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Record heat, crowds drive offseason boom in international travel

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Record heat, crowds drive offseason boom in international travel
Why there's no 'offseason' travel anymore

Sick of the heat, crowds and high prices, more U.S. travelers are discovering the offseason of international travel — and airlines and hotels are fighting for a windfall.

Flights to once-seasonal European vacation destinations now start when there’s still snow on the ground in the U.S. and wrap up when leaves are falling off the trees, if they end at all, instead of following traditional late-spring to late-summer travel seasons.

For example, American Airlines‘ flight to Edinburgh, Scotland, from New York began in March. United Airlines‘ nonstop route to Palermo, Sicily from Newark, New Jersey, will end in December and Delta Air Lines‘ service to Rome from Minneapolis, Minnesota, will run into January, months later than they have in past years.

With this year’s surge in jet fuel expected to take a $100 billion bite out of airline profits this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, it’s crucial for the industry to maximize on travel trends that attract high-spending customers.

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Investors are upbeat that airlines can take the fuel hit from earlier this year after they trimmed unprofitable or less profitable flights and airline executives have said strong demand has helped them pass some — but not all of those expenses along.

Shares of Delta and United, the two most profitable U.S. airlines, each hit records in recent weeks, and American’s shares touched an 18-month high. Airlines start reporting second-quarter results and providing third-quarter updates this month, with Delta kicking the season off on Friday.

A couple cools off in the Trocadero Fountain with the Eiffel Tower in the background during a heat wave in Paris on June 26, 2026.

Dimitar Dilkoff | Afp | Getty Images

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‘Creep of the seasons’

Industry executives told CNBC that international vacation seasons used to be more defined. The new trends are forcing them to rip up decades-old playbooks.

“It used to be so much lumpier. There used to be more: good season, bad season,” Delta President Peter Carter said in an interview. “There are so many places you can go in Europe year-round and still have an amazing experience, and that’s why we’re seeing such good demand into Europe.”

That demand is redefining when airlines’ moneymaker months are.

“We’ve seen this massive, what I would call, the creep of the seasons — the shoulder season is blending into the full season,” Patrick Quayle, United Airlines‘ senior vice president who designs the carrier’s network, said in an interview last month.

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Shoulder season refers to the period between a destination’s peak tourist season and its offseason.

Airlines are trying to extend the season as much as possible to grow profits.

International flights to Europe generally carry more premium seats like lie-flat pods than smaller jets that are used for domestic travel — and airlines are planning to expand those options further. Business-class fares on some of those routes can cost $10,000 for a round-trip instead of less than half that on a domestic route.

A dog is standing with its owners in a long line at Terminal 1 of Frankfurt Airport in Germany.

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Andreas Arnold | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Airfare overall is up this year compared with last as airlines try to pass along as much of their rising costs to customers as possible, but there are signs that prices are moderating, particularly as the industry braces for the peak summer travel period in July to pass.

For example, flights between the U.S. and Athens, Greece, on June 22 were going for $988 round-trip, up from $810 last year but down from $1,350 two months earlier, according to flight-tracking site Kayak.

The increase in shoulder season and off-peak travel is forcing Delta to rethink its maintenance and crew schedules, said Jeff Arinder, Delta vice president of international network planning.

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“We would never give airplanes to the maintenance hangers, if we could avoid it, in the summertime … because that’s when we made all the money,” he told CNBC. “We are now doing more maintenance in the summertime because we want to save those planes for the fall.”

He said Delta is trying to “really flatten out our seasonality as much as possible.”

Why travel times are changing

People try to cool down by standing in front of a nebuliser placed on a Civil Protection pick-up truck spraying cool water during a heatwave, in Rome near the Colosseum on June 26, 2026.

Andreas Solaro | Afp | Getty Images

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The latest challenge to usual summer European travel was the most recent, deadly heat wave.

