United Airlines Cuts Profit Outlook as Jet Fuel Costs Rise

Photo Credit: Santosh Kumar, Booking.com's regional head for South Asia at the Skift India Intelligence Summit in Delhi in March 2026. Skift Booking.com wants to win over more Indian travelers, whether they’re traveling within the country or abroad. It also wants to sell business travel to small- and mid-sized companies and take charge of more of the booking and payment process. It faces a tough market, where local rivals, led by MakeMyTrip, dominate domestic travel.

Sonesta began laying off employees last Friday, according to an employee who spoke anonymously to Skift and at least nine LinkedIn posts. The departures span communications, marketing, loyalty, quality assurance, training, food and beverage, and accounting. Sonesta's chief brand officer left in recent weeks, and marketing and creative staff have exited since Friday, according to their LinkedIn posts.

Travel through the transatlantic corridor is in a transition phase. U. S. travelers still want to go to Europe, but they are spending more carefully. Canadian and American preferences are moving further apart. Travelers are searching for shoulder-season trips and easier ways to move around once they arrive. Airlines are adding routes outside the biggest gateway cities, but many of those places still lack easy connections into regional rail and ground networks. These shifts make the next source of growth harder to identify. Travel companies are competing for a large and resilient customer base that’s becoming more selective and fragmented.

Photo Caption: Lindsay Milne Grant of Meet Boston and Arnar Már Ólafsson of the Icelandic Tourist Board at Skift Transatlantic Summit in Dublin October 15, 2026. Skift / Bryan Brophy Live tourism is a force in the travel industry, with one in five travelers saying they plan trips around live events and experiences. And often, when destinations and travel companies consider the benefits of hosting high-profile events, they think in terms of increased footfall. But when events happen in high season and tourism is already at peak levels, destinations must consider success from different angles.

Photo Credit: The traditional well on Maria Mavroudi’s family property in Astypalea. Kallichoron Maria Mavroudi’s grandparents, from the Greek island of Astypalea, never wasted water. They collected rain in a sterna — a traditional cistern — to water their plants and to provide water for animals.

In this Good Morning Hospitality bonus episode, Wil Slickers sits down with Sam Shank, co-founder and former CEO of HotelTonight, at Skift Global Forum to discuss how AI agents could reshape online travel distribution. Shank explains why AI-driven booking could challenge the sponsored search model that has fueled major online travel agencies like Booking.com and Expedia, while creating new opportunities for specialized agents and booking infrastructure. The conversation explores how hotels and vacation rentals can maintain visibility as travelers shift toward AI-powered discovery, why Shank would reposition HotelTonight as a specialist agent for last-minute accommodations, and how trust, privacy, and security will influence adoption. Shank also shares his perspective on the future relationship between general-purpose AI assistants and specialized travel agents.