Two major incidents in the space of a month have shown just how quickly global travel can be thrown into chaos - and how vital it is to have expert support in place when it does.
The widespread power outage across Spain and Portugal recently caused unforeseeable chaos country wide - including grounding flights and paralysing airport operations across the region.
At Heathrow Airport in March, everything ground to a halt under the weight of widespread disruption, with many travellers left stranded by a power outage.
But it was not the lack of power which caused travellers most problems - it was the silence.
While leisure travellers turned to social media posts for updates, business-critical travellers - particularly in the energy and marine sectors - needed more than online reassurance.
They needed fast, accurate, and actionable solutions.
For energy, maritime and renewables businesses - where safe, timely crew rotations and operational continuity are critical - these disruptions posed significant risks. Without the ability to quickly source alternatives, crews could be stranded, mobilisation delayed, and duty of care responsibilities compromised.
The operational silence from both airports and airlines meant it was left to travel agents to pick up the pieces. For Munro's Travel, one of the country's leading independent TMCs which specialises in the energy and marine sectors, that meant handling a deluge of emergency requests with a calm, experienced hand.
Such issues were nothing new for the Aberdeen-based team, with average tenure of over 15 years, which has previously dealt with volcano eruptions, dust clouds and earthquakes before.
It became their immediate priority to rebook flights, arrange hotel stays and to keeping crews moving.
Murray Burnett, managing director at Munro's Travel
Murray Burnett, managing director at Munro's Travel, said: "This isn't about applause. It's about reliability. It's about answering the call - when no one else did.
"When critical staff are due to rotate off a rig, or engineers are needed on site to avoid downtime, every minute counts. For companies in energy, maritime and renewables, the cost of missed crew changes or delayed mobilisation can far outweigh the cost of travel.
"The Heathrow disruption and the Spanish/Portuguese outage exposed more than unanswered phone calls - it revealed the fragility of relying on consumer-facing airline support for business-essential travel. For organisations with a duty of care to travelling staff, this raises a serious question: who is watching over your people when things go wrong?"
Traveller safety and duty of care are not optional extras. They should be built into every booking and businesses should look for TMCs with bespoke crewing platforms, live travel data dashboards and 24/7 support. They ensure that in moments of disruption, there's a plan, a path, and a person at the other end of the phone.
As the dust settles and reviews are conducted, one thing is clear - when it matters most, you need more than a booking. You need a team.