The US aviation system is set for a record-breaking summer, with the Transportation Security Administration already reporting passenger volumes greater than pre-pandemic levels during the Memorial Day weekend. That holiday weekend was uneventful, but experts are concerned that things might not go smoothly all summer for a system that has seen many meltdowns in the past year and appears to be prone to more.

“We expect the summer travel season to be off the charts when it comes to demand,” says Geoff Freeman, president of the US Travel Association. “That’s great for the travel industry, but there’s no doubt that – as a country – we have underinvested in the aviation system for far too long. This type of demand will be an incredible stress test for it.”

President Biden announced in early May that he is pushing to bolster passenger protection and compensation for delays or cancellations, after the Department of Transportation saw airline passenger complaints rise 55% in 2022.

There are also mounting requests to more aggressively and comprehensively address the system’s bottlenecks, including obsolete technology and staffing issues.

“The FAA has acknowledged that it can’t handle this level of demand — that’s why they’ve asked the airlines to reduce capacity in some areas,” says Freeman. “They know that the investment in air traffic control, technology and individuals has been below the level it needs to be – and now we’re paying the price for that.”

Air traffic controllers

While the recent surge in air traffic for Memorial Day was handled smoothly, the next big challenge will be the days around the June 19 Juneteenth holiday.

One of the most pressing issues is a shortage of air traffic controllers – who handle the crucial task of guiding aircraft between and around airports – with a shortfall of about 3,000, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. As a result, the FAA asked airlines to reduce summer flights in the New York metropolitan area, where a key radar facility is only 54% staffed.

“Chronically low staffing has been a problem for a while,” says Paul Rinaldi, a former air traffic controller and vice president of the Global Air Traffic Controller Alliance. “We stopped training during Covid, and a lot of people retired. This does have a negative impact on the volume of traffic.”

The agency’s target is to hire 1,500 new controllers by the end of the year. “I applaud them for actually hiring,” Rinaldi says, though he points out that the number falls short of the FAA’s annual limit of 1,800 new hires. The plan is to hire in such numbers in 2024, bringing the total for the next two years to 3,300.

Hiring air traffic controllers is a laborious process that requires months of training and then up to three years of on-the-job experience before certification — a path that many applicants do not complete, according to Rinaldi.

And then there’s the issue of age: In the US, air traffic controllers are required to retire at the age of 56, and the FAA won’t hire anyone older than age 31, because they want candidates to have at least a 25-year career path.

“We have 1,200 fewer air traffic controllers today than we had 10 years ago,” says Freeman. “That’s not going to cut it. So we have to make an investment in people.”

Outdated technology

The FAA’s problems don’t end at air traffic control. In January, a system outage brought domestic aviation to a standstill, causing thousands of cancellations and delays.

The affected system, which was set up in 1993, is called Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM). It’s used by pilots to become aware of issues that can affect the safety of a flight. A damaged file prevented it from working and there was no available backup.

“The FAA deserves to have more robust, more contemporary technology infrastructure,” says Henry Harteveldt, an aviation analyst at Atmosphere Research.

“Many systems date back several decades — not many of us have a 40-year-old computer at home right now, and it’s frightening that some of the technology systems that the FAA may be relying on potentially goes back that much.”

Could something like this happen again?

Not many of us have a 40-year-old computer at home right now, and it’s frightening that some of the technology systems that the FAA may be relying on potentially goes back that much.

Henry Harteveldt, aviation analyst

The FAA is also working on a multibillion-dollar program to overhaul its entire technology, called NextGen, which is expected to be fully deployed by 2030. However, the deciding factor in this arena will be funding.

“The debt ceiling negotiations in the US are going to cap spending in most departments, and the FAA is perennially underfunded,” says Harteveldt. “Not only does the FAA rarely get what it asks for in its budget, but one big problem is that part of the federal taxes that passengers pay on their airline tickets – which are intended to help fund the FAA – get siphoned to other projects, in other departments. The FAA will need to work with Congress to find ways to keep all of that money, or at least more than they are getting right now.”

Pilot shortage

According to a report by consulting firm Oliver Wyman, there is a shortfall of around 17,000 pilots in North America, which will widen to 24,000 by 2026.

One way airlines have been trying to offset this is by operating fewer flights using larger aircraft.

“The regional airlines are operating far fewer of their 50-seat aircraft and focusing more on the 70- to 75-seat ones,” says Harteveldt. “And in a way that’s good because it reduces the number of pilots needed; but at the same time you have other airlines which have thousands of new aircraft on order for delivery over the next six to eight years.”

