Good morning from Skift. It’s Thursday, August 28. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Michelle Russo has built HotelAVE into a 12 billion dollar hotel asset management firm by crunching hotel performance data to identify gaps between what properties should earn and what they actually generate. 

Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill writes that HotelAVE has found millions in additional profit at properties by questioning conventional wisdom about everything from housekeeping schedules to room pricing strategies.

At the typical full-service hotel, improvements can include basic changes like implementing amenity fees, along with more complex revenue management strategies around room type pricing, distribution channels, and market segmentation.

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The firm has also developed its own software to manage data from the systems used by multiple hotel management companies. 

Next, officials from the Trump administration have announced that a multi-billion-dollar renovation of New York’s Penn Station will start by the end of 2027, writes Airlines Reporter Meghna Maharishi. 

The administration, which took control of the project this spring, is partnering with Amtrak to renovate the station. Amtrak executive Andy Byford, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, said he was open to moving Madison Square Garden for the renovations. 

Amtrak also debuted its new Acela trains, which are the fastest trains in the U.S., operating at around 160 miles per hour. 

Finally, U.S. airlines are getting ready to cap their busiest summer in 15 years with large numbers of flyers this Labor Day weekend, reports Associate Editor Rashaad Jorden.

TSA said it expects to screen nearly 17.4 million people between Thursday and September 3, a slight increase from last year. United Airlines and American Airlines anticipate setting Labor Day holiday records. The FAA estimates more than 5 million flights have taken off since Memorial Day weekend.    

Trip.com Group’s latest AI push reads like a bet on doing more with less. The company is trying to shrink the work a traveler must do to plan a trip. Answer three simple questions — destination, length, travel style — or drop in a single image. The system then serves a full, bookable itinerary.

The company ties those quick inputs to real booking data, that includes verified inventory, live prices and availability, and millions of internal signals. This ensures suggestions are meant to be actionable, and not just aspirational.

The company also hands control back to users. The itinerary is only a starting point. Travelers can edit routes on an interactive map, swap attractions, and call in a human agent to polish details. That combo of automated speed plus human finish is where the company is trying to find its edge.

In its latest earnings call, James Liang, co-founder and executive chairman of Trip.com Group, said the upgraded Trip Planner, a on

IndiGo co-founder and promoter Rakesh Gangwal is again planning to sell off shares worth $801 million. The shares account for over 3% stake in the airline. If the sale goes through, Gangwal’s stake in IndiGo’s parent company InterGlobe Aviation will go down to 4.71%. In December 2021, Gangwal owned 36.6% of IndiGo, while current managing director of IndiGo Rahul Bhatia’s stake was 37.8%.

With this latest move, Gangwal would have offloaded almost 32% of his stake in the company. 

This is the latest in Gangwal’s gradual retreat from IndiGo. He stepped down from IndiGo’s board in February 2022 and has been reducing his stake since then. This year alone, the Gangwal family has offloaded 9% stake in the airline, including a block deal in May involving 5.7% shares of IndiGo. 

IndiGo was co-founded by Gangwal and Bhatia in 2006. Gangwal resigned from the board in 2022. At the time of resigning Gangwal had said that he intended to cut down his stake