Voice and Video Calls Now Allowed Mid-Flight on This Airline
Voice and Video Calls Now Allowed Mid-Flight on This Airline
Mila Supinskaya Glashchenko / Shutterstock
https://www.fodors.com/news/news/british-airways-now-allows-inflight-voice-and-video-calls-on-some-flights
British Airways passengers can now make voice and video calls onboard certain flights with new Starlink WiFi.
British Airways now allows voice and video calls on certain flights. Company aircraft equipped with Starlink WiFi, which debuted on March 19, will enable passengers on BA to make voice and video calls while aloft.
British Airways will be rolling out Starlink WiFi across the fleet over the next two years, free to all passengers, without limits on how many devices they can log on with. With the rollout, the airline let passengers know they could make voice or video calls using the WiFi, with a couple of restrictions. The airline requests that passengers availing themselves of that functionality keep their voices low and use headphones instead of allowing the audio to be heard by others in the cabin.
BA also requests that passengers use headphones whenever they’re watching video or audio content on their devices, noting that the Starlink speeds will be fast enough to allow passengers to stream content. They also request that passengers refrain from accessing “anything offensive” and to refrain from watching or downloading “inappropriate content”, noting that some sites and content will be blocked.
Starlink will eventually be available on every BA flight, but they’re focusing the first stages of the rollout on long-haul aircraft. The airline expects the service to be available across much of the globe, but says Starlink is not currently available in Russia, China, Belarus, North Korea, Northern Cyprus, and India.
Many U.S. carriers are also introducing Starlink WiFi, including United, Alaska, and Hawaiian, but those carriers do not yet allow passengers to make voice or video calls while using the service. The Federal Communications Commission prohibits the use of cellular networks onboard airliners while in US airspace (some European airlines allow passengers to make cellular calls in-flight), but it’s largely been left to airlines to decide whether they want to allow passengers to make calls over WiFi.
At one point, Congress attempted to ban calls over WiFi, but a final rule was never adopted, so the calls remain subject to individual airline policies.
Airline policies aside, the ability to make voice and video calls from the aircraft could easily strip away some of the last moments of peace from the business traveler’s world. Many business travelers have expectations to be reachable via e-mail while traveling, but imagine a world where being on a flight is no longer a good excuse for skipping a virtual meeting via video call, seeping virtually every portion of a normal workday into the travel experience for many travelers flying on business.
Airlines could also be put in an awkward position by asking flight attendants to police how passengers are using their devices in-flight. Some airlines currently publish and have their crews enforce quite cabin policies, requiring the use of headphones for content downloaded or streaming on a device, but it puts flight attendants into the role of enforcers onboard. This not only adds complexity to their jobs, but could also increase the possibility of in-flight conflict that crews might be expected to help defuse.
Many U.S. airlines—whether they’ve installed Starlink on their aircraft or not—already allow free messaging while in-flight. Carriers with other internet providers also offer WiFi available for purchase, but speeds generally don’t support streaming, video, or voice calls while in-flight. Starlink offers a significant improvement in data speeds, which allow streaming and other higher data use activities for the first time.
Cellular networks have been banned from use onboard U.S. flights since 1991. The FCC implemented the ban based on fears that the use of cell phones in-flight would adversely impact the operation of ground-based cellular systems. The FCC has banned the use of radio signals on commercial flights since the 1960s.
The Sneaky Airport Fees You’re Probably Paying Without Knowing
Eduardo Velazco/Unsplash
https://www.fodors.com/news/news/what-to-know-about-departure-taxes-around-the-world-before-you-fly
Many countries charge departure taxes, often hidden in airfare. Here’s how they work, where you may need to pay separately, and what travelers should know.
Most destinations around the world charge tourist taxes to travelers. These are often built into accommodation prices, and in some cases, you need to pay extra on arrival. Venice, on the other hand, has a tax on day-trippers that must be paid on its official website. But did you know there are also departure taxes? Before you leave a country, you may need to pay an exit fee—called different things in different places and sometimes built into airline ticket prices.
According to a 2025 report by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), passengers globally paid $60 billion in various taxes (including departure taxes) in 2024 for the use of air transport. These taxes were higher in North America than in Asia-Pacific, with Argentina charging the highest at $138 per passenger, followed by Mauritius and Mexico.