However, he adds, the industry has made a lot of progress in hiring pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and other workers in recent months. “The most critical group are the pilots, because there was a severe shortage last year. Airlines in the US have hired more than 10,000 pilots collectively,” he says, adding that there is also a discussion on whether the retirement age for pilots should be raised from the current 65 to as much as 67.

“Younger pilots don’t like the idea, because it obviously delays their ability to advance. Airlines see it as a temporary fix — it lets their pilots work longer, but these are also the pilots that are at the top end of the wage scale, so they’re the most expensive pilots for the airlines to have.”

Not everyone agrees that there is even a pilot shortage. Jason Ambrosi, who leads the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the world’s largest airline pilot union, said in a written statement to the Senate in March that “There are more than enough pilots to meet US airline hiring demand” and that “airline pilot growth has increased each year since the pandemic.”

He added that training capacity has been the dominant pilot-related constraint on air travel, and that the displacement of pilots by carriers to cut costs has created considerable “attrition” and a significant training backlog.

Bad weather

Perhaps the most critical factor in whether or not travel chaos will occur is outside of anyone’s control.

“The summer travel season will play out as well as Mother Nature allows it to play out,” says Harteveldt. “Weather accounts for at least two thirds of the delays and cancellations, sometimes more. If we have fewer storms this summer, then the airlines will operate better.

“However, if the storms are more frequent, or more intense, or they last longer – or even any combination of that – then we’re obviously going to see problems. The question is not how bad the problems will be, but how well the airlines will be able to recover.”

The summer travel season will play out as well as Mother Nature allows it to play out. If we have fewer storms this summer, then the airlines will operate better.

Henry Harteveldt, aviation analyst

All eyes are on Southwest, which this past December was unable to manage a bad winter storm and suffered an operational meltdown that left 16,700 flights canceled and 2 million passengers stranded. “The challenge for some airlines, most notably Southwest, is whether they will have the technology systems in place to help them manage their operations when disruptions occur,” says Harteveldt.

Southwest has detailed an action plan to prevent similar incidents in the future, which includes an investment of $1.3 billion in technological upgrades. However, it might take some time before all of these are deployed.

“What really concerns me,” Harteveldt adds, “is that with so many flights now being booked full, airlines have very little wiggle room to help people who are stranded when delays or cancellations occur — even when things are working well.”

Close calls

Early 2023 has been marred by an alarming string of near-misses between planes on US runways, with incidents in Boston; Burbank, California; Austin, Texas; Honolulu; New York; Sarasota, Florida; and at Reagan National Airport outside Washington, DC.

In one of the closest of these close calls, a FedEx cargo plane attempting to land in Austin came within 100 feet of a Southwest jet that was taking off from the same runway.

In March, the FAA organized a special travel safety summit to discuss the issue, and in late May it announced an investment of $100 million across 12 US airports to improve taxiways and lighting, and hopefully reduce the risk of further “runway incursions.”

“It is alarming,” says Harteveldt. “I have airline pilot friends who have told me that their anxiety is much higher now about flying in and out of certain airports, about even taxiing at certain airports. Some pilots have told me that they will now confirm and then confirm again that they’ve been given permission to taxi across an active runway.”

None of the incidents caused any damage or injuries, but the National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating six of them.

What can we do?

One of the reasons why the FAA struggles to handle high volumes of traffic is airline scheduling, according to Harteveldt.

“Some airlines publish their schedules almost a year in advance, but some don’t until just six months before a flight departs. So the FAA is playing catch up as they figure out if they have enough staffing,” he says, adding that the reason airlines are coy with schedules is that it’s sensitive business information that can affect their bottom line, for example prompting a competitor to increase certain flights at a certain time.

“It would be much better if there was a legal way for airlines and the FAA to sit down and exchange information in a way that is fair, where the airline’s sensitive information is kept confidential,” he adds.

The FAA’s funding and operating authority is expiring this year, and will need to be reauthorized by Congress as cyclically happens. According to Freeman, this is a major opportunity to demonstrate the nation’s commitment to building a world-class aviation system, and how critical it is to the entire economy.

As for this summer, “pack your patience,” he says. “We’ve already seen this Memorial Day weekend just how busy the airports are. But that isn’t limited to the United States — we all saw the challenges around the world with baggage last year and demand at all-time highs that overwhelm systems globally.”

However, he adds, you shouldn’t lower your expectations. “We as a traveling public need to demand policymakers do better. We encourage travelers to make their voice heard, and say that they want to see greater investment, a more efficient system and a real commitment that hasn’t been there in the past.”

Pope Francis has issued a message for the first time since undergoing abdominal surgery, asking the faithful to “keep me in your prayers.”