In late June, locals and tourists alike faced dangerous record temperatures throughout Europe, where air conditioning isn’t widespread. Misting stations were set up from Warsaw, Poland, to Rome. The Paris LGBTQ+ Pride march was postponed, among other events, and public alcohol consumption was briefly banned in the city.

Residents of many European cities, like Barcelona, Spain, and Venice, Italy have also been raising concerns about overcrowding during peak summer months and beyond. Countries throughout Europe have been bringing in record numbers of visitors.

But it’s not just an aversion to heat and crowds that’s leading to changing travel patterns.

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For younger generations, more flexible work policies are helping some consumers, even those with children, take trips outside of late spring and summer. Baby Boomers, meanwhile, are armed with piles of cash and plenty of time, giving them more flexibility for travel.

“Delta’s target demographic tends to be a little bit older and a little bit wealthier,” Arinder said.

Setting sights on Sicily

United is pushing the limits of the offseason trend.

It’s extended its nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Palermo, Sicily, through Dec. 16, rather than ending it in September, with Boeing 767s.

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Sicily has long been marketed as a summertime destination.

Daytime highs can regularly reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit along the coast with little, if any, rain in July. In December, however, the highs sometimes barely touch 60 degrees on the Italian island and rain is more likely.

As hotel rates drop and crowds at major attractions decline in the winter, United is making a bet that travelers will fill up the three-times-a-week service even without the ideal summer weather.

The view from the ancient theater of Taormina on the Italian island of Sicily.

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Reda | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

“I don’t think it’s that experimental. I think it’s a really safe bet ” United’s Quayle said.

Many coastal hotels also close during the winter months. The Four Seasons’ San Domenico Palace, in Taormina, Sicily, where the second season of HBO’s “White Lotus” was shot, closes in mid-November through early spring, for example.

However, manager Imelda Shllaku told CNBC that in the past four years the hotel has had a “remarkable increase in bookings from U.S guests” in March, April, October and November.

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“High-net-worth travelers are increasingly seeking experiences with genuine cultural currency, and Sicily’s shoulder season is simply better suited to delivering them,” she said by email, pointing to behind-the-scenes tours of Noto in southeast Sicily and nighttime trips to Mount Etna. The hotel will reopen March 1, a spokeswoman said.

Delta is planning to extend its flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Catania, on the east coast of Sicily, through Jan. 3, compared with Oct. 24 last year. And it plans to resume the route on March 8, 2027. This year, it started the route on May 1 and May 21 in 2025.

Shoulder season

United and Delta aren’t alone, as airlines across the board are redeploying some of their biggest planes to maintain service to Europe for the full year or well into the offseason.

“When airlines are looking to purchase aircraft, they have to think about ‘How are we going to use this airplane year-round because it’s an expensive piece of machinery,’” said Brett Snyder, founder of Cranky Flier blog and Cranky Concierge travel agency. “They know in the summer they won’t have a problem sending these widebodies to Europe. Now they can stretch that further into the shoulder season.”

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Seattle-based Alaska Airlines, which recently debuted its first service across the Atlantic this year to London, Rome and Reykjavík, Iceland, is keeping this in mind. President and Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett told CNBC that travelers are becoming more flexible.

“A lot of people want to go see the same destinations … [and that] makes it like very logical that those seasons would start to spread,” he said. “Maybe when I was growing up, my parents wouldn’t have even thought of taking me out of school in September, and I think maybe parents are a little more like, ‘Yeah, let’s go somewhere fun, and you’ll catch up on school when you get back.’”

An American Airlines Boeing 777-223ER takes off from Barcelona-El Prat Airport, in Barcelona, Spain, on April 29, 2026.

Joan Valls | Nurphoto | Getty Images

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American Airlines, for its part, is stretching some of the seasons of U.S. trans-Atlantic travel.

October “is not as strong as June or July to Europe, but it’s becoming a peak month for us,” said Brian Znotins, the carrier’s senior vice president of network planning.

But American doesn’t want to push planes too far off their proven track record for ski-and-sun-seeker vacationers in winter, he said.

