The Week In Travel

The US Department of Transportation has ordered six airlines to pay a total of $600 million in refunds this week, and issued a $2.2 million fine to Frontier Airlines for taking illegal action to avoid refunds. The move comes after the Office of Aviation Consumer Protection received over 2,600 consumer complaints since March 1st, 2020, over Frontier’s refund and customer service practices.

A report released this week by the Travel Foundation, a UK-based sustainability specialist, called into question the current strategies employed within the travel industry to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Released to coincide with COP27 in Egypt, the report said that the use of biofuels, offsetting, and technological efficiencies are not sufficient, and that additional measures “must be applied immediately to prevent further escalation of emissions.”

Over on the subcontinent, the Indian government this week ended the compulsory use of facemasks on flights. The official advice to airlines is now to advise flyers that the use of masks is “preferable.”

Entertainment conglomerate, Disney, has acquired the partially constructed mega cruise ship Global Dream. The vessel, which was previously owned by Genting Hong Kong before they filed for bankruptcy in January, is now scheduled to enter service in 2025.

In technology news, British Airways and Air New Zealand both began trials for biometric identity verification this week. The system uses smart bio-pod cameras to scan travellers’ faces and removes the need to show passports at the airport.

And finally, a Welsh man who put up a sign for a pretend airport brought his joke to an end this week – two decades later. The road sign alerting drivers that they were two and a half miles away from the fictional LLandegley airport cost the man a total of £25,000 to maintain.