“I sincerely appreciate the prayers and numerous expressions of closeness and affection received in the past few days,” the Pontiff said in a tweet posted Friday.

“I am praying for everyone, especially those who suffer. I ask you to keep me in your prayers,” he added.

The pope remains in Rome’s Gemelli hospital after undergoing abdominal surgery on Wednesday. His health is improving, according to a Vatican statement issued earlier Friday.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said the pope was continuing to recover and his “post-operative course continues to be regular.”

“The Holy Father is without a fever, the hemodynamic parameters are normal, he has suspended the drips and continued to feed on a liquid diet,” Bruni said in the statement.

On Friday afternoon, the pope “gathered in prayer and devoted himself to work” and in the evening he received the Eucharist, Bruni said.

“Pope Francis is touched by the numerous messages that he continues to receive in these hours; in particular he intends to address his thoughts and his thanks to the children currently hospitalized, for the affection and love received through their drawings and their messages,” Bruni said.

“To them, as well as to the medical staff, nurses, social health workers and spiritual assistants who touch pain daily, relieving its weight, he expresses his gratitude for their closeness and prayer,” he added.

Six civilians and three security force members were killed in a late-night attack by militant fighters on a beachside hotel in the Somalian capital Mogadishu, state media report.

Security forces responded to reports of an attack by Al-Shabaab militant fighters on the Pearl Beach Hotel in Lido Beach late Friday, killing the four attackers, according the Somali National News Agency (SONNA)

The forces rescued 84 civilians from the hotel, receiving praise from the government for their “swift and effective response,” SONNA reported.

As well as shattered window panes, blood and debris from the restaurant could be seen Saturday on the street at the site of the attack.

The onslaught follows a deadly attack by Al-Shabaab on an African Union military base in Somalia, roughly 120 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu, late last month in which at least 54 Ugandan soldiers were killed, according to Ugandan officials.

Al-Shabaab is the largest and most active al-Qaeda network in the world, according to the US Africa Command. The group controlled a vast area of Somalia before being pushed back by government counteroffensives since last year, according to Reuters.

However, the militants continue to launch lethal attacks across the country with the aim of toppling the central government and establishing a rule based on its strict interpretation of Islam’s Sharia law.

US forces have conducted numerous strikes in Somalia that have resulted in dozens of Al-Shabaab casualties, including one that killed 30 Al-Shabaab fighters in January, and three others in February that killed a total of 24 soldiers.

Berlusconi’s latest stay at the San Raffaele hospital comes ahead of a big meeting of his party planned for Saturday.

The 86-year-old leader of the Forza Italia party was released from his last stint in hospital on May 19 after a 45 day stay for a lung infection.

In a statement on Friday, the hospital said Berlusconi was there for “scheduled examinations related to his known hematological pathology.”

Berlusconi has previously been diagnosed with leukemia and was hospitalized in April with breathing problems.

The hospital has previously said the politician’s cancer is not acute and that he has carried the disease “for some time.”

The hospital said Friday the present checkup “meets clinical criteria of normal practice in medicine and is not related to any criticality or alarm.”

A controversial media tycoon, Berlusconi has served three stints as Italy’s prime minister, most recently between 2008 and 2011, before being banned from politics for six years following a conviction for tax fraud.

He made a return to frontline politics in 2022 when he won a seat in Italy’s Senate, representing the northern municipality of Monza.

In 2021 he was hospitalized for treatment for the symptoms of long Covid-19, according to the press office of his Forza Italia party.

He also spent time in the hospital the previous year after contracting the coronavirus, and has had a number of other health concerns, including a 2016 heart surgery to replace an aortic valve.

Monica Puig won more than 300 matches during her tennis career and the feeling afterwards was often the same: relief, excitement, and satisfaction that the weeks and months of sacrifice and preparation had paid off.

Today, exactly a year after shoulder issues forced her to retire aged 28, Puig is still able to revisit some of those winning emotions without picking up a tennis racket or stepping foot on a court.

She’s turned to running marathons – first in New York City, then in Boston and London on back-to-back weekends earlier this year and is already halfway towards her goal of completing all six of the world’s marathon majors by the end of 2024.

“I’ve just felt in awe of what I’ve been doing because I could easily just be sitting on the couch crying and feeling sorry for myself. But I tried to channel all of that energy that I have towards whatever I had been feeling about my career into something more productive.”

Completing a marathon, Puig says, feels “very similar and very different” to winning a tennis match. With tennis, the stakes felt higher when rankings points, global recognition, and prize money were on the line.

But the sense of personal satisfaction she gets from running has endured, helping to ease the lingering pain of her retirement from tennis.