“I’m not going to mince words: January and February are still very off-beat months. I would hate to have anyone come away and say that they’re good months, they’re just less off-peak than they used to be,” he said.

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Some travelers split the difference.

Atul Mehta, a finance executive based in Chicago, said he is taking his family to Portugal this summer shortly before school resumes, but said when he visits family in Bahrain in the winter “we have taken them out of school.”

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Trump rings openings bells for NYSE, Nasdaq from White House

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Trump Accounts releases mobile app ahead of July 4 program launch

President Donald Trump on Monday celebrated the launch of Trump Accounts by ringing the opening bells of the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq from the White House.

Trump Accounts were created by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the package of tax cuts and reforms that Republicans passed through Congress and was signed into law by President Donald Trump last year.

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“This is about the Trump Accounts, which are absolutely incredible for children. Children at the age of 18, and after, become very wealthy people – come into the world with essentially no money and end up at a pretty young age being very rich,” Trump said.

“That’s something that we’ve wanted to do, this country’s wanted to do for 25 years,” the president added.

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives on stage before delivering remarks during the Treasury Department's Trump Accounts Summit at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium on January 28, 2026 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump has touted the Trump Accounts initiative since the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The initiative invests the savings in low-cost index funds that provide broad, diversified exposure to the U.S. stock market.

GOLDMAN SACHS TO CONTRIBUTE $1,000 TO TRUMP ACCOUNTS FOR ELIGIBLE CHILDREN OF EMPLOYEES

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Parents and guardians may contribute up to $5,000 per year to the accounts belonging to their children, while a parent’s employer can contribute up to $2,500 annually without impacting the employee’s taxable income.

The accounts will be seeded with $1,000 in federal money to give children born between 2025 and 2028 a jump start on their savings.

Trump Accounts app

The Trump Accounts app will feature eight exclusive financial literacy modules. (U.S. Department of the Treasury / Fox News)

At the time of the official launch of Trump Accounts, there is one investment option available, although the Treasury Department has indicated four more will be available in the months ahead.

The State Street SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPYM), a low-cost exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the performance of the S&P 500 Index, will be the initial default investment option.

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Four other ETFs in the future include two that focus on the total U.S. stock market offered by Vanguard and iShares, along with a State Street ETF focused on the broader S&P 1500, as well as another iShares offering focused on the S&P 500.

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Western Digital, Sandisk, AMD, ASML, TeraWulf, Strategy, and More Stocks That Explain Today’s Market

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ECB payment system hit by second outage in a week

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U.S. Equities: What's Hiding Beneath The Market's Headline Returns?

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Marta Kostyuk Beats Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4 to Reach First-Ever Wimbledon Quarterfinal in Straight Sets

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Australian James Duckworth celebrates a point in his second-round win over eighth-seeded David Goffin of Belgium in the Miami Open ATP and WTA hardcourt tennis tournament

LONDON — Marta Kostyuk defeated American Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4 on Monday to reach her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, continuing a breakout season for the Ukrainian that has now seen her advance to the fourth round or better at all four Grand Slam tournaments.

The match, played on No. 2 Court, pitted the No. 13-seeded Kostyuk against Krueger, an American ranked outside the top 100 who had been enjoying the best run of her career on grass. Kostyuk used her aggressive baseline game and sharp return of serve to overcome a confident Krueger, closing out the win in straight sets to book a spot in her first Wimbledon quarterfinal.

The victory extended what has become one of the more remarkable turnarounds on the WTA Tour this season. Kostyuk has now won 19 of her last 20 matches, a stretch that included a run to the semifinals at Roland Garros earlier this year, a tournament where she memorably ended four-time champion Iga Swiatek’s run in the earliest French Open exit of Swiatek’s career in seven years. Kostyuk entered Wimbledon with a modest 19-19 career record on grass and had previously never advanced past the third round at the All England Club, a surface she has openly said used to feel like her worst.

