Airlines urged to cancel early and rail strike warnings

Elsewhere, Tui has warned customers of travel disruption at Gatwick next week due to the planned rail strikes, while train operators are set to tell customers to avoid using the network on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. 

Here are the travel headlines for Wednesday (15 June).

Airlines told to cancel flights to stop travel chaos
The Department for Transport and the Civil Aviation Authority have written to UK airlines telling them to ensure their summer timetables are “deliverable”, adding that cancelling flights in advance is better than axing them at the last minute. (BBC News)

AirAsiaX to add long-haul routes including London
Malaysian budget airline AirAsiaX has announced it will add new long-haul routes from Kuala Lumpur to London, Dubai and Istanbul by the end of this year, as demand for air travel rebounds. The airline stopped flying to London in 2012 due to high tax and fuel costs. It will also resume four routes to Japan and Hawaii from 1 July. (Reuters)

Don’t travel on strike days, rail firms warn
Rail companies will tell commuters not to travel by train on strike days next week (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) as the biggest train strike in 30 years looks set to cripple the entire network. (The Telegraph)

Tui shares warning for Gatwick customers

Tui has issued a holiday warning for Gatwick customers on its website saying the national train strikes could “significantly” impact passengers next week. The message read: “Only a limited amount of trains will run from Gatwick Airport to London and towards Brighton between 7am and 7pm on these days, with no service running outside of these hours.” (Daily Express)

Premier Inn and WH Smith boosted by travel recovery
Sales at WH Smith and Whitbread Plc, which owns Premier Inn, are back to pre-pandemic levels as travel resumes and Britons spend more on hotels as well as books and snacks at airports and train stations. Premier Inn hotel occupancy levels are ahead of the same period before the pandemic, and WH Smith said its performance is so strong it expects to exceed its best sales predictions by the end of the year. (Bloomberg)