Our POLITICO mobility team takes over this episode — unpacking the issues facing the travel industry this summer and what European policymakers can do to address them.

Joshua Posaner, POLITICO's senior policy reporter based in Berlin, talks to Chief Europe Correspondent Matt Karnitschnig about the EU's aim to phase out the combustion engine by 2035 and whether Germany's Finance Minister Christian Lindner can do anything to stop it. And Matt recommends this timely beach read for our listeners.

The rest of POLITICO's mobility team, Hanne Cokelaere and Mari Eccles, join Josh to explain why Europe's summer travel season has been so chaotic — and whether there's any hope for a reprieve soon.

We then speak with Wizz Air CEO József Váradi to better understand why so many flights are currently being canceled around Europe. And the team brings us a debate over staff shortages and strikes at airports with Olivier Jankovec, director general of the European Region of the Airports Council International, and Livia Spera, general secretary of European Transport Workers' Federation.

Finally, we catch up with well-known European affairs blogger and consultant Jon Worth during his 40-day train journey around the EU to discuss the state of European rail travel and what policymakers can do to improve train journeys around the Continent.

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