A Closer Look: Is climate change affecting turbulence over the north Atlantic?

In A Closer Look, The National provides an in-depth take on one of the main stories of the week

Air travel is in full swing again, with airlines recording booming profits after Covid-19 pandemic restrictions became a thing of the past.

Nervous flyers, however, are being reacquainted with one of their least favourite aspects of journeys: turbulence.

Typically, most passengers don't experience anything worse than mild turbulence. But as climate change continues to affect the environment, studies have shown a change in the amount of severe turbulence reported by flight crews.

Here, host Sarah Forster talks to The National's travel reporter Katy Gillet about the issue.

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Inside Emirates' first class cabins – in pictures

The first-class suites on Emirates feature cream leather seats and a light wood finishing. Photo: Emirates

Ghaf trees, which are native to the UAE, have been hand-stenciled in the first class shower spa aboard Emirates first retrofitted A380. Photo: Emirates

Emirates has a chef-curated vegan menu in the first and business-class cabins. Photo: Emirates

The cabin has a button to raise and lower the drinks cabinet, one to hide the vanity mirror and one that slides the chair from upright to flat. Photo: Emirates

The private suites are fully enclosed. Photo: Emirates

The bathroom of a first-class cabin inside an Airbus A380 at the airbus factories in Hamburg, Germany. Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa

Unlike in the rest of the aircraft, food doesn’t simply arrive. Instead cabin crew ask when each passenger is hungry. Leslie Pableo for the National