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Travel expert Simon Calder has given six words of advice to any Brits with a holiday abroad booked for 2026, after the UK government said it would allow airlines to cancel flights. Appearing on GB News with presenters Ellie Costello and Alex Armstrong, Simon wanted to "put into perspective" some of the frightening statistics that have been hitting headlines in recent weeks.

He said on the TV show: "Let me put this into perspective, if I may. Everybody who's reading The Sun and watching GB News is thinking, 'Crikey, I've got a holiday booked, and if they're cancelling 13,000 flights and taking 2million seats out of the market, that could be my holiday!' Of course people are going to be alarmed.

"But these are actually figures for the month of May, which is low season - they are across the whole world and are included a couple of airlines who have taken out masses of flights, in particular Lufthansa of Germany and Turkish Airlines."

He went on: "Yeah, some people fly on Turkish Airlines, although they haven't cancelled any routes to and from the UK or any flights. A number of people fly on Lufthansa, and they have cancelled a few Glasgow to Frankfurt, for instance, which is annoying, and passengers are being sent to Edinburgh instead. But it's 1.5% of the capacity."

Simon added: "Since the average plane has typically about 10 or 15% of space, that doesn't really make it a big problem.

"I think this really very interesting statistic, which is a reflection of the very high price of oil, is kind of being combined with what we heard at the weekend when the government said, 'We're going to look after your holiday by allowing airlines to cancel flights'. That's feeding this idea that my holiday flight is at risk.

"I've talked in the last 24 hours to top people in the travel industry and they're really frustrated that there's all this talk of cancellations, when the reality is that people will get their holiday as they expect."

He followed up with six words of encouragement: "Keep calm and carry on booking!"