With two weeks of the year under our belts, we’ve taken stock of the current travel landscape, checked our trend gauges and looked into our crystal balls to come up with our favorite travel trends for 2008.

Flight Flux

Just about the only thing frequent air travelers can count on this year is more change in the friendly skies. Just as the Open Skies agreement ushers in myriad new options for passengers traveling between the United States and Europe when it goes into effect on March 28, the U.S. Department of transportation is considering changes to the rules that govern how airports charge airlines for landing privileges. Instead of basing fees on airplane weight, a recently announced proposal to charge more for flights landing during peak times has the potential to free up airspace, ease airport congestion and encourage airlines to use add flight routes at regional airports. At the same time, the old-guard U.S. carriers (United Airlines, Delta, Northwest, etc.) are considering mergers and threatening to cut the number of flights they offer to offset the now-hideous cost of fuel.

What does all this mean for travelers? Expect frequent changes in flight schedules, available routes and ticket fares in the months to come.

Tech Boom at 30,000 feet

While airlines from JetBlue to American Airlines test in-flight Internet services like web browsing and others usher in the era of mile-high mobile phoning (Emirates, Air France, Qantas), and some are even hard at work on both (Norwegian Air), carriers like 2007’s much-talked about newcomer Virgin Atlantic are spending big bucks to outfit main cabins with high-tech amenities like in-seat chat messaging and myriad personal media options.

We expect this trend to continue as passengers cry for more in-flight services, just as airlines are dying for more ways to make a buck. After all, we may balk at paying for a half-dead turkey sandwich, but many of us would cheerily fork over cash for on-demand movies, in-flight web access and other high-tech perks that make our lives easier and provide much-need distraction from uncomfortable seats, runway delays and annoying seatmates.

Business Lodging Goes Boutique

Once upon at time, boutique hotels were the provenance of moneyed leisure travelers seeking alternatives to business-oriented hotels in destination cities. But now the tables have turned. New brands like NYLO, InterContinental’s Hotel Indigo and Starwood’s Aloft are betting business and frequent travelers will respond to the combination of hip interiors, high-tech business amenities and conveniences like 24-hour and to-go dining options. Thus far, these business boutique properties have flocked not to business hubs like New York and Los Angeles, but to airport locations and nearby secondary cities like Plano, Schaumberg and Nashville.

Looking Beyond Europe

With the both the Euro and the British Pound kicking the dollar’s sorry arse these days, expect fewer Americans to choose Europe as a vacation destination. Instead, more stateside travelers will opt for places where their hard-earned dollars stretch a bit farther. As more flights between North America and Asian countries appear in the coming year, Americans will have increased options for visiting countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand. At the same time, Latin and South American countries also continue to promise a good value for U.S. travelers, many of whom have been trading Paris, Rome and Madrid for places like Buenos Aires, Cusco and Santiago.

Amped-Up Airports

As passengers become more accustomed to delays, flight cancellations and the general uncertainty of modern-day travel, airports around the United States are realizing that, now more than ever, travelers stuck in terminals are veritable cash cows. Along with the airport quick-spas, souped-up luxury lounges for elite travelers and premium retail shops that have been popping up in terminals over the last two years, evermore diversions for travelers are on their way. In the coming year, it will not be unusual for a traveler to sample local vintages at an airport wine bar before settling into a branded high-tech lounge to check email or surf the web before catching a table massage (not just the chair variety) prior to boarding. Increases in practical amenities like cell phone parking lots, universal charging stations, product vending machines and airport pharmacies are also part of this trend, which aims to make airports more than just places to wait.

Maturing Metasearch

We predict that metasearch tools will continue to attract more travelers seeking an efficient way to find airline fares, hotel rates and relevant destination information. With Kayak.com’s recent acquisition of SideStep (parent company of TravelPost.com) and newcomers like Kango busting onto the scene with a ton of buzz, sites that search hundreds of sources for fares and travel information are poised to mature from tools used by the savviest travelers to tools used by everyone.

Freelance writer Lorraine Sanders has been editing the TravelPost.com Insider blog since 2005. You can reach her at news (at) lorrainesanders (dot) com.