grooming and other services for about 70,000 domestic and wild animals a year is going to be built at the airport.

ARK Development will use Building 78 at JFK, which is currently empty, as well as 14.4 acres of the grounds for the project. It will have kenneling and grooming services for dogs and cats, as well as a quarantine area for horses, an aviary, lawn space, a veterinary hospital and rehabilitation center.

Officials said the new setup would be larger than animal facilities currently in use at the airports in Los Angeles and Miami.

Miami Herald

wire services