“It’s more about showing myself that I didn’t let myself fall into this big black hole of depression and sadness when I had to finish my career so early,” Puig adds.

“I was able to pick myself back up and find something else that motivates me to get out of bed every day, that motivates me to continue to be strong, fit, and have fun at the same time.”

Puig reached a career-high ranking of No. 27 in the world and won one WTA Tour title in 2014. Her crowning moment arrived two years later when she won Olympic gold in Rio – Puerto Rico’s first-ever gold medal at the Games.

As a tennis player, Puig always saw running as a form of punishment – never enjoyment. It became a means to clear her head when she was rehabbing from injuries and, over time, she started to increase the distance of her runs – three miles became five, five became eight, then eight became half and full marathons.

Now, Puig has also set her sights on competing in triathlons, as well as running the remaining marathon majors in Chicago, Berlin, and Tokyo. Her first half Ironman – a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run – is in Augusta, Georgia, in September, and she plans to race another back home in Puerto Rico next year.

An amateur runner and triathlete, it’s a sharp transition from her life as one of the best tennis players in the world, though Puig thinks her experience of the latter has benefited the former.

“You are competing against yourself,” she says of all three disciplines, “you are your biggest enemy or supporter out there. What you think can either push you or it can limit you.

“In tennis, I’m not going to say my mental fortitude was my strength because a lot of the time I didn’t know how to deal with negative thoughts, but I feel like everybody matures at their own time mentally.

“Doing the marathons and triathlon has really helped my mentality to grow and to develop this can-do attitude towards everything that I do. It’s also thanks to tennis that I have a certain discipline … All of that discipline has really helped me to stay in shape and stay true to my goals.”

Elbow surgery in 2019 followed by three shoulder surgeries in three years ultimately signaled the end to Puig’s tennis career. She played her first match since 2020 at the Madrid Open last year, but the shoulder problems persisted.

There were times, Puig says, that she couldn’t sleep on the affected side, such was the pain in her shoulder. Moreover, the mental toll of constant rehab and almost four years away from regularly competing on the tour was starting to mount.

“It felt like I was pushing a stone up a mountain and the stone kept squashing me as I kept getting further and further,” says Puig.

“I obviously believed that I could come back, I believed in myself enough. Last year, I had full intention of playing again competitively.

“But when I saw my surgeon after the last time I was on the court, he said, ‘Look, I have to be honest with you, your shoulder – it’s not doing well. And we can’t just keep opening up your shoulder to fix it every single time it goes wrong.”

Not ready to walk away from tennis entirely, Puig still hopes to play exhibition matches in the future. She returned to the practice court recently and had to temper expectations from fans, who interpreted footage posted on social media as the start of a competitive comeback.

But Puig has remained involved with the sport as a broadcaster, enabling her to engage with the game in a different way compared to her playing days.

“When I commentate or I’m watching matches, I’ve noticed that my understanding of the game has gotten a lot better,” she says. “I feel like I’m smarter and I can see things, I can notice things. I study the game a lot better than when I was playing.

“My understanding for tennis has grown and I wish that I was still playing so I could implement some of the things that I see and have that knowledge translate onto what I do on the court.”

Puig adds that she still misses tennis, particularly when she watches her contemporaries thrive at grand slams.

With her shoulder never going to be as it was prior to the surgeries, she’s come to accept her body’s limitations and is honing her swimming technique to withstand the rigors of Ironman-distance triathlons.

“I’ve learned to handle my shoulder in a different way and knowing that, if there is pain, then it’s okay to stop, it’s okay to take a break, it’s okay to say that you’re not feeling 100%,” says Puig.

“Usually, when I was trying to come back last year, I would play through pain and that wasn’t necessarily something that felt very good. It was very challenging and involved a lot of tears.”

What she has instead developed over the past year is “a new life” and “a new way of doing things.”

“I want to continue to do this for my whole life; I see people well into their fifties, sixties, still doing triathlon and doing Ironman,” says Puig.

“That’s something that I want to continue to do … I don’t know how far I’ll get or anything like that, but the sky’s the limit.”

Floyd Mayweather’s exhibition fight against ​​John Gotti III ended in a mass brawl on Sunday after the referee called an early end to the bout.

Mayweather has been fighting exhibitions since retiring from professional boxing in 2017 with an unbeaten 50-0 record and was facing Gotti III, grandson of infamous crime boss John Gotti, in Sunrise, Florida.

From the outset, the pair were trash-talking inside the ring. Mayweather outclassed and teased his opponent, and Gotti III subsequently resorted to rough tactics, such as clinching and headlocks.

