Strange Skies

David J. Danto

Travel thoughts in my own, personal opinion

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Strange Skies - June 2025

Generated image I’ve spent more than four decades fighting for arm-rests and free pretzels, so it takes a lot to faze me. Yet the past few months have delivered a particularly strange flavor of weird – the sort of travel limbo that makes you wonder if the aviation gods swapped our regular timeline for an absurdist sitcom rerun. Buckle up as I list some examples of the cloud of weirdness that seems to be covering us lately.

First, the big picture: people – both tourists and business travelers – simply aren’t flocking to the United States the way they used to. (Remember that “elections have consequences” thingy smart people warned about. Here’s one of them.) The U.S. Travel Association projects international arrivals will drop 8.7 percent for 2025 – a nasty hit to airlines and leisure destinations that count on tourists filling the wide-bodies. Domestically, TSA’s checkpoint tallies tell the same gloomy story: late-June screenings averaged about 2.70 million passengers a day – roughly 2 percent lower than the same week last year. (The most amazing thing about that is how airports and airplanes still feel full. It’s like a clown car – with all the people supposedly leaving the system, it should be empty by now, but the clowns – in this case, the passengers – still seem to pack the gate area shoulder-to-shoulder.)

That downturn has now collided head-on with the Israel–Iran conflict, which left travelers scattered like marbles on a tile floor. Major carriers from Emirates to Lufthansa scrubbed flights, while Israeli flag-carrier El Al laid on emergency “rescue” rotations to scoop up tens of thousands of stranded passengers. Imagine packing for a three-day business trip and discovering you’ve been involuntarily upgraded to a ten-day exile, courtesy of geopolitics. That happened to a number of people returning from the last conference I attended.

Speaking of that conference, the event was also mostly devoid of Canadian attendees – who used to make up about twenty percent. Imagine being so crass that you get a Canadian fed-up enough to avoid a critical industry event. (Actually, sadly, you don’t have to imagine it. It’s that elections-consequences thingy here again.)

Back home in the US, we’ve got a high-school clique drama forming among the airlines. United – having stupidly abandoned its precious JFK slots years ago – is trying to sneak back by borrowing up to seven daily pairs from JetBlue in a bespoke “Blue Sky” partnership. Star Alliance-mates are surely wondering why JetBlue isn’t being offered the formal varsity jacket instead of this secret handshake. Spirit, predictably, is filing complaints faster than you can say “Bethune’s Cheap Pizza.” And let’s be clear that this is no longer the JetBlue that had superb service and extra room. They long ago decided it was easier to operate with the same level of suck as everyone else. Of course, they’re not making money doing that, but no US airline in my lifetime has ever understood the concept of both excellence in coach and loyalty actually helping their bottom line.

Meanwhile, Southwest apparently decided its long-boasted “bags fly free” perk was somehow now passé. The Dallas darling now charges $35 for bag #1 and $45 for bag #2, unless you’re one of the chosen loyalty tribes. Apparently, as with JetBlue, when every domestic carrier is racing to the bottom, it’s easier just to remove the differentiators and call it “customer choice.”

On the ground, Las Vegas resorts have sensed traveler fatigue and are experimenting with kindness – or at least the house brand illusion of it. Resorts World surprised the Strip by suspending both parking fees and resort fees for the summer. Some other properties have followed, but the bigger casino titans haven’t blinked yet. Still, it’s a crack in the fee dam worth watching.

Then there’s Newark, as I covered last week. The second runway finally reopened nearly two weeks ahead of schedule, yet the FAA still caps flights because the tower doesn’t have enough controllers to play aviation Jenga safely. Delays remain the house special, proving that concrete cures faster than bureaucratic hiring – and certainly so in the current political climate.

So where does all this turbulence leave us? Fewer tourists, pricier bags, pop-up alliances, stranded travelers, surprise freebies, and an airport that fixes asphalt faster than staffing. In short: weirdness has gone platinum. My advice is simple – pack patience, pack snacks, and maybe pack an extra day or two at the beginning and/or end of your itinerary to make sure you get where you intend to be on time – because I don’t see the weirdness cloud we’re all stuck in dissipating anytime soon.

My wife always asks me why we leave so early for an appointment or a flight. My answer is simple: plan travel based on the worst experience you’ve ever had, not the best or the average one. If you show up early, so what – but if you’re hit by a cloud of weird, then you’ve at least got a fighting chance to recover.

This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions.

All image and links provided above as reference under prevailing fair use statutes.

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