Wildfires force airport to close at popular holiday spot
wildfires are currently raging in İzmir, a coastal city in Turkey, causing significant disruption.
Adnan Menderes airport in İzmir was temporarily closed on Sunday, June 29, leading to numerous flight cancellations and diversions.
While flights are gradually resuming, severe delays persist, with some flights delayed by over 20 hours and others cancelled.
Mayor Dr. Cemil Tugay urged residents to be extremely careful, noting that strong winds exacerbated the fires and human negligence is often the cause.
The fires in Turkey occur as Europe faces its first major summer heatwave, with other countries like Greece and France also experiencing high fire risks.
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Telegraph
35 minutes ago
- Telegraph
The world's least-visited countries – and why you should give them a chance
Many of the world's best-loved holiday spots are overcrowded – and their inhabitants have had enough. Last month, thousands of them took to the streets across Europe to protest against overtourism in a coordinated, Continent-wide effort. Further afield, some of the busiest spots have upped tourist taxes or limited visitor numbers in an attempt to stem the tide of tourists. There are, however, plenty of places in the world that remain mysteriously under-visited. And with unique endemic wildlife, fantastic local vintages or untrammelled mountains, they make for excellent holidays too. Below, we highlight six of the planet's least-trodden countries and hear from the experts about why they're worth travelling to. Moldova Widely said to be Europe's least visited country (just 67,000 foreigners visited through travel agencies in 2024, and that was a 55 per cent increase on 2023), Moldova mixes breakaway republics, empty countryside and Byzantine-era monuments with relics of its recent Communist past – all seemingly frozen in time. 'The fact that you can visit Transdniestr – a throwback to the Soviet Union – gives it a quirky feel that you won't find in countries on the well-trodden tourist trail,' says Jim O'Brien, director of the tour operator Native Eye. 'Add to this, miles and miles of underground wine cellars, ancient monasteries, and a diverse culture that includes both the Gagauz people and Romani communities, and the destination packs quite a punch for such a small place.' The lake-dotted, monument-littered capital Chișinău is said to be the greenest on the continent, near enough to the ancient cave monasteries of Old Orhei for a day trip. Beyond that, 'you'll be well away from the crowds of other parts of Europe, so you not only get to see a traditional part of the continent where customs have survived more than elsewhere, but it feels a little less contrived or staged for tourism,' says O'Brien. 'Get into the villages and you'll discover traditional hospitality, a wealth of homemade food and homemade wines and spirits – which definitely help in breaking down any cultural or language barriers.' How to do it Native Eye's week-long Moldova Explorer trip costs from £1,075pp, including excursions and accommodation but excluding international flights (01473 351565). Sao Tome and Príncipe Only around 12,000 visitors per year make it to this island nation off Africa's west coast, but many who do fall madly in love. 'It's one of the most unique, untouched destinations I've visited – organised tourism is still in its early stages, so it's a bit rough around the edges, but that's what makes it special,' says Marta Marinelli, a Senior Trip Designer at Much Better Adventures. 'When I first saw the two forest-covered islands rising from the Atlantic, it felt like landing in a real-life Garden of Eden, or Jurassic Park. There's a raw, off-the-radar charm – empty pristine beaches, rainforest hikes and authentic cultural encounters.' Though the islands are safe and welcoming, a lack of infrastructure means that independent trips can be hard. But join an organised tour and you can trek through the 30 per cent of the country that's been designated national parkland (the entire island of Príncipe is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve) searching out waterfalls, the toothy peak of Pico Cão Grande and the endemic species that have earned the nation the nickname ' the Galapagos of Africa '. Beyond that, there are cafes and plantations (where visitors can learn about the slave trade and the islands' haunting past) to explore, as well as Rolas Island with its sea turtles and Bounty-ad beaches: Marinelli cites Praia Cafė as her favourite. How to do it Much Better Adventures's 10-night Journey to the Equator in Sao Tome and Príncipe trip costs from £1,642pp including meals and excursions, but excluding international flights (020 3966 7597). Kiribati Hardly anybody goes to the island nation of Kiribati. The Pacific atoll gets less than 5,000 visitors per year, compared with the million-or-so who head to Fiji (from where it's a three-hour plane ride). It makes it the world's least visited nation, and it really is Crusoe country. There are no five-star resorts with WiFi connections or high-octane watersports on its 33 islands, just the chance to flit between them by prop plane, stay in waterside beach huts on deserted stretches of sand, or snorkel through coral reef busy with neon fish. On the atoll of Tarawa, there are the skeletons of long-lost planes too, relics of a fierce Second World War battle between the Japanese and Americans. Residents are 'really welcoming' to visitors, says Rhia Steele, Product and Sales Manager at the operator Undiscovered Destinations. 