Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast

As Heathrow, Manchester, and Stansted airports announce record passenger numbers, I'm talking to Anna Hughes – director of Flight Free UK, who has a different perspective on travel.This podcast is free, like the Independent Travel newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm in Durres, Albania, the most historic city in the nation – finding out about life under communism with former student revolutionary, now tour guide, Arjana Isaku. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today's travel podcast is from the top of the 148 bus in west London. Four years after Boris Johnson promised to “level up across the country” with “beautiful, British-built buses that are cleaner, greener, quieter, safer and more frequent”, the new transport secretary, Louise Haigh, has vowed to start a "bus revolution". But will it work?This podcast is free, like the Independent Travel newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm in Hyères in southern France, at my usual breakfast spot, the Café Regence, but picking up news of dozens of flight cancellations on British Airways to and from London Heathrow. Is there a chronic problem with BA at the UK's busiest airport? Do passengers have any hope of compensation? And will events like this lead people to book on more resilient airlines?This podcast is free, like the Independent Travel newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you have to be barking mad to take a dog from the UK to Continental Europe these days? I'm talking to Dr Julia Ferguson, who is in the south of France with her lovely dog Bonnie.This podcast is free, like the Independent Travel newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm talking to Jane West who represents Fiji, the South Pacific archipelago that's hard to reach but loads of fun when you get there. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What makes a railway pub different? Wetherspoon's The Lion & The Unicorn pub in London Waterloo is the company's biggest so far. I've visited on the pub's opening morning and talked to Barry Brewster of JD Wetherspoon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Where's my plane? That call has gone out thousands of times this summer with so many delays. Flightradar24 can usually supply the answer – bringing an incredible amount of real-time aviation intelligence to the world. Ahead of the publication of a Flightradar24 puzzle book called You're the Captain (for which I have contributed the foreword) I have been talking to co-founder Mikael Robertsson and one half of the FR24 AvTalk podcast, Ian Petchenik.This podcast is free, like the Independent Travel newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gatwick Airport is planning to add a second runway to improve resilience and capacity. I discuss how this could benefit travelers and the London aviation market, while also addressing the environmental concerns and potential hurdles the project might faceThis podcast is free, like the Independent Travel newsletter. Get it delivered every Friday to your inbox. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

London bike wars: the cycles you can pick up here, and leave there. In the green corner, Anthony Smith, transport supremo, is championing the Lime electric bikes that are allowed to roam free (as are the people who hire them, within limits). In the red (and grey) corner, I am a true believer in Santander Cycles.This episode is free, much like the Independent travel newsletter. Subscribe now. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.