Transport difficulties emerged before Christmas around the world

Delayed plane flights, canceled trains and new cruise destinations

Christmas Island, a jungle paradise located in the Indian Ocean about 3.5 hours by plane from Australia, celebrates its namesake holiday every day. The paradise island reefs, home to 250 endemic species, have earned the name “Australia’s Galapagos Islands”, but geographically this remote gem is closer to Indonesia than the Australian mainland.

While Christmas is celebrated on December 25 throughout the Western world, there is Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, which belongs to Australia, where the holiday of the same name is celebrated every day.

In total, about 1,700 residents are lucky enough to call this place home. Local resident Sook Yee Lai tells CNN Travel: “We do a lot of snorkeling, diving, surfing, caving and trekking through the jungle to hang out at hidden beaches.”

About 22 percent of residents are of Chinese descent, 17 percent are of Australian and Malay descent, 12.5 percent are English and nearly 4 percent are Indonesian, meaning a variety of languages ​​can be heard day in and day out.

But to get to Christmas Island, you need to take a long journey. And traveling during the holidays can cause a lot of inconvenience. It is reported that despite the fact that American airlines carry almost 3 million passengers per day, they are experiencing difficulties not only because of weather conditions. Let us recall that in 2022, people stuck in Lapland due to prolonged bad weather could fill its area 11 times. Southwest Airlines received a record $140 million fine this year.

“U.S. airlines have been working for months to meet unprecedented demand during the holiday season,” airport officials said in a statement, adding that airlines were “actively recruiting staff and adjusting flight schedules to accommodate air traffic controller shortages.”

Cruise passengers had a tough time during the holidays. The MSC Meraviglia was supposed to take guests from New York to the sunny Bahamas, but was diverted to much cooler Canada and New England. And another Norwegian cruise ship lost steam in the harsh conditions of the North Sea.

It was reported that the vessel was able to maneuver with the help of emergency systems, and there were two Esvagt civilian support vessels nearby. But the route had to be changed: passengers will disembark in Germany instead of the UK.

Passengers on Europe’s high-speed rail service Eurostar saw their journeys disrupted by a last-minute strike by Eurotunnel staff. Eurotunnel said in a statement that an agreement had been reached between its management and union representatives following a dispute over year-end bonuses. The company added that traffic will gradually resume after the deal is concluded. Management officials added that traffic will gradually resume after the deal is concluded.

According to Getlink, the strike began after unions rejected a €1,000 year-end bonus announced by management.