If you closely check your airline ticket, you might notice a departure fee. Passengers don’t usually realize they’re paying this tax because it is included in the ticket price, and destinations are not always forthcoming about how it is implemented. In some cases, however, you may have to pay it separately before you depart.
What’s also interesting is that each destination may have its own name for it. Australia calls it the Passenger Movement Charge (PMC) and charges AUD 70 ($50) to every person leaving the country “regardless of whether the person returns to Australia.” This fee is added to the ticket, and the carrier transfers it to the Department of Home Affairs. The U.K., on the other hand, bases it on the destination, and it can reach $336 for long-haul flights.
In 2019, Japan started charging visitors a “Sayonara Tax” on departure. All departing passengers by sea or air pay 1,000 yen ($6) per person to contribute to infrastructure. The country, which is trying to combat overtourism, is raising this to triple the amount this July, meaning travelers will pay 3,000 yen ($19). However, you don’t need to pay it separately; it is included in your ticket price.
In Bali, for example, you need to pay a mandatory IDR 150,000 ($9) fee, called the Bali Tourism Tax Levy. Although it has been in effect for two years, few travelers know about it—only 35% pay it—so they are often surprised at the airport when asked for it. It is sometimes included in the ticket, but before you leave, you should double-check. You can pay online through LoveBali and carry the QR code in case you’re asked for it to avoid delays at the airport.
St. Lucia also has a departure tax for everyone older than 12. Fliers have this included in their ticket price, but sea travelers pay $13 at the time of departure.
In Mexico, it’s called the Tarifa de Uso de Aeropuerto (TUA), which airports charge passengers for using the facilities. However, each airport is allowed to set its own tax. The state of Quintana Roo charges 283 Mexican pesos ($16), which must be paid online before departure to avoid delays at the airport, while other states include it in the ticket price.
Most destinations use these taxes to maintain tourism infrastructure, such as airports. However, they are not always transparent to travelers. IATA considers these taxes regressive and believes they do not contribute meaningfully to government budgets.
Let Bad Airlines Die (and Stop Bailing Them Out)
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https://www.fodors.com/news/news/let-bad-airlines-die-and-stop-bailing-them-out
Bailing out airlines like Spirit Airlines doesn’t protect travelers—it protects failure.
Airline shutdowns are disruptive, frustrating, and thankfully rare.
There have been a number of stories portending the end for ultra-low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines. The airline says it’s “business as usual,” but it’s also reportedly nearing a deal for a $500 million lifeline from the federal government. The bailout would give the federal government a stake in the struggling airline, which hasn’t been profitable since 2019.
A federal bailout isn’t unheard of. The government provided loan guarantees to airlines after 9/11 and during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it provided them to all airlines that chose to apply. This would be the first time the government has moved to preserve a single airline by acquiring what amounts to an ownership stake.
How Often Do Airlines Fail?
In the United States, it’s rare for a large national carrier to simply close up shop and stop flying. Aside from a few small regional airlines or charter operators, it hasn’t happened since 2008, when three airlines shuttered in the same week. That week, at the end of March into early April, saw the demise of ATA Airlines, Aloha Airlines, and the low-cost operator SkyBus.
Bankrupt airlines also called it quits in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, and during the recession that followed the Gulf War. In 1991, travelers saw the demise of both Eastern Airlines and Pan American World Airways—two storied names dating back to the earliest days of commercial aviation in the United States.
Failing and shutting down in bankruptcy, however, is certainly more of the exception than the rule. Other storied airline names that no longer exist include America West Airlines, Western Airlines, National Airlines, US Airways, Northwest Airlines, Trans World Airlines, Continental Airlines, Pacific Southwest Airlines, Air Cal, Piedmont, Republic, and numerous others. Those airlines all merged into other airlines that still exist today.
