Aviation
Save our steam engines!
Last week, if you’d known what to listen for, you might have heard a chorus of miniature whistles in gardens…
How many summers do you have left?
If the new government’s ‘pensions review’ takes forward last year’s ‘Mansion House reforms’ – credited to chancellor Jeremy Hunt but…
I’m a holidaymaker… get me out of here!
Reading about all the travel chaos, I began to regret my summer holiday plans. Wouldn’t it have been more sensible…
The case for ‘premium economy’ train carriages
A few years ago I wrote here about the unexpected symbiosis between economy passengers and business travellers on commercial flights.…
Sack Heathrow’s boss? No, put him on the front line
Airports are on my mind, since I’ve just stepped off an on-time early-morning flight from East Midlands to Bergerac –…
Why Ryanair is the best airline
Why Ryanair is Europe’s best airline
Who’s to blame for the air travel crisis?
I sincerely hope you’re not reading this on a holiday flight that’s sitting on the tarmac with no indication as…
How hard is it to see an NHS dentist?
Biergate Sir Keir Starmer was facing the scandal of ‘beergate’. Biergate is a lane in the Lincolnshire village of Grainthorpe.…
End of the line: it’s time to rethink the queue
It’s time to rethink the queue
The beauty of the Normandy memorial
As the cross-Channel ferry noses into Ouistreham, I have a perfect view westward along the D-Day beaches. The excitement of…
Could hydrogen power turn air travel green?
Have you been scanning airline websites for exotic destinations to which your double-jabbed status might allow you to slip away…
How many countries have royal yachts?
Royal waves Does any other country have a royal yacht? — The Queen of Denmark uses HDMY Dannebrog, a 260ft…
Air travel is in terminal danger
During the political car crash of 2019, I couldn’t imagine ever agreeing with Theresa May. Yet last week she exhibited…
It’s getting harder to laugh off the idea of UFOs
UFOs are no longer a joke
Will remote-working strengthen the case for HS2?
Soon after the pandemic hit, the world’s airlines turned off their pricing algorithms and resumed pricing flights manually. Everything the…
Ruthless Ryanair could show us the future of aviation
Aviation, nuclear power and public transport — along with good restaurants, golden retrievers and hand-knitted bed socks — are, as…
Could ‘clean tech’ save the aviation industry?
What advice can I offer Alok Sharma, who took a pasting in the weekend press for his lacklustre performance as…
Now get off your sofa to help save the arts
Along, cold weekend brought a haul of business news more bad than good. The worst was from aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce,…
In defence of Amazon
We should take heart from BP’s £5.1 billion second-quarter loss, accompanied by a halving of its dividend. What’s good about…
Is it too late to jump on the gold bandwagon?
The price of gold has been rising since the earliest virus reports from China in December. Adherents regard it as…
Airlines are no special case when we all need a bailout
The world needs airlines — and, barring Armageddon, will still have some when this crisis is over. It will also…
Verbal diarrhoea
In Beckett’s Happy Days a prattling Irish granny is buried waist-deep, and later neck-deep, in a refuse tip whose detritus…
MH370 isn't the only flight that's still missing
Plane vanished Some other planes, besides Flight MH370, which have disappeared without trace: — A Boeing 727 cargo plane that…
Mind your language: How the Dreamliner got its name
‘Planes don’t run off batteries,’ declared my husband, his finger unerringly on the pulse of technology as ever. I had…
