a record number of people are booking flights for the spring and summer travel season. business and international travel is back. but staffing shortages mean airlines haven t been able to add all the seats they need, causing the spike in fares. and there is no relief on the ground either, this morning aaa reports the national average for a gallon of regular, $4.42. another record, 41 cents higher than a month ago. want to bring in chief oil analyst, and so nice to have you here today. these records are like a broken record. literally here. i mean, to be where we were at the last real kind of record bad time in 2008, you d have to see prices more like in the $5.30 range. but could we get there? $5.30 is a lot to ask. i don t think that we get quite to $5. talk to me a month or two ago, i thought that we would brush with that. but i think that $4.75 is where
we have a task force working on this with the administration. set up after the president visited the united kingdom in june. we know you re not ready to lift that order yet. that executive order partly because of vaccination rates. but we continue to look at all the detail, all the technicalities and try to work out with our american colleagues how we could get a travel corridor of some sort going. we really want to open up to business and international travel. one of the requirements is proof of vaccination. which is something that i think there s more of a willingness for in the united kingdom than here in the united states. you have these covid passports in a way. what rights, you know, what does this get you into? what doors does it open when you have proof of vaccination in the united kingdom? at the moment document whose use is being developed. from september, there will be venues like nightclubs that will