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Flying with Pope Leo on his first international trip

admin - Latest News - November 27, 2025
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Pope Leo XIV flew to the Middle East on the first international trip of his papacy. But what is it like to fly with the pope? NBC News’ Claudio Lavanga reports from the pope’s charter flight.



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Nov. 27, 2025, 10:09 AM ESTBy Harriet BaskasA record number of Americans will travel this weekend, packing up their bags and hitting the road to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family, friends and maybe some football.But travel this year will look different than it did 12 months ago, according to a bevy of early data, surveys and industry experts.The chief culprits behind the shifts? More travelers; deepening economic anxiety; tensions around geopolitics; and a six-week government shutdown that only ended a few weeks ago.Record travelers, but tighter beltsAAA projects that 81.8 million people will travel at least 50 miles over the long holiday weekend — 1.6 million more people than last Thanksgiving and a record level.Six million of those travelers are expected to take domestic flights, another increase over last year. But AAA warns that some air travelers might decide to switch to a train, bus, car or RV due to a bevy of recent flight cancellations.More than a third of Americans who have travel plans during the next six months said those plans had been affected by the six-week government shutdown, according to survey data from Longwoods International, a travel and tourism research firm.Meanwhile, some holiday travel has simply “evaporated,” said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods. He pointed to data from the survey that showed nearly 1 in 3 people whose holiday travel plans were affected by the shutdown had canceled them altogether.Scott Keyes, founder of the Going.com travel app, isn’t surprised by the losses.“Considering that over a million people went without paychecks during the shutdown, and the fact that many people wait to make plans in the final weeks before travel, it’s safe to assume that a significant chunk of travelers are skipping out on trips they otherwise might have taken,” he said in an email.It’s too early to predict how many people will opt to take commercial buses this weekend, said Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, the parent company of FlixBus and the Greyhound bus service.“Most bus bookings happen within 24 to 72 hours of departure,” he said via email. “But searches are trending up year over year, especially around peak days: Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and Sunday return.”Melissa Ulrich, owner of the Austin, Texas-based travel company You Pack, We Plan, said the shutdown had merely compounded the impact of existing economic pressures on some of her clients.“We had clients choose a different level of trip,” she said. Some luxury travelers were scaling back from five-star to four-star lodgings, said Ulrich, and other clients were downgrading from four-star to 3.5-star accommodations.“It started this summer and continued with the shutdown,” she said.As the U.S. job market has slowed down, unemployment has crept up this year and inflation remains stubbornly elevated.Consulting giant Deloitte’s holiday travel survey found the same factors at work: more travelers overall, but significantly fewer dollars expected to be spent per person.Even before the government closed for six weeks, the Deloitte survey found that holiday travelers planned to spend around 18% less on average this year than they did in 2024.“Financial concerns could be casting a shadow over the season, as many travelers are expected to scale back on the number of trips, trip duration and their overall travel budgets,” said Eileen Crowley, who leads Deloitte’s U.S. transportation, hospitality and services practice.Still, the percentage of Americans who said they plan to travel between Thanksgiving and mid-January, 54%, was 5 points higher than in the same survey a year ago.But there’s a big catch: This overall growth in travelers is being driven chiefly by people who say they are going to be staying with friends and family — and who do not plan to pay for hotels, cruises and bed-and-breakfasts, Deloitte’s research found.That means more friends and relatives expected to crash on sofas and in spare bedrooms, and potentially less money going toward tip jars, restaurant bills and theater tickets.The Canadian questionFor the more than 8 million Americans who make their living directly from travel and tourism, there could be a double whammy coming: less money coming in from domestic travelers and a significant drop in the number of visitors from abroad.Data consistently shows that international travelers are opting out of visiting the U.S., and a range of factors is affecting their decisions.Among them: heightened fears of detention by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, longer visa wait times and higher fees and concerns about political rhetoric and reports of violence.Overall international travel to the United States this year is projected to be just 85% of its 2019 level, according to the U.S. Travel Association, a top industry group.The main reason for the big decline? A massive drop in tourism from Canada.In previous years, Canadian visitors accounted for slightly more than a quarter of all the foreign travelers to the United States, according to international travel data.But in October there were 30% fewer Canadian residents returning from the U.S. over the border by car than there were during the same month last year, according to newly released Canadian statistics.Likewise, by air, there were nearly a quarter fewer travelers returning to Canada from the U.S. in the same period.Setting aside the missing Canadian visitors, the volume of international travelers to the U.S. this year is expected to be flat or down slightly.But for many people who rely on travel for their livelihoods, it’s next year that could be make-or-break.The United States will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup, an event that traditionally brings millions of spectators from around the world to the host country for games.In an apparent effort to encourage visitors, the Trump administration announced a new fast-track visa system for World Cup ticket holders, allowing them access to priority scheduling for visa interviews. But potential tournament attendees could still face a patchwork of travel bans applied to various countries.Harriet BaskasHarriet Baskas is an NBC News contributor who writes about travel and the arts.
