Category Archives: Travel & leisure

Booking.com under investigation by EU regulators over fake listings and scams

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European Commission calls accommodation website’s approach to fraudulent listings and phishing scams as ‘absolutely substandard’

EU regulators have opened an investigation into Booking.com, alleging that the accommodation website has not done enough to protect consumers from fake listings and scams.

The European Commission, which regulates the world’s biggest tech companies operating in the EU, said Booking.com may have breached the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) with its “absolutely substandard” approach to tackling fraudulent listings and phishing scams, where criminals impersonate a third party to trick people to hand over money.

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UK holiday demand may have peaked amid cost of living squeeze, says travel industry

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Spain remains most popular destination as Britons book later in hope of better deals, Abta report finds

The UK’s cost of living squeeze means fewer people plan to ringfence money for holidays abroad next year, the travel industry has warned.

Despite war, wildfires and EES border checks, the numbers of Britons taking holidays climbed back to pre-pandemic levels this year – but rising costs may mean the numbers have peaked, according to an annual travel industry report on Tuesday.

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O2 signs record £200m deal to keep London venue’s naming rights

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Exclusive: 10-year sponsorship extension at a 50% premium on last agreement crowns bonanza year for live venue

O2 has struck a record £200m deal to retain the naming rights to the London venue the O2 in what is thought to be the largest renewal of its kind in UK history.

The 10-year agreement will extend O2’s relationship until at least 2038. It cements the sponsorship as the second longest-running UK stadium naming rights deal after Arsenal’s partnership for the football club’s London ground,

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Lula bans fixed-odds sports betting a week before Brazilian elections

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President’s ‘hard, drastic and necessary measure’, likely to attract widespread public support, polls suggest

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has signed an order banning fixed-odds sports betting just over a week before the first round of the presidential election, in a move he said was designed to tackle the pervasive problem of families falling into debt.

The decision ends the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of betting.

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Flight chaos for hundreds of thousands was caused in ‘millisecond’ by software error

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Error first occurred at 10am but major incident was not declared until 12.30pm, says report

A software defect in part of the UK’s air traffic control system corrupted flight data “in the space of a millisecond”, leading to a six-hour outage and mass airline cancellations and delays across the UK last week, National Air Traffic Services has said.

But ministers said the Nats report into the incident still left questions unanswered, saying they needed “to urgently understand why this issue was not discovered and fixed before it caused chaos”.

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Much of Europe already levies a tourist tax – a nice little earner for Italian hotspots

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While England makes its first foray into unfamiliar territory, it’s proved a boon for Italy’s cash-strapped municipalities

A nightly tourist tax may be unfamiliar territory in the UK, but countries in continental Europe have been cashing in on these kinds of levies for decades.

Tourists usually need to pay the tax on the day they check out of a hotel or holiday let, and are often surprised by an extra fee on top of their accommodation costs.

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UK air traffic control chaos disrupts flights for hundreds of thousands of passengers

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More than 1,000 flights cancelled with problems continuing on Wednesday and airlines calling for overhaul after third incident in just over three years

Flight delays and cancellations were expected to continue into Wednesday at UK airports after another air traffic control failure kept planes grounded for hours, affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.

At least 177 flights scheduled for Wednesday to and from UK airports had been cancelled, plane tracking site Flightradar24 said, “nearly all at London Heathrow”. More than 1,000 were cancelled by about 8pm on Tuesday.

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Sightings of Meghan at star-studded retreat fuel Cotswolds rumours

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Reports of Soho Farmhouse visit add to speculation Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be settling in the area

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex landed back in England earlier this summer, six years after they moved to California and quit as working royals, speculation was rife about where they would call home.

Now, members of the luxury countryside retreat Soho Farmhouse have said they spotted Meghan arriving for an early morning coffee, sparking speculation that the couple were settling down in the exclusive countryside enclave of north Oxfordshire. Correspondent for the Royalist Tom Sykes said the duchess was seen arriving at the Comfy Farm lounge before 9am, where she was introduced to senior staff members by name.

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Ryanair window that passenger was partly sucked out of was broken by engine debris, report finds

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Fan blade broke off shortly after takeoff on 10 July flight from Greece to Germany, preliminary findings show

Broken engine parts were responsible for shattering a window on a Ryanair plane, causing a passenger to be partly sucked out mid-flight in July, US investigators have said.

A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found an engine fan blade broke off shortly after takeoff on the 10 July flight from Greece to Germany shattering the window and damaging the fuselage.

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Iran war and high living costs fuelling last-minute holiday bookings, Tui says

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Geopolitics and cost of living crisis have cost Europe’s largest travel company €60m so far

Holidaymakers are waiting until the last minute to book their trips because of the continuing uncertainty caused by the war in Iran and the cost of living crisis, according to Tui, Europe’s largest travel company, which said the war had cost it €60m (£51m) so far.

In the weeks after the outbreak of the war at the end of February, Tui recorded a temporary drop-off in customers wanting to travel to Cyprus or Turkey, in what the company called a “volatile market”.