'On North Tarawa I stayed in an eco-lodge in an over-water buia (traditional hut). It was very basic, very simple and had shared facilities. Because everyone is trusting of each other, there are no locks or real doors on the buias and you walk to the edge of the island through the plantations, seeing the island's simple schools and shops along the way. For me it was a great experience – no internet and cut off from the outside world.' Soon though, these low-lying islands and their barely-seen attractions may be just a figment of the past: rising sea levels have brought regular floods and a gradual sinking that could make them uninhabitable by 2050. Staying around the atoll brings valuable money to help towards solutions for the future. The only problem is getting there. The islands are so remote that they're usually included as part of a tour of the wider area from the UK, which can mean a big outlay in terms of both time and money. How to do it Undiscovered Destinations has a 26-night Pacific Explorer trip that connects eight Pacific nations including Kiribati and costs from £19,355pp, including activities, local transport and some meals but excluding international flights (0191 296 2674). Guyana Costa Rica has become known as the wildlife capital of Central and South America and, after a brief hiatus post-pandemic, the most popular of its resorts are over-saturated once more. For its residents, there are definite minuses: locals are struggling to afford housing and there are strains on water and electricity supplies. Meanwhile, other parts of the region see barely any visitors. In 2024, only around 350,000 made it to Guyana, which has its own rare wildlife, hidden in untrodden jungle. Reef and Rainforest Tours has been visiting the country for more than 20 years. 'With its vast tracts of untouched rainforest, captivating wildlife and culture, and the one-of-a-kind Kaieteur Falls, a trip through Guyana leaves a lasting impression,' says the company's director Alan Godwin. 'It's a true adventure, featuring remote jungle lodges, exotic wildlife, and welcoming Amerindian communities who continue to live in harmony with nature in the country's wild interior.' Expect to see caiman, tree boas and squirrel monkeys, and look out for giant otters and anteaters too. How to do it Reef and Rainforest's The Highlights of Guyana trip costs from £5,470pp for 12 nights, including meals and activities but excluding international flights (01803 866965). Liechtenstein A tiny dot on the map between Switzerland and Austria, it's easy to see why this miniscule principality gets overlooked. As the second least visited country in Europe, it receives less than 120,000 visitors per year and that's a shame, because there's enough here to fill at least a week. 'It offers visitors an incredible range of cultural, natural and culinary highlights packed into just 160 square kilometres,' says Claudia Agnolazza of Liechtenstein Marketing. Top of the list of things to do are Liechtenstein's 400km of hiking trails, which weave up and down empty mountains. Among them is a lesser-known (but more taxing) 'Route 66', which stretches for 50km and can be completed in three days with stops in mountain huts – it takes in the highest point in the country, views over empty valleys towards Austria and Switzerland on the Fürstensteig trail and, finally, shady forests and sleepy villages on its descent. The capital Vaduz is gorgeous too – pint-sized with a cathedral, the Prince's castle and museums set against a snow-tipped mountain backdrop. Agnolazza recommends visits to two prince-related endeavours: the Princely Cinema and the Princely Winery. Though Liechtenstein can be pricey (this is one of the world's richest countries after all), an all-inclusive Adventure Pass means free transport and access to 20 attractions for 35CHF (£32) for three days. How to do it Stay between the vines of Vaduz at the Hotel-Gasthof Löwen, where doubles cost from £293, B&B (00 423 238 11 44). Timor Leste In densely visited destinations, seeking out truly local experiences can be difficult. That's certainly not the case in Timor Leste, a country that gained independence in 2002 but shares an island with Indonesia. Its half comes with a lively capital, treks up Mount Ramelau, some of the planet's most beautiful beaches, and the chance to snorkel the world's most biodiverse coral reefs, home to whale sharks, manta rays and around 1,200 species of fish. 'It holds incredible promise as a sustainable and culturally rich destination,' says Ravindra Singh Shekhawat, who is Intrepid Travel's General Manager for Indonesia. Timor Leste is also a place where homestays are taking off, meaning the chance to spend time with islanders in an authentic way. 'It's a great way to immerse yourself in the culture, eat delicious homemade meals and learn about the local way of life,' he adds. How to do it Intrepid's eight-night Timor Leste Expedition costs from £1,819pp, including meals and activities but excluding international flights (0330 808 7337).