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Sept. 25, 2025, 11:38 AM EDTBy Rob WileData released Thursday reflects the resilience of the U.S. economy, even as concerns about the job market and inflation persist.U.S. economic growth, or the gross domestic product (GDP), reached 3.8% in the second quarter, according to a fresh revision of the data released Thursday by the Commerce Department. That was higher than the most recent estimate of 3.3% and the strongest reading since the third quarter of 2024. The revision largely reflected stronger growth in consumer spending, which was also revised upward, from 1.6% to 2.5%. Multiple surveys show the mood among consumers remains glum — but Thursday’s spending data, plus other releases from banks, signals they remain willing to maintain their pace of purchasing. Meanwhile, new and ongoing claims for unemployment assistance fell over the past week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Federal Reserve said last week it expects the unemployment rate to climb from 4.3% to as much as 4.5% by the end of the year, but the latest data may allay some worries about further deterioration in the job market. “The mother lode of data just released suggest the economy is still doing just fine, despite the slowdown in employment growth,” wrote Alexandra Brown, North America economist for the market insight company Capital Economics, in a note to clients. The U.S. economy remains in a relatively precarious position. The latest GDP reading reflects the three months ending June 30, and the growth picture may have changed since then. A slowing labor market combined with President Donald Trump’s combination of aggressive tariffs and immigration enforcement has generated concerns about tepid growth. While consumer spending has remained resilient, there are growing warnings about a two tiered-economy in which lower- and middle-income people are squeezed as upper-income households continue to spend. Concerns about the job market spurred the Federal Reserve to take action this month, cutting interest rates in a bid to boost economic growth. There was some anticipation it would be the first of many.But Thursday’s positive economic data complicates the Fed’s situation.Following the morning’s data releases, investors dialed back the odds of additional cuts by the Federal Reserve this year. The Fed tends to cut when the economy is showing signs of slowing — and the new figures indicate there may be less of a need for lower interest rates to stimulate growth. “Thursday’s upward GDP revision for [the] second quarter confirmed that the economy grew at a healthy clip, even as tariff uncertainty reached fever pitch during the quarter,” Paul Stanley, chief investment officer of the Granite Bay Wealth Management financial group, said in a statement. “The U.S. economy is resilient and the strong GDP is another indication that we are not at risk of any kind of recession, even with slowing labor market growth.”But there are also concerns that growth is extremely uneven. A growing body of evidence suggests tech companies’ spending on artificial intelligence may almost single-handedly be propping up growth, especially as federal spending cuts and uncertainty over tariffs have clouded sentiment elsewhere. Commerce Department data show that in the first half of 2025, investment growth in equipment — a category that includes computers, electronics and power-supply parts — has been near records. “In the absence of tech-related spending, the US would be close to, or in, recession this year,” wrote George Saravelos, a head of research at the Deutsche Bank financial group. That’s not necessarily good news, he said: In order for tech to continue driving GDP growth, investments in AI, like building out data centers, needs to remain “parabolic.”“This is highly unlikely,” Saravelos said, given forecasts that such investment will likely peak this year.“Other sources of growth will have to take over,” he said. Rob WileRob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for NBCNews.com.
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