After warning both fighters for using abusive language, referee Kenny Bayliss stopped the fight in the sixth round. But Gotti III, who turned professional last year, ignored his disqualification and continued to attempt to throw punches at Mayweather.

His reaction sparked a mass brawl with people from both teams jumping into the ring.

As Gotti III was pinned into his corner by dozens of people, a smiling Mayweather was seen watching the incident while bouncing on the opposite top rope.

Videos show the fighting continuing backstage at the FLA Live Arena between both entourages.

“That’s why they pay the big bucks, because I put on a show,” Mayweather said in a YouTube video posted after the fight.

On his Instagram story, Gotti III said Mayweather was his “enemy for life,” adding that Mayweather “never put me down or stopped me.”

“It was a DQ for no reason,” Gotti III added.

According to BBC reporting, police cleared the venue and threatened charges against fans who did not leave immediately.

The trainer of two horses that died at Belmont Park – home of the Belmont Stakes – said he has been left “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the news.

In the first race at Belmont Park on Sunday, Mashnee Girl fell near the quarter pole, according to industry-owned database Equibase, before being euthanized on the track.

It follows the death of Excursionniste on Saturday, in the 13th and final race of the day, which took place after the prestigious Belmont Stakes – a race won by Arcangelo.

The horse suffered an injury leaving the backstretch, was pulled up, and euthanized on the grass track, according to Equibase.

“Thank God that both riders were not injured. I spoke to both of them and they both told me how well the horses were travelling under them, before taking a tragic bad step.”

At Belmont Park, New York, four horses died while racing or training in the period from May 13 to Saturday’s Belmont Stakes.

The news comes in the wake of a series of unexpected deaths at prestigious racetracks that have shaken the world of horse racing.

The owner of Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby, announced last week that it would suspend racing operations to conduct a “top-to-bottom” review of all safety and surface protocols following the deaths of 12 horses at the racetrack.

The racetrack said it was “troubled” by the deaths. There is no clear cause linking the deaths, according to Churchill Downs.

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) said earlier this month that each incident would be “closely reviewed and analyzed” to ensure the organization is “providing the safest possible environment for racing and training.”

In the wake of the most recent deaths, Kathy Guillermo, senior vice president of PETA, said in a statement on the animal rights organization’s website: “Two dead Thoroughbreds in two days with the same trainer on the same track means one thing: Belmont Park is failing to protect horses.

“Like Churchill Downs, Belmont must suspend racing immediately to avoid the same bloodbath. Anything less makes Belmont complicit in the fatalities.”

In his statement, Henning said he “desperately” wanted answers regarding the death of his horses but trusted that organiser NYRA was doing its due diligence and examining the course “to ensure maximum safety going forward.”

“We all adore our horses and will continue to insure that our horses are loved and cared for. Thank you to my owners for their unwavering confidence and support,” he said.

“Thank you to all that have reached out to us, to give their support, in this unimaginable bad time. We will continue to grieve and pray over the loss of these two beautiful horses.”

The Denver Nuggets won their first NBA championship Monday night, downing the Miami Heat 94-89 at Ball Arena in Denver to take Game 5 of the NBA Finals.

Two-time MVP Nikola Jokić led the way for the Nuggets with a game-high 28 points and 16 rebounds.

“It was an amazing effort by the team,” he told ABC after the game. “It was an ugly game. We couldn’t make shots but at the end, we figured out how to defend.”

The Serbian big man was voted Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals, and is the first center to win the award named after the late Bill Russell since Shaquille O’Neal of the Lakers in 2002.

Hours after the game, at least nine people were injured in a mass shooting in downtown Denver, where crowds had gathered to celebrate the city’s first NBA championship.

‘We love him’

Meanwhile, following the Game 5 victory, Nuggets coach Michael Malone hailed Jokić, who is rapidly establishing himself as one of basketball’s best ever centers, as “a great person.”

“He’s a great husband, father and son and brother,” Malone told reporters. “And on the basketball court he has proven time and time again that he’s the best player in the NBA. He’s our MVP, we love him and we’re thankful that he’s wearing a Nuggets’ uniform.”

The 28-year-old Jokić posted 10 total triple-doubles to pass Wilt Chamberlain (seven) for most all-time in a single playoff run. He also finished the postseason as the first player in NBA history to lead all players in points, rebounds, and assists in a single postseason, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

Denver’s Michael Porter Jr. had 16 points and 13 boards and Jamal Murray chipped in 14 points.

“All the hard work, all the sacrifice, all the dedication, all culminated with us winning a championship,” Malone told ABC. “But I got news for everybody out there: We’re not satisfied with one. We want more. We want more.”

Jimmy Butler had 21 points and Bam Adebayo had 20 to lead Miami, which as an eight-seed had surprised the NBA by advancing to the Finals.

