Road Warrior: from mood food at Gatwick to drones scares

Near-misses at airports cause concern about drones while Gatwick wants customers to eat themselves happy

Smiling emoji: symbol used to herald mood-boosting food on offer at eight airport cafes
Smiling emoji: symbol used to herald mood-boosting food on offer at eight airport cafes

Call to regulate drones after near misses at airports The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) is calling for urgent measures to regulate the use of drones in Europe's airspace. Two recent near misses in Heathrow and Warsaw airports highlight the need for regulations.

"Only some EU member states have regulations for the flying of smaller RPAS (remotely piloted aircraft systems)," says Simon McNamara director general of ERA. The use of RPAS operations needs to be incorporated into commercial airspace regulations. Fifth of people would pay to get off aircraft first Some 22 per cent of people said they would be willing to pay for the privilege of getting off an aircraft first, according to survey by OAG and FlightView of 2,339 users of the mobile app.

Some airlines already enable people to pay for a seat near the front or exit rows.

Yet, despite this, deplaning first is not likely to become an additional ancillary revenue source for the foreseeable future.

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Airlines globally earned more than €38 billion in revenue in 2014 from ancillary services. Millennials (Generation Y) were most likely to pay for deplaning. Eat yourself happy at Gatwick Airport in August If you are travelling through Gatwick Airport in August, be sure to leave time to eat, especially serotonin-rich foods.

The airport teamed up with a nutritionist to advise eight restaurants in making meals packed with mood-boosting ingredients.

Salmon, tuna, oats, bananas, citrus fruits, soy products, spinach, kale, and sesame seeds are some of the ingredients.

Mood-boosting menu options will be marked with a smiling emoji.

Warning to watch out for bogus hotel websites The proliferation of bogus hotel websites has led the US Federal Trade Commission to warn travellers to be careful when booking hotel rooms.

Fake and third-party websites have been gathering credit card and personal information.

A blog post on the FTC website says “just because a webpage looks like the official site of your favourite hotel chain doesn’t necessarily mean it is.

“Before you reserve a room for your next trip make sure that you know who’s at the other end of that ‘book now’button.”