Airlines cut 13,000 flights globally in May as jet fuel prices soared due to the conflict in the Middle East. These “spiralling” fuel costs could “spell the end of budget flights”, said travel editor Cathy Adams in The Times. Have we seen “the last of the £9.99 flight to Spain”?

Why are prices up?
Airfares have risen 24% year on year, according to the consultancy group Teneo. The price of jet fuel, usually the second-largest element of airlines’ costs after crew, has risen about 101% year on year.

These hikes are passed on to travellers. Prices on some routes, such as London to Hong Kong and Singapore, have tripled since the start of 2026. Carriers including Air France-KLM, Virgin Atlantic and Emirates are all adding fuel surcharges. Other airlines are warning of price rises once their current hedge arrangement – which allows them to buy fuel at a fixed price – expires.

Are higher prices here to stay?
For the time being. Even once the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, it will take a “minimum of three months for lower fuel costs to work their way through the supply chain”, Bryan Terry, managing director at Alton Aviation Consultancy, told Adams.

“Even then, airlines will try to hold higher fares in place as long as they can to recoup the costs and losses they’ve absorbed since the conflict began.” Passengers should “start thinking of elevated airfares as the new normal for the foreseeable future”.

Aircraft manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus are also struggling with production delays and engine shortages, which means fewer available seats. Major carriers have signed “historic contracts” with pilot unions and ground crews over the past two years; some of the cost of wage increases is passed on to passengers. EU climate laws also mean prices will be 13 to 14 times higher in 2030 than in 2019, claimed Airlines for Europe.

How can I find cheaper flights?
In the “near term”, there are “bargains to be had” as airlines “battle to fill their planes” for a summer season during which travellers are “nervous to commit”, said Adams. The “very thin silver lining” is that as airfares go up, the cost of extras such as baggage “typically goes down”. But “book sooner rather than later”.

The experience of visiting Antarctica is “unique and not replicable anywhere else on the planet”, Claire Christian, from the environmental group Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, told The Associated Press. It makes “a huge impression on people”.

But the deadly outbreak of hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship has highlighted the perils of tourism in Antarctica. Three decades ago, only 8,000 people a year set foot on the icy continent. Last year, that had risen to 80,000, with another 36,000 seeing it from ships docked in the bays. This “unchecked tourism growth” risks “undermining the very environment that draws visitors”, said two academics from the University of Tasmania on The Conversation.

Irreversible melting
When the first tourists set foot on Antarctica in January 1966, their mission was to “inspire people to become stewards for the planet, by exposing them to one of its most awe-inspiring places”, said The Independent. But some think the trip, with 57 guests, was a “mistake”.

Now, “tourism to the bottom of the world is soaring”, said AP, partly driven by fears that the frozen landscapes may be “irreversibly melting away because of climate change”. Between 2002 and 2020, nearly 150 billion tonnes of ice disappeared each year, according to Nasa.

Visitor numbers are “still small”, but they’re “growing so fast that scientists and environmentalists are sounding alarms”. The University of Tasmania academics estimated that the number could triple or quadruple by 2033.

‘Loved to death’
Experts warn that more visitors will increase the risk of contamination and damage to the continent. Tourists threaten ecosystems by compacting soils, squashing fragile vegetation and introducing non-native microbes and plant species. They can also disturb breeding colonies of birds and seals.

The answer to Antarctica avoiding being “loved to death” may “lie in economics”, said AP. Some suggest a rule requiring visitors to pay a tourism tax, or a “cap-and-trade system” to limit the number of visitor permits for a fixed period.

Visitors are currently told to avoid touching the ground with anything but their feet. Some crews and passengers use vacuums, disinfectants and brushes to keep shoes and equipment free of bugs, seeds and microbe-carrying dirt.

Costumed locals join in the Hal-an-Tow pageant to celebrate Flora Day in the Cornish town of Helston. The annual festival marks the arrival of spring and is one of the UK’s oldest surviving customs, dating back to medieval times.

Jory Mundy / Getty Images

London: Lothbury, City of London EC2
A flat in this spectacular Grade II* Venetian gothic revival former bank, designed by George Somers Clarke in the 1860s. Located opposite the Bank of England, it features the original wooden panelling in the living room. 1 bed, family bath, kitchen, recep. £835,000; Frank Harris

Isle of Wight: Golden Hill Fort, Freshwater
An impressive terraced house set within a distinctive hexagonal Grade I former Victorian fortress. 3 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/dining room, recep, roof garden, parking. £275,000; Spence Willard

Gwynedd: Bryn Canaid, Uwchmynydd
A charming longhouse, with a crogloft, beautifully renovated and extended. Located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty close to Mynydd Mawr. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen/dining room, recep, garden, parking. £475,000; Inigo

Suffolk: Wiston Mill, Nayland
A fine converted 18th-19th-century water mill on the River Stour, with many original workings still present. 6 beds, 3 baths, kitchen, 4 receps, 2-bed cottage, outbuildings, garden, parking; 24 acres. £1.95m; David Burr

How to Feel About Hantavirus
Caitlin Rivers in The New York Times
Despite “unsettling parallels to the early days of Covid-19”, the risks from the hantavirus outbreak “are quite different”, writes epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers. Person-to-person transmission of this virus requires “sustained exposure”, so an epidemic is “unlikely”. But “viruses are wily”, and an infection “in someone with no obvious connection to the MV Hondius” cruise ship would be “concerning”. Viral evolution and a new strain would be “another wild card”. These “scenarios” are “remote”, but “the public should expect clear communication” and “transparency”.

Reversing Brexit is the next big political fight
Hugo Gye in The i Paper
“Britain’s politicians have long been scared of Brexit”, even though public support for rejoining the EU is high, writes Hugo Gye. “For Labour to go into the next election with a strident pro-EU position would neatly highlight the contrast” between it and Reform UK. But the “EU of 2016 is gone” and “negotiations to re-enter would be prolonged and potentially bitter”. For Keir Starmer to “embrace a full reversal of Brexit” could look “dangerously retrograde”.

Drill baby brill: Why the UK must develop its North Sea oil fields
Brandon Lewis in City A.M.
“Moments of crisis have a clarifying power”, writes Brandon Lewis, and the war in Iran has exposed Britain’s “fundamental vulnerability” around energy. This country is “far too dependent on a volatile international market”. The “pragmatic and obvious solution” is the North Sea, which “holds proven reserves of billions of barrels of oil and gas, just waiting to be extracted”. The government prefers “green solutions” for “our energy future”, but “the two do not have to be mutually exclusive”.