Denver struggled from the free throw and 3-point lines but led by as many as seven points in the fourth quarter. But the Heat went on a 13-5 run and led by one point, 89-88, with 1:58 left in the contest.

Denver scored the game’s final six points with Bruce Brown knocking in a putback layup with 91 seconds left, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Brown hitting free throws as the final minute played out. Miami couldn’t connect as Heat players tried several 3-pointers.

“There’s no regrets on our end. There’s just sometimes where you get beat, you know, and Denver was the better basketball team in this series,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “I would say that it will probably rank as our hardest, competitive, most active defensive game of the season, and it still fell short.”

The Nuggets were victorious despite being 5-for-28 on 3’s – they missed 20 of their first 22 attempts – and 13-23 at the free throw line.

The Nuggets, who played in the American Basketball Association for nine seasons beginning in 1967, joined the NBA before the 1976-1977 season.

The city will hold a parade and celebration for the Nuggets on Thursday.

Before this season, the team’s 47th in the NBA, Denver had advanced to the conference finals four times in franchise history (1978, 1985, 2009, 2020), losing to the Los Angeles Lakers on each occasion.

This season the Nuggets swept the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

Friends Rowan Joss and Katie Myles’ recent trip to South Korea included beaches, bus stops, and buildings – anywhere with a link to BTS, the K-pop megastars who are celebrating 10 years of their journey to becoming the biggest boy band in the world.

The university students traveled thousands of miles from Scotland to Seoul to bathe in the aura of the seven-member band, and they’re not the only ones – thousands of fans are flocking to the city to join the festivities while millions more are celebrating online.

“It’s emotional, you’re happy, but it’s very much like ‘Oh, my God, this is real?’” said Joss, 23, after visiting HYBE, the high-rise management agency tower, home to the group’s recording studios.

For fans like Joss and Myles, 20, this week has a special resonance.

It marks 10 years since BTS was first unveiled as a band, and started their ascent to become a truly international phenomenon, racking up more than 20 Guinness World Records, netting several global awards, championing Asian representation in the global music industry and paving the way for other K-pop acts to follow in their footsteps.

When the band released their debut music video “No More Dream” in June 2013, they were underdogs from a struggling music label in a competitive K-pop industry dominated by much larger labels.

The group, comprised of Kim Tae-hyung (better known as V), Jung Ho-seok (J-Hope), Kim Nam-joon (RM), Kim Seok-jin (Jin), Park Ji-min (Jimin), Jeon Jung-kook (Jungkook), and Min Yoon-gi (Suga), initially presented themselves as rebellious “bad boys,” sporting gold chains and heavy black eyeliner.

Multiple K-pop artists had tried to break into international markets before; a year earlier, Psy’s hit “Gangnam Style” became the first to hit one billion views on YouTube.

But it was BTS who truly broke into the global mainstream – and stayed there.

Over the years, their style evolved from angsty hip hop beats, exploring a host of other music genres as their lyrics shifted from youth rebellion towards introspection and self-love – which many BTS fans – known as the “ARMY” (Adorable Representative MC for Youth) – say is what resonates with them the most.

CedarBough Saeji, assistant professor of Korean and East Asian Studies at Pusan National University, said BTS’s ability to grow comfortable with vulnerability in front of their fans, mostly through live-streamed behind-the-scenes content, makes their followers feel like they are going through life with the band.

“What many members of ARMY have responded to the most is a feeling that they are seeing the authentic heart of these seven remarkable young men,” Saeji said.

A walk with the K-pop stars

The rise of South Korean cultural exports since the 1990s, dubbed the Hallyu Wave, has exploded in the last decade, with major breakout bands like BTS and Blackpink – who made history headlining Coachella last year – playing a major role.

Korean content exports, which includes K-pop, dramas, films, beauty products and the study of the Korean language worldwide, reached an all-time high of $12.4 billion in 2021, according to a government study from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

BTS is currently on a temporary hiatus, with two of its members doing their mandatory military service, but that hasn’t stopped local authorities and tour operations from treating the anniversary as a festival of national pride.

Parts of Seoul have been lit up in purple, the official color of BTS, including the Namsan Tower, the 123-story Lotte World Tower and several Han River bridges. South Korea’s postal service even released special commemorative stamps, and Seoul’s city government created an official map highlighting 13 landmarks where BTS made a mark.

Wherever BTS left a trail, whether it’s a music video location or the stars’ hometown, dozens of guided tours and itineraries have popped up for fans to walk in the footsteps of the group.

