Travel: old hands and new horizons

By now, many people are setting off on summer holidays. Every year I ask a large number of people where they are going, and it’s interesting to note how the answers are changing. People now talk about countries which I am familar with, but a region which I have little knowledge of. When they go to Spain, they are more likely to be visiting the Basque region than the Costa del Sol. When they go to Italy, it’s unpredictable where they’ll be: regional airports are everywhere. This includes the UK of course, where my relatives fly from Bristol and East Midlands, and rarely London.

In the latest statistics, more than a billion passengers travelled on flights in EU airports in 2017-18. Countries like…