Forward booking have been seeing an uptick for the last 3-4 weeks and at pretty decent levels with projections looking at possible record numbers to the point airlines are loading more flights/routes into the system.
What do you put it down to?
Our dollar has seen an uplift and with the Canadians and Mexicans steering clear the internal airfares, accomodation, hire cars etc have all dropped in price significantly. The US has possibly became more affordable for some.
Maybe some confidence is starting to come back amongst travellers too
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In his pre ANOUNCE on pharmaceuticals, Trump foreshadowed that his emergency action would bring down prescription and over the counter drug prices for the American consumer.
However, the ANNOUNCE appears to be limited to prescription items.
Heâs going to bring down prices by combatting those dastardly countries negotiating cheap prices with the benefit of US government subsidies for the Pharma industry, then selling their pharmaceutical products to the US consumer at high prices.
He would also do something about cutting out the middleman in supply to US consumers.
The proposal involves benchmarking prices against comparable developed countries , taking anti trust or other trade remedy against their products in the US market ( with exclusions/waivers on a case by case basis)
( Cough, no mention that US subsidies for pre -competitive R&D have allowed US Bigpharma to emerge as a dominant player on world markets. and to earn exports of up to $100 billion a year, including with US negotiated patent protection. Also no mention that the fragmented US health system doesnât provide for central bulk buying common in countries with a national health system)
ATM the executive order will take a lot of hard work and analysis to be implemented , if it is implemented at all. But misusing terms such as â most-favoured nationâ ( in caps) brings that fool Lutnick in.
( The GAO did a report in 2021, comparing prices in the US, Canada, France and Australia).
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Iâll keep going over as long as I have family, but I wouldnât go for any other reason.
Would rather have them visit me here, tbh.
Just until the next shitshow when some backpacker gets chucked in Guantanamo or something.
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Watching Trump go through the signing ceremony in Saudi ArabiaâŚ.he genuinely looked like he fell asleep on a few occasions.
Edit - looked like that to a few people
https://x.com/atrupar/status/1922281097875853508?s=46&t=YGdPXSqojqeDwdjPFXFTRQ
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His signature is enormous! Mere mortals wouldnât understand how tiring that is.
/s
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I nearly fell asleep on the freeway in Riyadh today while the traffic sat still for an hour waiting for trumps motorcade to go past. Such a great idea closing all intersections crossing a major city ring road at once for his entire journey rather than rolling closures
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Thanks for the info. Itâs the sort of thing Trump would say, and Iâd assume his was just lying again. Itâs hard to know whatâs what these days.
I feel for you. Iâve always found Riyadh not the best to drive in at the best of times at certain times of the day so Iâd hate to see what itâs like for this
Donât get me wrong itâs still down considerably considering that a fair whack of travellers come from Canada and Mexico but for whatever reason itâs picked up from other countries and a lot of new bookings over the last week or so especially ex Australia
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Must be the Quiet Australians
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Who cares who it is, the point is many more Australians are choosing to go to the US for one reason or another when just a few weeks ago things were looking diabolical for airlines and serious consideration was being given to remove routes or cut schedules. In just 2 weeks that has flipped to not only not trimming routes but actually adding routes and increasing schedules. Who knows what the reasons are but there seems to be a rush on for sales
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Quiet Australiansâ˘.
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Just a joke. As you say, continued drop overall but their closest and biggest markets non existent. Good prices for Australians looking to escape winter as we do every year.
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With Lutnick assigned a role in implementation, there would be attempts to extract concessions from countries labelled as âcomparable developedâ ( whichever they are) .
We could end up with negotiations aimed at US Big Pharma getting higher prices in export markets to bring prices closer to high US prices. That would do a lot for the US consumer.
No mention of the reasons why US prices are so high, or why the US imports products to meet shortfalls in domestic supply. To take blood ( Australiaâs main exports of pharmaceuticals to US, along with vaccines) itâs so unfair, because, unlike the US, Australia hasnât commercialised the supply of blood from the consumer. It comes free. In the US, the poorer in the population depend on the sale of their blood as a form of income.
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U.S. President Donald Trump walks after disembarking from Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. May 1, 2025. REUTERS/Leah MillisŠ
President Donald Trump was hoping to use a jet from Qatarâs royal family as a replacement for Air Force One until its upgrades are finished. But a new estimate suggests that he may have to consider a different plan altogether.
NBC News reported Tuesday that the 13 year-old 747 jet â which is valued at roughly $400 million â would have to undergo significant and costly upgrades before it will be deemed suitable for presidential travel. The outlet cited multiple aviation experts who said that the total price tag could end up exceeding $1 billion and that the upgrade process may not be complete until 2029, when Trumpâs second and final term in office ends.
âYouâre taking a 747, disassembling it, reassembling it, and then jacking it up to a very high level,â commercial and military aviation consultant Richard Aboulafia told NBC. He also pointed out that because the royal jet would need to be fully deconstructed to ensure the safety of the president, the contract would likely have to be done by Boeing â which is currently handling the contract to upgrade two Air Force One jets.
âSince youâre also disassembling and reassembling the jet for security reasons, youâre probably going to go with the people who know it better,â he added. âIf you have to rip the plane apart, thatâs more of a Boeing job.â
Earlier this year, Boeing announced that the upgrades for Air Force One that Trump ordered during his first term (which cost roughly $4.3 billion) were delayed until early 2029 â three years behind schedule. The delays were attributed to a wide variety of factors, including security clearances for contractors working on the plane, to a strike by Boeing machinists that lasted for seven weeks until the company agreed to a new union contract that guaranteed wage increases and the complicated nature of the upgrades themselves.
The new Air Force One jets Boeing is working on include numerous boardrooms and meeting rooms, along with enhanced self-defense systems and military avionics. And as NBC reported, the Qatari jet would also need similar upgrades given that Air Force One is meant to have sophisticated command center capabilities like secure government communications and the ability to disrupt electro-magnetic pulses and repel missile attacks. It would also need to be expanded to include quarters for Secret Service detail and White House medical staff.
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