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Hotel prices in Europe jump before total solar eclipse

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Rooms in Icelandic capital Reykjavík cost double usual rate and Spain also enjoying strong bookings

Hotel prices have surged in key European cities as hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to see the first total eclipse visible from the continent this century.

Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, has seen one of the biggest jumps in hotel room prices, being one of the few accessible locations to see the full eclipse before evening on Wednesday.

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Burnham urged to lobby EU leaders directly to waive EES border controls

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Lib Dems call on PM to push for suspension of ‘bungled, malfunctioning’ system as overseas holiday travel peaks

Andy Burnham has been urged to lobby EU leaders directly to suspend the new entry-exit system, EES, as the peak weekend for overseas holidays begins.

About 2.2 million British holidaymakers are expected to head abroad between Friday and Monday, the majority to Europe, with all schools in the UK now on their summer break.

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Call to suspend new EU border system in peak holiday period as planes leave half full

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Airlines and airports say passengers are struggling in queues of up to five hours for biometric checks

Airlines and airports have called for the new EU biometric border check system to be suspended during the peak summer holiday period,saying some flights are leaving half full and passengers are struggling in queues of up to five hours.

In a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, airlines and airports asked for an option to suspend checks under the system over fears the situation will get much worse during the busy summer season.

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Rome airports threaten to suspend new EU passport system to avoid summer ‘disaster’

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Airports CEO says letting non-EU passengers skip entry-exit system would be only way to avoid peak season travel chaos

Rome’s airports will have to suspend the EU’s new digital border system for non-EU citizens to avoid a “disaster” during the peak tourism summer months, according to the head of the airports company.

Marco Troncone said that allowing passengers to skip the biometric entry-exit system (EES) was the only way of avoiding travel chaos over the summer amid warnings from other European airport officials.

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What’s gone wrong at Everyman and can the luxury cinema chain regain its magic?

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More competition and loss-making sites are among the challenges for the new turnaround chief executive

With its comfy sofas and a menu of gourmet treats including Béarnaise smash burgers and trendy Whispering Angel rosé wine at £47 a bottle, Everyman has thrived as the go-to chain for a luxury cinema trip.

Yet a quarter of a century after reinventing the movie-going experience, growing from a single venue in Hampstead in London to a national player with 49 sites, the arthouse chain finds itself struggling as rivals ape its successful formula.

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‘Inevitable’ jet fuel shortages will drive up air fares this summer, says Willie Walsh

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Impact of disruption from Iran war may be felt into 2027 even if strait of Hormuz reopens, says aviation body boss

Increases in air fares for travellers in Europe are “inevitable” over the peak summer period because of the high cost of jet fuel, according to the head of the international aviation body.

While some airlines faced with weak demand have reduced their European fares recently, Willie Walsh, the former British Airways boss who leads the International Air Transport Association, said there was no way carriers could absorb the extra costs in the long run.

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British crew member in need of urgent medical care amid suspected hantavirus outbreak on cruise ship

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WHO says seven confirmed or suspected cases of hantavirus on MV Hondius, including three passengers who died

A British crew member was in need of urgent medical care and a passenger from the UK remained in a critical but stable condition following a suspected outbreak of hantavirus on a luxury cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Three people have died and medics on Monday were scrambling to evacuate two others from the MV Hondius, which set off in March from southern Argentina carrying 149 people from 23 countries. The crisis emerged late on Sunday after the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was investigating a suspected outbreak.

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Biometric checks stalled again for cross-Channel travellers

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Fears of Easter chaos over scaling up of new EU border system are eased, with no facial IDs for Eurotunnel and Eurostar passengers

Passengers crossing the Channel from the UK to France will not face new biometric checks in the coming weeks, despite an imminent deadline for the complete implementation of the EU’s entry-exit system (EES), ports say.

Airlines and airports across Europe have feared chaos over the Easter holidays.

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Owners from Great Britain travelling to EU warned over pet passport ‘dodge’

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Bypassing animal health certificate system by using cheaper pet passport issued abroad could backfire, experts say

British pet owners who want to take their furry friends elsewhere in Europe have been warned not to try to dodge expensive health certificates by using a pet passport issued abroad.

Before Brexit, taking a cat, dog or ferret to the EU was relatively simple: the Pet Travel Scheme meant an animal needed a microchip, vaccination against rabies, a pet passport and, for dogs, there were also requirements concerning tapeworm treatment.

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BA owner’s profits rise by 20% despite drop in passenger numbers last year

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IAG reports record operating profits on margins of more than 15% at British Airways and sister airline Iberia

British Airways’ owner, International Airlines Group, has announced a sharp rise in annual profits to almost £4bn despite a slight fall in passenger numbers in 2025.

Pre-tax profits across IAG increased by 20% to €4.5bn (£3.9bn), with record operating profits on margins of more than 15% at BA and its sister airline Iberia.

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