The Week In Travel

Travel industry leaders have slammed the UK Government for the lack of SAF production support laid out in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s budget this week. Drew Crawley, president of American Express Global Business Travel claimed the budget ‘failed to provide vital support to drive production and adoption of SAF’, whilst Karen Dee, chief executive of Airport Operators Association spoke of her ‘disappointment’ that no additional SAF support was announced by the Chancellor.

Staying in Europe, Emirates has announced plans to ramp up its operations to the continent this summer. The Dubai-based carrier will be adding a second service from London Stansted, and reintroducing its Glasgow, Birmingham and Nice routes over the coming months. The airline will also be increasing the number of scheduled flights from Amsterdam Schiphol to Dubai International from 14 to 19 per week, and introducing a new daily route from Dubai to Athens.

Over in Asia, Singapore-based firm EVFLY is set to purchase over 200 electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from German manufacturer AutoFlight. This agreement comes after AutoFlight broke the record for the longest eVTOL flight in history earlier this month. The deal will see EVFLY initially purchase 205 aircraft, with the company aiming to put the first 10 cargo aircraft into action in the Middle East, with later deployments in Asia and Africa.

Sticking with the theme of technology, a research centre dedicated to the study of air mobility for the future has been opened in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The unprecedented initiative has brought together professionals from the scientific community and the aeronautical industry to work on activities related to low-carbon aviation, autonomous systems and advanced design, among others.

And finally, as far too many of us know, missing a flight is always a terrible feeling. However it could be worse, as Canadian traveller Ayden discovered this week. As if missing his flight by mere seconds wasn’t bad enough, when Ayden tried to return to the departure lounge he discovered he was locked inside the airport hallway – and had to wait for more than an hour before being rescued. It’s safe to assume Ayden will never be late for a flight again.