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
The new AI tools BA is using to cut delays and cancellations
It's a hot June lunchtime at remote stand 572 at Heathrow Terminal 5, and I'm waiting on the tarmac for British Airways flight 343 to arrive from Nice. I'm here to see a 'turn', as it's known in aviation jargon; in layman's terms it's a turnaround, the process that deals with an arriving aircraft, unloading it and getting it ready to go back out again. It's 1.30pm, and the Airbus A320neo is late. It was due to arrive at 1.10pm, but despite the flight information having flashed up on a digital information board, it has disappeared again. After a quick look at Flightradar24, a plane tracking site, I realise the aircraft has performed a go-around — an aborted landing, perfectly normal — to avoid coming too close to another plane on the runway. At 1.48pm, it inches onto the stand and turns off its engines. So far, so ordinary. BA343 is just one of about 650 planes that land at Europe's busiest airport each day. But the cool thing here is that it's the first time a BA turnaround has been performed using only zero-emission equipment: buses that run on vegetable oil; baggage tugs, which look like little golf buggies, running on lithium batteries; and electric-powered steps to get passengers off. It might not sound like much, and if you're disembarking chances are you won't even notice. But the goal of this new hardware is to make the whole process more efficient and reduce delays for passengers. It's part of a wider multibillion-pound transformation of the airline. • Most airlines ignore economy — but these are the ones doing it well This summer is predicted to be exceptionally busy, according to figures from the aviation data agency Cirium, with a record number of passengers forecast to go on holiday. Almost 52 million of us will travel between June 1 and August 31, up from 51 million last summer. There is also some nervousness about air-traffic control delays due to hot weather or strikes. Eurocontrol, which runs European air traffic control, said in April that in the first four months of the year European air traffic was up by 5 per cent compared with the same period in 2024, with delays also up by the same amount. Add to that a pile-on over British Airways' revamped loyalty scheme, the Club, and you can see why the flag carrier might be nervous. Last year BA announced a £7 billion transformation programme, with money funnelled into new cabins in state-of-the-art aircraft such as the Airbus A320neo and sustainable initiatives, such as the carbon-neutral hardware out on the airfield. The airline has also invested £100m in 'gamechanging' and 'integral' AI forecasting tools — essentially what the BA boss Sean Doyle calls 'devising a better way of working on the ground at Heathrow' — which, when put into practice, will ultimately mean fewer delays and cancellations for passengers. The results so far are promising: in the first three months of 2025, 86 per cent of BA flights left on time from London Heathrow, the highest on record; in 2008 it was 46 per cent. I went to Heathrow to find out more and see how BA is using machine learning to improve the passenger experience. I'm getting an exclusive look at the airport's revamped Air Operations Control Centre (AOCC), the eyes and ears of BA's operation at Heathrow; as well BA's Integrated Operations Control (IOC) at its Waterside headquarters, to the northwest of the airport. One of the new tools at the AOCC is Mission Control, a giant interface beamed onto a giant screen in the control centre. It shows real-time tracking of each BA plane on the ground at Heathrow (blue shows arriving aircraft, flashing yellow shows planes about to depart) and how many connecting passengers are on board. I can see flight BA453 arrive from Ibiza and BA115 depart to New York. A screen tracking New York JFK has been configured too. London-New York is the busiest international route in the world; after the British capital it's BA's largest international destination. Mission Control is also a big part of BA's IOC at its Waterside headquarters, where staff monitor up to 900 daily BA flights across the network. The real-time data from the interface ensures that staff can track the aircraft and make on-the-go decisions about where aircraft need to go. I sit down with Ben Lang, who looks after BA's schedule, planning where to use its more than 280 