The Government’s Proposal for Spirit Airlines
The Trump administration has looked at bailout options that could give the federal government a higher priority claim on many of the airline’s assets than that of many existing creditors, and could give the government—and by extension the taxpayers—ownership of the airline as it emerges from bankruptcy.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai said Spirit “would be on a much firmer financial footing had the Biden administration not recklessly blocked the airline’s merger with JetBlue.” The proposed merger was blocked in 2024 by a federal judge who agreed with the Department of Justice’s case that the merger would be anti-competitive, resulting in higher fares and less choice for consumers. Within months, Spirit filed for bankruptcy, which it emerged from in early 2025, filing for another bankruptcy just months later. Spirit’s woes, however, can hardly be pinned on the Biden administration—it hasn’t been profitable since 2019 while many other airlines have returned to profitability following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Effect of Airline Shutdowns Compared to Mergers
If airline shutdowns are a decapitation, mergers can often be death by a thousand cuts. A shutdown puts thousands of employees immediately out of work and strands passengers holding confirmed reservations, but the industry has a tendency to absorb the shock.
When ATA Airlines ceased operations in 2008, the airline largely operated in markets with a lot of capacity, and other airlines were largely able to take on stranded passengers in the leisure markets where it was popular. Many of the airline’s large Boeing 757-300 aircraft are still flying today on similar routes, operated by United or Delta. In the aftermath of the shutdown, Alaska Airlines grew its footprint in Hawai‘i to provide seats for the remaining passenger demand.
Mergers can be similarly disruptive. American Airlines famously added unionized employees from Trans World Airlines to the bottom of their own seniority lists when the two airlines merged in April 2001. After 9/11, American furloughed the entire TWA workforce from the bottom of the seniority lists and shut down the St. Louis hub it had acquired, effectively producing the same result as if TWA had simply shuttered.
In response, Missouri’s senators authored an amendment to an FAA reauthorization bill in 2007 which required airlines to more equitably merge seniority lists in future mergers. For the furloughed former TWA employees, the last of them weren’t called back to their jobs at American until 11 years later.
Airline shutdowns can also put assets on the open market, allowing airlines to pick them up in more manageable packages, allowing them to acquire the things they find value in, without the added baggage of the things that they don’t, which often come in a merger. Airport facilities and landing slots at restricted airports were attractive assets at both Virgin America and AirTran Airways.
Both airlines were ultimately acquired by airlines with incompatible fleets (Alaska Airlines flew Virgin America’s Airbus fleet for only a few years before disposing of it, Southwest immediately leased AirTran’s Boeing 717 fleet to Delta Air Lines without ever flying the aircraft on their own network). Had those airlines failed instead of merging, their assets would likely have been snapped up more equitably.
The aircraft fleets that were parked by airlines such as Eastern, Pan Am, and Braniff shutting down also drove down pricing on the used aircraft and lease markets. Employees of shut down airlines also have a tendency to start new airlines. Sun Country Airlines, Frontier Airlines, America West Airlines, Kiwi International, and ValuJet (which later merged with AirTran Airways) were all formed employee groups from airlines that had shut down.
A good amount of qualified airline workers on the job market, a ready supply of cheap aircraft to buy or lease, and airports suddenly looking for new tenants ultimately made starting new airlines on shoestring budgets even easier. As soon as the competition was eliminated, market forces ushered in new competitors to keep the entrenched carriers on their toes, fighting to attract consumers by innovating on product and pricing competitively.
In 2000, the four largest U.S. airlines—then United, American, Delta, and Northwest—carried just over 60% of U.S. domestic airline traffic. Today, the four largest U.S. airlines—now United, American, Delta, and Southwest—approach an 80% share of the domestic travel market.
The airline industry was heavily regulated until 1978, with fares, schedules, and service fixed by the government. The rationale for regulation had long been that with aviation as a nascent industry, the government needed to protect it by ensuring that uncontrolled competition didn’t ultimately make the market unsustainable for all carriers. By 1978, the government’s perspective had changed, reasoning that controlling the markets had kept fares high and service limited.
The airline industry as a whole is nearly three times as large as it was when it was first deregulated. Domestic real airfares, adjusted for inflation, have dropped between 40% and 50%. Deregulation transformed flying from an activity only a handful of Americans had done in the 1970s to one few Americans haven’t done by 2026.
