Wise Traveller brings you the latest news that could be affecting your future travel planning:
Saudi tourism has unveiled ‘Where Winter Lights Up’, the second phase of its global tourism campaign This Land is Calling. It aims to attract travellers, focusing on Riyadh, Jeddah, AlUla, and the Red Sea.
An event calendar will showcase special events through early 2025. It will highlight the Saudi Red Sea, Riyadh, Jeddah and King Abdullah Economic City. Events to be highlighted include Riyadh Season, AlUla Festival and Events, Dakar Rally, Fontana Circus and MDLBEAST.
In AlUla, visitors can enjoy the Ancient Kingdoms Festival from December 8, 2024, to January 7, 2025, celebrating the rich history and cultural heritage of the region. The AlUla Wellness Festival will be held from January 18 to 20, 2025.
This year’s Riyadh Season features 14 zones across the city, each with unique attractions. Riyadh Zoo, Suwaidi Park, and Souq Al Awaleen are free to explore, while tickets are required for other zones.
United Airlines is launching an international expansion campaign with five new routes that have never been served by a US airline before.
United said it will offer new nonstop flights from its Newark/New York base to Nuuk, Greenland; Palermo, Bilbao, Madeira and Faro, Portugal. It will also offer a flight to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, departing from Tokyo/Narita.
United also plans to fly to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, from Tokyo, while its summer 2025 transatlantic schedule will be the largest in its history with more than 760 weekly flights. In addition to new flights, the Venice, Athens and Barcelona seasonal routes will have earlier start dates.
Air India has announced it will shift its Bengaluru-London flights from Gatwick to Heathrow from October 27, 2024. The move will also see an increase in weekly flight numbers from five Bengaluru flights a week to and from London Gatwick to a daily service from Heathrow.
Air India already offers flights to London Heathrow from its Delhi and Mumbai hubs. Its other London Gatwick routes to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Goa, and Kochi will continue.
Etihad Airways is set to more than double flights to ten a week from Abu Dhabi from December to Rajasthan’s pink city, Jaipur.
Arik De, Chief Revenue and Commercial Officer at Etihad, said: “We’ve seen sensational demand for this service. This expansion gives Indian travellers easy access to Abu Dhabi and Dubai.”
Jaipur flights will be operated on Airbus A320 family aircraft, offering Business and Economy cabins.
Melbourne Airport has had its busiest passenger throughput for September. Its busiest day since the Covid-19 pandemic came with 119,740 passengers passing through the terminals on Grand Final Friday (September 27).
The Grand Final between Brisbane Lions and Sydney Swans also helped deliver the busiest week at the airport since the pandemic, with 759,291 travellers between September 24-30.
Virgin Australia also reported its busiest-ever month at Melbourne Airport, with the airline carrying more passengers through its T3 hub than at any other time since it first started flying to Melbourne in 2001.
P&O Cruises has revealed its new winter 2026/27 cruise holidays, with more than 100 destinations in the offering.
The likes of Galveston, Texas and Port Vila, Vanuatu, are offered as all-new destinations, while six new ports are on the radar to visit: Agadir, Morocco; Alotau, Papua New Guinea; Kona, Hawaii; Newcastle, Australia; Port of Spain, Trinidad; and Progreso, Mexico.
P&O Cruises said cruise holidays can be booked from December 9, 2024, with several introductory offers available.
The EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is to be delayed yet again.
The new system requires all non-EU passengers to undergo extra checks such as fingerprints and facial recognition.
Ylva Johansson, Commissioner for Home Affairs, announced the delay after the meeting of EU interior ministers. Johansson said there is presently no new timeline for launching the EES.
Andy Probert is an independent journalist and PR writer. He writes about travel, aviation, new tech and business. His work has appeared on the BBC, in The Daily Telegraph, Hurriyet Daily News and other newspapers worldwide.
