Articles tagged “airlines”

The question isn't whether Airbnb will eventually add flights or not. The issue is in what manner will Airbnb do it.

Unlike Dubai, Virgin has decided to scrap rather than simply suspend its Saudi service – this suggests the challenges go beyond wartime woes. 

The travel industry's growth hit a plateau in February 2026 as the geopolitical conflict in the Middle East paralyzed global air corridors, upending the Middle East's record growth. The industry's resilience now depends on its ability to effectively redistribute global travel demand.

India is one of the fastest-growing outbound travel markets, one of the largest domestic travel ecosystems, and an underpenetrated inbound destination. The Skift India Travel Scorecard shows clear, comparable data on how India is actually performing relative to its peers.

For many planners, budgets have struggled to keep up with rising costs — and now they face potential increases of 20% or more on air travel. 

Record demand and TSA staffing shortages are pushing airport operations to the breaking point. Deploying ICE agents could help at the margins — but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem.

Between insurance hurdles and tight capacity controls, the line between “can’t fly” and “won’t fly” in this complex operating environment is becoming increasingly blurred.

In the last 24 hours, two of the three biggest Gulf carriers have eased loyalty rules. A simple case of looking after the customer or a sign that disruption may outlast current recovery timelines?

This bold approach reduces operational complexity and resets customer expectations, but also suggests that carriers see instability in the region lasting well beyond the immediate crisis window.

After Covid exposed how brittle travel's customer service infrastructure was, the industry pitched AI as the fix. Now, with the Middle East chaos, much of the tech that was supposed to help vanished from the narrative.