I visited Banff, Canada, this past July and it is easily the most impressive place I've ever been.
27.07.2023 - 18:11 / smartertravel.com / Ed Perkins
As if air travel wasn’t already a stressful and hostile experience, a whole new threat emerged in late December: drones at airports. By being flown around the Gatwick Airport, at least one drone caused London’s second-busiest airport to shut down completely on two successive days.
Although authorities searched, they say they couldn’t find who was flying the drone, and couldn’t stop it. They even called out some army units to investigate, to no avail. According to the New York Times, “more than 1,000 flights were canceled or diverted, delaying or canceling the travel of more than 140,000 passengers, including many who spent two nights at the airport.”
Related:Virgin Galactic Take Major Leap Toward Space Tourism Drones at Airports: More Questions than AnswersThis has got to be an airlines’ and airports’ nightmare. Drones these days are unregulated, cheap, and easy to fly. Any idiot might decide it would be fun to see what happens when he or she flies one over or near a busy airport. And some of the larger consumer drones could, theoretically, harm planes or carry out threats.
British officials told media that there is no reliable system that could safely and reliably locate and down a flying drone right now, and called that feat “a difficult challenge.” But I suspect that some of the world’s highest tech security teams might now have a new top-priority assignment.
This incident raises some key, unanswered questions: How will airlines cope if this problem becomes widespread, as is all too likely? Will a drone soon bring down an airliner? What will governments—presumably the FAA and its foreign equivalents—do to counter the threat? How will airlines accommodate travelers stranded by drone-based groundings? What will travel insurance cover?
For now I can offer nothing more in the way of guidance but a warning that you may have to cope with yet another delay hassle on your next air trip, if this incident isn’t an isolated one.
More from SmarterTravel: The Best Small Drones for Travel The Best Small Cameras for Travel What It’s Like to Ride in Uber’s Driverless CarsConsumer advocate Ed Perkins has been writing about travel for more than three decades. The founding editor of the Consumer Reports Travel Letter, he continues to inform travelers and fight consumer abuses every day at SmarterTravel.
We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
I visited Banff, Canada, this past July and it is easily the most impressive place I've ever been.
While summer vacations may still be underway, travelers planning for a Labor Day Weekend end of the season may want to take new data into account. The holiday weekend, which traditionally marks the end of the summer travel season, will see travelers explore popular travel hotspots both in the United States and around the world. Friday, Sept. 1 and Monday, Sept. 4 will be the busiest days for airport traffic as flyers jet to and from their destinations around the world, according to new data from Chase Travel shared with Travel + Leisure this week.
Airfare costs for domestic flights are expected to level off and even drop this month before rising again ahead of the holiday season, according to a new report.
People have been left baffled by a tweet on the recently rebranded social media platform X (formerly Twitter) suggesting that "closing out on every round" is "psycho behavior."
Much to the surprise of travelers, wild animals are making headlines for sneaking their way into suitcases, out of baggage chutes, and around airport traffic.
A photo of two children who appeared to be sitting on the railing of a cruise ship's balcony went viral, and people are calling for the operators to ban the kids' parents.
The 26-country no-border-control Schengen area is in danger of collapsing under the migration threat. Presumably, the new border controls will be for no more than two years. But for now, you have to figure on reverting to the bad old days of mind-numbing border hassles within the area.
Hilton titled the news release announcing upcoming changes to its Honors loyalty program as follows: “Hilton Honors Delivers Even More to Its Members in 2018 with Industry-Leading Earn Rates and New Benefits.”
We’re proud to announce the winners of the 2017 SmarterTravel Editors’ Choice Awards. We spent six months and enlisted eight subject experts to select our Editors’ Choice winners, and then turned it over to you, our readers.
Bad news for beachgoers in southern China this summer: Many Hong Kong-area beaches are now covered with thick blankets of garbage that are making them unusable and environmental hazards.
This month saw the launch of what many in the travel blogosphere are calling the best travel-rewards credit card ever: the Sapphire Reserve Visa card from Chase.
The Christmas travel season is upon us. While perhaps not as narrow and intense as the Thanksgiving holiday, Christmas is nevertheless an extremely busy time of year at airports across the country. In addition to an influx of travelers, late December is infamous for throwing weather curveballs that can further snarl already maxed-out airline operations.