Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

Many schools break up on Friday 4 April, and I've been looking ahead to the likely pain points on road, rail, air and ferry.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

London's fourth airport is to expand by 90% in the next 15 years. I've been looking back at its history – and forward at possible long-haul expansion.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

MPs on the Transport Select Committee spent the morning grilling Thomas Woldbye, chief executive of London Heathrow, about the decision to close down Europe's busiest airport following a power outage. A lively session, and you can hear some of it here.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yesterday I was at Southend airport for the opening of a new easyJet base. Today the target is Luton airport where Jet2 has opened a new base – at the home of easyJet. Steve Heapy, chief executive of Jet2.com and Jet2 Holidays, says the customer will be the winner.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ryanair has just announced it has carried 200 million passengers over the course of a year. A good moment, then, to catch up with Michael O’Leary, who has been chief executive for the past 31 years. We talked about his quest for “intergalactic domination”, fares and delays this summer, cabin bag size and the new Ryanair Prime subscription offer.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

US immigration is going to be looking more closely at everybody coming through the border. How this translates into travel and decision making, we don't know yet, but you cannot ignore these very high-profile cases and ask yourself what is the effect going to be?This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Ryanair Prime" costs £79 a year, and its benefits are – to be polite – modest. Rob Burgess, founder of the excellent Head for Points frequent-flyer website gave me his expert assessment as we walked together in Toulouse, southwest France.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“Passengers don’t deserve to end up on random Atlantic islands,” says Matt Purton – group aviation services director at Air Charter Service – after last Friday's closure of Heathrow. He says we must have a national conversation about how to cope better next time.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm talking today to Vanessa Hudson, chief executive of Qantas, about Project Sunrise – connecting London and Sydney nonstop.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I've spent the weekend covering the airport shutdown. Around a quarter-million passengers who were due to fly to, from or via Heathrow on Friday and over the weekend saw their travel plans wrecked when the airport closed for nearly 24 hours.This podcast is free, as is Independent Travel's weekly newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.