Will travel get back to 'normal' this summer?

Simon Calder’s Travel Week [View in browser]( [The Independent]( June 17, 2022 [The Independent]( The collective noun for airline executives? Surely “an overbooking”. Committee Room 8 in the palace of Westminster on Tuesday morning revealed just such a gathering, as MPs quizzed them on travel chaos. Going places? (anyaberkut/Getty) Senior representatives of British Airways, easyJet and Tui had been summoned by the Business Select Committee to explain why [tens of thousands of UK travellers have faced such extreme disruption over the past three months]( since international Covid restrictions were eased. For the participants, their aides and the press, it was an all-economy gathering, appropriately enough with rather more people than the available number of hard wooden chairs. Alongside Sue Davies of the consumer group Which?, [I had been booked as a kind of warm-up act]( – explaining that the industry of human happiness was getting millions of people away, but spring and early summer travel chaos was causing some serious harm. At one end, [the distress of passengers learning their holiday or journey home is cancelled while they wait in the departure lounge or even on board the plane]( – often exacerbated by airlines failing to explain [their rights when a flight is cancelled](. At the other, a widespread sense of apprehension that many prospective holidaymakers feel as they survey staff shortage and possible strikes, rather than the anticipation of travel joy. Lisa Tremble of British Airways, Sophie Dekkers of easyJet and David Burling of Tui were grilled by MPs on the committee about why aviation has been in such disarray – and, more importantly, what they intend to do about it. Tui has five crewed aircraft on standby, rather than just the normal two, ready to scramble; [BA has pre-emptively cancelled an astonishing 16,500 flights]( to and from London Heathrow over the summer, taking 2.5 million seats out of the market but increasing resilience for the remainder; and [easyJet has enough cabin crew to staff 35 Airbus jets sitting at home waiting for security clearance before they can start work](. Barely had their ordeal-by-politician ended than an instruction went out from the Department for Transport (DfT) [demanding that airlines “de-risk the summer” by cancelling flights rather than at last call](. The missive, co-authored by the Civil Aviation Authority, was squarely aimed at easyJet, which looks systemically overstretched at Gatwick. If you have a July or August booking with Britain's biggest budget airline at its main base, don’t be amazed if you get a message saying [your flight is grounded](. At which point, your passenger rights come into play, including the entitlement to a different flight on the same day, even if easyJet ends up paying a rival carrier to get you there. Let’s hope we get back to a normal summer. I am, though, contractually obliged to remind you that business-as-usual in air travel involves a messy cocktail of: - Air-traffic control failures (Switzerland, Wednesday) - French firefighters walking out (Paris CDG, Thursday) - Threatened strikes on Ryanair (Italy, Spain, Portugal, late June) Quite enough to persuade you to stay in Britain and simply hop on a train to the seaside. [Oh, wait …]( Get inspired...   [Hanoi city guide]( Where to stay, eat, drink and shop in Vietnam’s buzzy capital [I'm an image]( [Sweet like chocolate]( On a confectionary tour of Geneva with the Swiss city’s new Choco Pass [I'm an image]( All aboard]( Take the train for a sustainable Scottish Highlands adventure Tip of the week: Avoid the airport queues   Luton airport has published its busiest – and quietest – times for arriving and departing passengers. The ideal times to reach the Bedfordshire airport are 10am, 3pm and 10pm – with less than half the crush between 5 and 7am. Coming back, flights that arrive before 7am offer the thinnest crowds – with the hour from 10am second best. Peak arrival spells are noon-3pm and 9pm-midnight. Pick of the week: Visit Saudi [Come on a journey you've never imagined]( Deal of the week: US rail pass   The slump in sterling makes savings on American travel all the more essential. Amtrak, which runs longer-distance trains in the US, offers a 30-day rail pass for just $499 (£413). Unlike Interrail, the pass allows a maximum of 10 “segments” – individual journeys – in a month. Effectively, each journey costs £41, making it of most value on longer trips. But a segment can cover more than a single day, making it valid for the two- or three-day services between Chicago and the West Coast. One drawback: the excellent-but-expensive Acela trains linking Washington DC, New York City and Boston are not covered by the pass, though Northeast Regional services cover the same lines albeit slightly slower and less frequently. [Read about one of my favourite North American rail journeys, from Seattle to Vancouver]( Travel voucher of the week [Save £150 on holidays over £800 with this TUI voucher code]( Question of the week: Red hot rail travel?   Q We're travelling back from Manchester to Sheffield on the evening of 23 June after the Red Hot Chilli Peppers gig. How can we get home? A No passenger trains are likely to run on the beautiful route through the Peak District between Manchester and Sheffield on 21, 23 or 25 June, due to a [strike by Network Rail signallers belonging to the RMT union](. Network Rail is concentrating its firepower on busier routes. Were you to be travelling during the day, you could take the long way round from Manchester via Leeds to Sheffield. As things stand, though, the best bet is probably to book a taxi (ideally filling all the seats with similar Peppers fans) or stay overnight in Manchester – I am surprised to find Premier Inn double rooms on sale for as little as £52 in the city centre. [These are all the trains running during the nationwide strike]( Stat of the week 77.5% The proportion of usual daily [trains that will be cancelled]( in Great Britain on 21, 23 and 25 June, as a result of industrial action by members of the RMT union working for Network Rail and 13 train operators What you might have missed   - Terminal 4 reopens: [Heathrow now back to its full complement]( - Furs class train: [Italian rail firm offers reserved floor space for dogs]( - Going Dutch: Amsterdam canal boat tour rated best travel experience]( Simon’s diary   Every day from Monday to Friday I tackle a top travel story, or explore a topic in more detail than usual in ‘Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast’ – available free on [Spotify](, [Apple Podcasts](, [Pocket Casts]( or [Acast](. I find the easiest way to rush out stories is to tweet them. It’s also an easy way to contact me. My DMs are open and I read all direct messages, though regrettably I can’t respond to every one. 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