jets. He showed me the Pathfinder planning tool, which uses thousands of pieces of historical data to make the flight plans, pulling in information about delays, air-traffic control restrictions and aircraft capacity. For example, Lang explains, if flights from Paris are always delayed by ten minutes, Pathfinder will allocate an extra ten minutes to the turnaround process; and if there's a big sporting event happening, bigger jets will be deployed to cope with demand. I also get a look at Runway, another AI forecasting tool that kicks in when disruptive events such as storms, strikes and — particularly relevant at the moment — blocked airspaces threaten to throw passengers off course. Using masses of data, it can allocate the most efficient aircraft for a particular flight, making what it calls a 'swap'. For example, during Storm Eowyn in January, Runway swapped out smaller aircraft that would typically fly to Glasgow and Edinburgh for larger planes to stop passengers getting stranded in Scotland. At the top of Lang's screen, it says the tool has improved the number of on-time flights by 1.1 per cent over the past five days by making 233 of these swaps. • Heathrow is not fit for purpose — will the third runway help? Elsewhere in the IOC there's AI-powered Flight Watch, which shows flight routes, closed sections of airspace and particularly nasty bouts of turbulence as well as other weather events; it can also communicate directly with air-traffic control towers, which helps teams to reroute flights through less-delayed airspace. More than 3,500 minutes of flight time were recently saved in one day, Richard Treeves, head of the IOC, told me. A new AI crew app launched earlier this month, automating the manual task of rostering the right staff onto the right aircraft. Everything is designed to make the operation run more smoothly and crucially reduce delays and cancellations for passengers. 'We're now entering one of our busiest periods of the year and will be flying millions of customers around the world throughout July and August,' René de Groot, BA's chief operating officer, says. 'The new technology we've introduced has been a real gamechanger, allowing us to make more informed decisions based on vast amounts of data. We have even more in the pipeline — including new apps for our operational colleagues — and we're in a much better place to deliver a smooth travel experience this summer and beyond.' Back on the tarmac, I can see for myself how Mission Control has alerted flight teams, showing them that it was better to change the aircraft to quash the potential delay. The late arrival of BA343 means it's too late to be turned around for its planned 2pm departure to Milan. It's instead bound for Amsterdam, now departing at 2.30pm — not even 45 minutes after it arrived. I watch as bags are loaded and passengers arrive to board. No one will notice the work that went on behind the scenes — but that's the point; the important thing is that everyone gets from A to B on time. Do you think the changes will make a difference this summer? Let us know in the comments below
Finextra
4 hours ago
- Finextra
Yonder launches debit cards
British credit card rewards startup Yonder has launched its first premium debit cards. 0 The new Mastercard debit cards offer the same perks as Yonder's credit card: points earning, zero foreign exchange fees, curated local rewards and travel-friendly benefits. The Yonder Free Debit earns one point per £1 spent with no monthly fee. The Yonder Full Debit earns four points per £1 spent, gets full access to all Yonder Experiences travel insurance worth £275 for £15 a month or £160 a year. Founded by three Clearscore alumni and launched in 2022 with £20 million in startup funding, Yonder aims to tackle the problems expats with no credit history face when applying for a credit card in the UK. The firm uses open banking data to build a more nuanced, personalised picture of its customers' spending habits and suitability for credit and offers a suite of rewards-based offers to cardholders. The firm says its members have spent more than £170 million, saving over £1.2 million in FX fees & redeeming £1.1 million in rewards. Earlier this year, it secured a minority investment from NatWest, with the high street giant planning to collaborate with Yonder to bring their insights and approaches to customer experience, engagement, and reward to its 19 million-strong customer base.