Kostyuk’s win over Krueger followed a hard-fought third-round victory over American Emma Navarro, whom Kostyuk beat 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 after saving four of five break points she faced. That win was particularly significant given that Navarro had beaten Kostyuk in all four of their previous meetings. Reflecting on her run to the fourth round after that match, Kostyuk said she had never expected to reach that stage of the tournament, adding that regardless of the outcome, the most important thing was to enjoy the experience fully.

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Kostyuk has also been candid about her prior struggles on grass, saying she had played what she described as horrendous tennis at Wimbledon in previous years and had never been able to find her form on the surface at any level of tournament, whether at the majors or smaller grass-court events. She noted that even in the lead-up to this year’s tournament, she had lost most of her practice sets, including matches against Serena Williams and Jessica Pegula, before turning her form around once the event began.

With Monday’s win, the 24-year-old Kostyuk moved into rarefied statistical territory. According to tournament statistics provider Opta, she became just the fourth player born in the 2000s to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal on all three major surfaces, hard court, clay and grass, joining Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova and Coco Gauff as the only players born in that decade to have accomplished the feat. The result also pushed Kostyuk to the brink of a maiden top-10 ranking, with her live ranking rising to No. 11, just 194 points behind the current No. 10, Victoria Mboko, who withdrew from this year’s Wimbledon due to a knee injury sustained at the Queen’s Club tournament.

For Krueger, the loss ended what had already been the best Grand Slam result of her career. Having reached the fourth round of a major for the first time, Krueger arrived at Wimbledon on the back of a 16-1 record on grass this season, a stretch that included winning the WTA 125 title in Ilkley and reaching the semifinals in Birmingham. Her run through the tournament included straight-set wins over Mariam Bolkvadze and Daria Snigur, along with a tighter three-set victory over 2024 semifinalist Donna Vekic in her opening match.

Monday’s meeting marked the second career encounter between the two players. Krueger had won their first meeting in straight sets at a hard-court tournament in Adelaide in 2025, a result that briefly gave her the edge in their head-to-head series. Kostyuk’s win on Monday evened that record and marked a significant statement given the difference in surface and stakes between the two matchups.

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Krueger’s run through the tournament had drawn attention in part because she began the year outside the top 100 after failing to defend key ranking points from the previous season. Her performances on grass this year, capped by her deepest Grand Slam run to date, are expected to lift her ranking closer to the top 60 in the coming weeks, even after Monday’s defeat.

Kostyuk will next face the winner of a separate fourth-round match between Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, the No. 13 seed, and Filipino player Alexandra Eala, the No. 29 seed, as she continues her push toward a first Wimbledon semifinal appearance. Her run this fortnight has established her as one of the more credible outsiders remaining in a wide-open women’s draw, following her breakthrough run to the semifinals in Paris earlier this season.

The result continues a trend of deep runs for Kostyuk across each of the sport’s four majors this year, a consistency that has become a defining feature of her 2026 season. Having entered the year without a clear signature surface, she now finds herself with credible results on all three, a development that has repositioned her as a genuine contender heading into the latter stages of the year’s grass-court major.

Play at Wimbledon continues through the remainder of the week, with the men’s and women’s quarterfinals set to further narrow the field as the tournament moves toward its concluding rounds later this month.

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Buckingham Palace Withdraws Offer for Prince Harry to Stay There During This Week’s Visit to London Amid Row

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Prince Harry

LONDON — Buckingham Palace confirmed Monday that Prince Harry will not be staying at the royal residence during his visit to London this week, contradicting an earlier statement from the Duke of Sussex’s team that said he had accepted an offer to do so, in the latest episode of confusion and mutual finger-pointing between the two camps.

According to a royal source, Harry had not formally responded to King Charles’ offer of accommodation at a royal residence by the required deadline, which fell at the end of last week. The source said an initial offer for a royal residence to accommodate the wider Sussex family was turned down on Saturday, before a separate request came in for Harry to stay by himself. By that point, the source said, it was too late to arrange the appropriate hospitality and staffing needed to host him, a requirement the palace says applies to any guest staying at one of its residences.