The Airline Deregulation Act was signed into law because a Democratic-majority House and Democratic-majority Senate believed, along with a Democratic president, that the best determiner of success in the U.S. airline industry was the free market. In spite of the macroeconomic forces, if an airline in a deregulated marketplace fails to turn a profit for seven years it’s not because of any government decision to intervene or not intervene—it’s because the airline’s management has misjudged the marketplace and managed their business less effectively than their profitable competitors.
The ultra-low cost carrier model was once flying high, returning enviable profits. But other airlines adapted and learned to effectively tailor their products to siphon consumers away from airlines following that model, and it’s their failure to effectively adapt that has borne their current predicament.
A failed carrier doesn’t need government intervention in response. The government already decided what should happen in that case decades ago.
Tourist Spends Hours in Excrement After Toilet Collapses
Gabor Monori/Unsplash
https://www.fodors.com/news/photos/tourist-spends-hours-in-excrement-after-toilet-collapses
And other travel news you may have missed.
This week in travel, we have several stories that may have flown under your radar. Among them: A tourist visiting the Australian outback spent hours in waist-deep excrement after a long-drop toilet collapsed; Finnish air cadets got into trouble for drawing penis shapes in their flight pattern; a tourist drew criticism for pouring milk on her head at a 7-Eleven in Thailand; and a woman damaged a 16th-century fountain in Florence for a pre-wedding prank.
Dive into these and more as we examine the latest in travel news.
1 OF 5
Tourist Falls Through Toilet in Australian Outback
A woman traveling in the Northern Territory in Australia with her partner and children was stuck in a waste for hours after a long-drop toilet collapsed. A long-drop toilet is a non-flush toilet with a deep pit, usually found in remote areas.
The family from Canberra was at the Henbury Meteorite Center when the woman went to use the toilet and became trapped for three hours. According to the initial investigation, the toilet fell into the sewage pit, taking her down with it. Her partner drove to find cell reception and asked a passing tradesman for help. The tradesman lowered a rope for her to stand on and used the car to pull her up. The rescue took about 45 minutes, and she was taken to the hospital. The tourist was unhurt but shaken by the incident.
2 OF 5
Finnish Air Cadets Draw Penis Flight Patterns During Training
Finnish Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets landed in trouble after deviating from their flight path and drawing penis shapes in the sky. They were conducting training exercises at 7:30 a.m. on April 13 when at least four planes created the genitalia patterns, drawing ire from senior officials. Military authorities said an investigation is underway after screenshots from the publicly accessible flight tracking website FlightRadar went viral on social media.
3 OF 5
Tourist Damages Historic Fountain in Italy for Pre-Wedding Dare
A tourist attempted to climb a 16th-century marble statue in Florence, causing thousands of euros in damage. The 28-year-old, whose identity has not been disclosed, climbed the Neptune Fountain to touch its genitals as part of a pre-wedding prank. She was removed by police and charged, but not before she caused “minor but significant damage to both the legs of the horses she had walked on and to the frieze she held on to in order to avoid slipping,” the city council said. The damages totaled €5,000 ($5,870), and she later told police her friends had dared her to do it.
4 OF 5
Tourist Pours Milk on Herself at 7-Eleven in Thailand
A foreign tourist is facing online backlash after posting a video of herself pouring milk and snacks on her head at a 7-Eleven in Thailand. In the video, which has since been deleted, she is seen opening boxes of snacks and making a mess both on herself and in the convenience store. She did the same with two bottles of milk. Netizens are criticizing her behavior and wondering if she cleaned up after herself after performing the stunt for clicks.
PHOTO: United Airlines
5 OF 5
United Criticizes American for Not Engaging in Merger Talks
For the past two weeks, the two biggest airlines in the U.S. have made headlines after rumors of a possible merger surfaced. American Airlines said in a statement that it is not engaging with United regarding this. Now, United CEO Scott Kirby has criticized American Airlines for closing that door.
“I was hoping to pitch that story to American, but they declined to engage and instead responded by publicly closing the door,” Kirby said. He was the president of the rival airline and joined United in 2016.
A potential merger would have faced scrutiny from regulators and, if successful, would have likely raised prices for consumers, experts warned. However, Kirby hoped that a mega merger would have closed the gap with international airlines.
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