If it wasn’t for BTS, Lisa Trinh, 33, and Diana Phung, 44, said they wouldn’t have spent the past seven months planning their trip to South Korea from California, coincidentally timing it with the boy band’s anniversary.

“We want to just, you know, eat the food that they eat – and they must have really good taste – and just be in places where they’ve been… Just to breathe the same air that they breathe,” Trinh said.

They joined a BTS Beach Tour in Gangwon province with operator Startrip, where the shoreline has become known for the album photos of “Butter” – the English-language summer pop song by BTS that was nominated for a Grammy last year.

Trinh said they’ll be spending seven days in Seoul and two nights in Busan, the latter being the hometown of members Jimin and Jungkook.

Since it’s impossible for BTS to meet each fan in person, fans feel a sense of connection by going to places the group has done shoots or something meaningful with when they visit Korea, said Hwang Young-in, CEO and co-founder of Startrip.

In Busan, Gamcheon Culture Village has been a tourist destination for its colorful village houses for years but a mural of Jimin and Jungkook took its popularity to new heights, and if gets too crowded there, fans can enjoy a coffee at Cafe Magnate, which is owned by Jimin’s dad.

Some package tours also take fans to the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, where BTS performed live for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon during the coronavirus pandemic.

Restaurants like Yoojung Sikdang, where BTS spent their pre-debut years stopping in for hearty meals, are now plastered with posters and notes from fans who want a taste of the band’s life before they reached stardom.

The ARMY base

It’s difficult to overstate how international BTS have become.

Guinness World Records lists a number of firsts, becoming at various times in their career the most streamed band on Spotify, the most followed on Instagram, the most viewers for a music video premiere on YouTube and the most tickets sold for a livestream concert.

BTS officially became bigger than Justin Bieber when the power of the septet’s fandom submitted more than 300 million votes in the fan-voted Top Social Artist in 2017, beating other musical juggernauts that included Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Shawn Mendes in that category.

Their 2020 all-English track “Dynamite” made BTS the first South Korean act to top the Billboard Hot 100.

For many ARMY members, it’s not just new songs that keep fans engaged. There is a decade of behind the scenes content online, with band members exchanging banter during rehearsals and sharing deep conversations as they devour Korean barbecue.

“The biggest draw and the reason why people are so attached to the group and continue to show their support, even though they’re not currently active as a full seven-member group at the moment, is because they have succeeded in creating such strong parasocial bonds through their social media presence and the distribution of behind the scenes content, where fans get an opportunity to interact with the idols,” said Michelle Cho, a professor of East Asian Studies at University of Toronto.

The group has also set the precedent for what K-pop can achieve in the global music scene as it gained attention from viewers who resonate with their struggles with racial discrimination.

“Being in America and not seeing that much of Asian representation, when I saw that seven Asian guys were trending … that totally like piqued my interest immediately. And just to see how far they’ve come. It’s been a joy to watch and amazing and I’m just so happy to be along for the ride,” BTS fan Phung said.

Having recently become the world’s most populous nation, India has sparked much speculation about whether it will continue to surpass China in other arenas.

All eyes now are on the South Asian superpower’s growing influence on the global stage. And the tourism industry is no exception.

By 2024, Indians are expected to spend more than $42 billion per year on outbound travel, according to recent reports.

India is experiencing what Omri Morgenshtern, CEO of travel and bookings website Agoda, calls a tourism “boom,” and is currently “the biggest growing outbound destination.”

While the total number of travelers coming from some other countries is higher, no nation’s tourism sector is growing as fast as India’s, he adds.

It isn’t just about the number of people traveling, either. The country is continuing to pour billions of dollars into growing its aviation industry and cementing its status as a travel hub.

A series of bold investments

Experts say much of India’s outbound growth trajectory is being driven by improvements in infrastructure and an expansion in its aviation sector.

The Indian government announced this year it plans to spend 980 billion rupees ($11.9 billion) by 2025 on constructing and modernizing airports within the country, Reuters reported.

Among these is the Noida International Airport, in the city of Jewar in Uttar Pradesh state. Currently due to open in 2024, according to the Times of India, it’s poised to be Asia’s largest airport and will enhance connectivity to and from the wider Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) and Western Uttar Pradesh.

Gary Bowerman, founder of Check-in Asia, a tourism-focused research and marketing company, says “the work that (India’s) been doing within the country is now starting to bear fruit. It’s got more airports, it’s got more terminals, it’s got more infrastructure than it had a decade ago.”

Since 2017, at least 73 airports have been operationalized under India’s regional connectivity scheme. Meanwhile, Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport cracked the top 10 list of the world’s busiest international airports for the first time ever this year, with 59.5 million passengers passing through its gates in 2022. (It should be noted China was still largely closed off to the world due to the pandemic until early 2023.)

