The Week In Travel

This week, JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes appeared in federal court to bear witness in an ongoing trial over his company’s partnership with American Airlines. The US government has brought both airlines to court contending that the partnership, which was signed 18 months ago, is in effect a merger that allows the airlines to coordinate on setting higher airfares, and thus exploit air travellers. Robin Hayes was called up by the government to answer questions on his own comments on the concentrated nature of the aviation industry.

In UK news, the Wall Street Journal reported that Heathrow Airport is set to remove its daily passenger restriction in late October. The restriction of 100,000 daily outgoing passengers was imposed in the early summer to cope with the strain on airport operations caused by an influx of travellers. While it was resisted by airlines, who were forced to cancel flights and charge higher airfares, the quota was effective, and airports around the world followed suit.

Virgin Atlantic has launched a corporate sustainable aviation fuel programme making it the latest airline to offer such a scheme. The programme allows corporate customers to partially pay for SAF, and provides a measure of their corporate carbon footprint, allowing them to flout their green credentials.

Over in Asia, Hong Kong announced a new scheme to attract tourists to the crisis-hit city. The Hong Kong government will contribute £224.3 million to pay for 500,000 airfares which it will give away to prospective tourists. The city has suffered from severe pandemic restrictions, including a ban on foreign visitors which lasted well into 2022. Airlines are currently struggling to return to a pre-pandemic flight schedule, and the city reeled from the news this week that Virgin Atlantic will be ceasing operations in Hong Kong after 30 years.

And finally, a tourist on holiday in Wyoming was given a stern warning from locals after he was seen approaching a grizzly bear and standing five feet away as he filmed it with his phone. While the tourist was visibly pleased to have such an encounter – smiling and giving a thumbs-up to bemused onlookers, he was lucky to have escaped untouched, as bears are known to be particularly aggressive in autumn as they take on hundreds of thousands of calories a day before going into hibernation.