Harry’s spokesperson offered a different account of events. In a statement, the spokesperson said that following a decision by the Royal and VIP Executive Committee, known as RAVEC, not to provide taxpayer-funded security for his family, the duke spent last week arranging alternative security measures. Once those arrangements were finalized, the spokesperson said, Harry was able to formally accept the accommodation offer over the weekend. The spokesperson called it “disappointing” that the offer had since been withdrawn, noting that Buckingham Palace had cited a Tuesday court judgment as a reason for the reversal despite having been aware of the judgment’s timing since the previous Thursday. “It is therefore unclear why, having formally accepted the accommodation offer, it has now been withdrawn at the last moment,” the spokesperson said.

Palace sources have also pointed to sensitivities surrounding the timing of a High Court judgment expected this week in a long-running legal case Harry brought against the publisher of the Daily Mail, alongside other claimants including Elton John, Sadie Frost, Elizabeth Hurley and Baroness Doreen Lawrence. Sources close to the palace have suggested concerns about Harry staying at a royal residence on the same day that judgment is handed down, saying the King cannot appear to be compromised in relation to the ongoing litigation.

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The back-and-forth has drawn attention to what several outlets have described as a pattern of poor communication and mutual distrust between the Sussex team and Buckingham Palace, a dynamic that has persisted since Harry and his wife, Meghan, stepped back from royal duties in 2020. Multiple British media outlets reported earlier Monday, citing Harry’s spokesperson, that the duke had accepted the palace’s invitation, only for palace sources to push back within hours and say the acceptance had come too late to be honored.

The dispute has also become fodder for public commentary. Royal commentator Dan Wootton wrote on the social media platform X that King Charles was “absolutely right to say no to Prince Harry (and Meghan Markle especially) staying in Buckingham Palace,” adding that “the door must now be slammed shut.” Wootton, whose remarks reflect his own characterization of the situation rather than an official palace position, further wrote that Harry and Meghan had made unfounded allegations of racism in an effort to undermine the royal family and that, in his view, their public actions have repeatedly generated controversy. Wootton’s comments represent one vocal perspective among many being expressed publicly as the story has developed, and they have not been endorsed by Buckingham Palace or any official royal spokesperson.

Harry is traveling to the United Kingdom this week to mark the one-year countdown to the 2027 Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style sporting competition for injured and ill servicemen and veterans that he founded more than a decade ago, along with a series of other charity engagements planned across London and the Midlands. It had already been confirmed, separately from the accommodation dispute, that Harry would travel without Meghan and their two children, Archie and Lilibet, following the RAVEC decision not to provide the family with police protection funded by taxpayers during their visits to the UK. It remains possible that Meghan could join Harry later in the week in Birmingham for events tied to the Invictus Games countdown, according to reporting on his travel plans.

The accommodation dispute has added further uncertainty to the question of whether Harry will meet with his father during the visit, a meeting that had reportedly been under discussion before the disagreement over lodging emerged. It also remains unclear whether King Charles will have the opportunity to see his two grandchildren, now ages seven and five, whom he has reportedly not seen in person in roughly four years, should Meghan and the children ultimately join Harry later in the trip.

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Harry and Meghan were last together in the United Kingdom in 2022 for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Since stepping back from their roles as senior working royals that same year, the couple has largely resided in the United States, making periodic visits to the UK for specific engagements, court proceedings and family events, several of which have similarly been marked by public disagreements over security arrangements and other logistical matters.

As of Monday, neither Buckingham Palace nor representatives for Harry had indicated whether the dispute over accommodation would affect the broader schedule of his visit this week, including his planned charity engagements and any potential meeting with the King. Both sides have continued to offer contrasting accounts of how the accommodation offer was extended, accepted and ultimately withdrawn, with no clear indication that either party intends to publicly revise its version of events in the immediate aftermath of Monday’s statements.

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Elevated investment expected to drive more consistent, profitable sales growth.

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