Morgenshtern says the rise in outbound tourism from India is the result of investment not just by the government but by private airlines as well.

Some airlines are feeling the consequences of those bold moves, such as India’s Go First, a low-budget airline that declared bankruptcy in May.

Bowerman believes that low-cost carriers like Go First have been “vital for growth” in India’s “very price-sensitive market.”

“But the margins have been very low and competition fierce, and this has resulted in some high-profile low-cost or economy carriers failing, which shakes consumer confidence and impacts the overall market balance,” he adds.

Despite the struggles, other airlines are continuing to offer lower-cost options. Air India, for example, is fully owned by Indian conglomerate Tata Sons. As part of its efforts to expand its offerings, the company announced earlier this year it will be operating flights under both the Air India brand and Air India Express, having previously merged the latter with Tata’s other low-cost airline, AirAsia India.

Bowerman says this single-brand, low-cost carrier indicates that Air India “clearly sees the LCC (low-cost carrier) segment as an integral part of its own growth strategy and of the continued expansion of India’s aviation market.”

With the mergers and consolidation of airlines under the Tata umbrella, Air India is now the country’s second-largest domestic airline and its biggest international carrier, according to a release from Tata.

The airline has made other moves to facilitate increased Indian travel. In February, Air India purchased nearly 500 new planes, the most ever bought in one order by a single airline. Over the past two years, the airline has also increased frequencies on existing routes and added several new ones to key destinations in Europe and the US.

Air India isn’t the only airline stepping up its game. In early June, low-cost carrier Indigo announced the addition of 174 new weekly flights and six new destinations across Africa and Asia.

To meet increasing air travel demand, India has also expanded its airplane leasing program for both domestic and international routes, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told the CAPA India Aviation Summit in March.

To draw more Indian travelers, Morgenshtern suggests countries now need to ease visa restrictions and increase the number of flights from India.

“When those two things happen,” he says, “then the magic happens on a growing market like India.”

Who stands to benefit

Based on data collected by Agoda, Indians are now traveling to a more diverse range of countries.

“If you look at a place like Europe, you see more of them going to France or Switzerland,” says Morgenshtern. “Those are two countries that weren’t in the top 10 destinations for Indians before the pandemic.”

In 2019, the three most popular destinations for Indians were Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

When it comes to Southeast Asia, the top countries frequented by Indians now are roughly the same as they were five years ago, but the number of travelers has increased.

“We see a lot more Indians traveling to Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia. They all got Indian travelers before but not to the extent that we see them here,” Morgenshtern said.

Indian travel to Vietnam, for example, is expected to increase by at least 1,000% from pre-pandemic levels, according to Morgenshtern.

Southeast Asia in general is clearly a top destination for Indian travelers.

“Countries like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, they’re all out benchmarking the crazy growth that we see anywhere happening with Indians,” Morgenshtern says.

In contrast, based on Agoda’s data, not as many Indians are traveling to Japan, Korea or Taiwan, which the CEO suggests is in part because of their distance from India – but could also reflect a lack of awareness.

“When we talk with tourism authorities, they recognize India as a growing power and they all have something in their plans,” Morgenshtern says. But when it comes to promoting the destinations to Indian customers, they are “just starting now.”

India vs. China

While China’s outbound travel market has skyrocketed over the last two decades, India’s boom has come a bit later, which Bowerman says is due in part to how different their aviation sectors are.

In India, the aviation industry today predominantly consists of private airlines, which often compete with each other.

On the other hand, China has three main airline groups developed and consolidated by the government, each of which operates in specific regions: Air China is based in Beijing, China Eastern is based in Shanghai and China Southern is based in Guangzhou.

As a result, Bowerman says, “the Chinese state government was really able to control the volume and the frequency of routes, particularly into Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, because it had these three groups that don’t compete with each other.”

According to Bowerman, it’s harder for destinations to develop more flights in India because they have to deal with multiple airlines.

“This,” Bowerman says, “is a key factor that slowed down the growth of India over the past decade” when it comes to outbound travel.

Before the pandemic, China was the largest source market for tourists in Southeast Asia. In 2019, Southeast Asian countries received 32.3 million visitors from China, but just 5.3 million from India.

“There’s a lot of catchup to do,” Bowerman says. But there’s still good news for India.

“There is a move now amongst tourism boards in Southeast Asia to diversify their market mix so they’re not simply reliant on China,” he adds.

However, if India does hope to overtake China when it comes to outbound tourism, Bowerman believes it may take “possibly two decades.”

“You can’t catch up that gap in a short period of time,” he says.