The Week In Travel

A report published by Airports Council International (ACI) Asia-Pacific this week revealed that a number of countries in the region are close to returning to 2019 air traffic levels. According to the report, numerous South Asian and Middle Eastern countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Oman, Iraq and the UAE, have regained close to 85% of Q2 2019 seat capacity levels.

Sticking in the region, Korean Air announced this week that it will be resuming services from Seoul to both Rome and Barcelona in early September. Both routes, which will run three times per week, have not been in operation since the pandemic began. Jumin Kim, western Europe general manager and director at Korean Air said the reason for this is that ‘the European market is recovering faster than expected’ and that the airline is seeing a strong comeback in travel demand.

Just one week after securing a $3.8 billion takeover of Spirit Airlines, Jet Blue has reported its best Q2 revenue in company history. The airline revealed this week that its second-quarter capacity was up by 2.3% when compared to 2019.

Elsewhere, Etihad Airways has solidified its order with Airbus for seven new generation A350F freighters, following a previous commitment announced at the Singapore Airshow. Tony Douglas, CEO of Etihad Aviation Group, described the A350F as a ‘remarkable fuel-efficient aircraft’ which will operate alongside its pre-existing A350-1000 aircrafts to support decarbonisation objectives.

It has also been reported this week that passenger caps and suspended tickets sales look set to continue throughout the summer. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam announced earlier in the week that it will be continuing its passenger cap through to October, whilst British Airways has suspended the sale of tickets on short-haul flights from Heathrow as a result of the airport’s passenger cap.

And finally, a man has travelled 1,100 miles to collect his lost luggage. Travelling from San Antonio to Costa Rica, with a stopover in Miami, he checked in his bags before the Miami flight was cancelled due to a maintenance issue. He then travelled back to Costa Rica via Houston but his bags, which were carrying thousands of dollars’ worth of drone equipment, continued on to Miami. After five days past with no resolution, he flew himself out to Miami and handed his baggage tag to an airport employee. When the staff were unable to locate his luggage, he used the Apple AirTags he had placed in the bags to recover them.