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Michael Skapinker

Contributing editor and columnist

Michael Skapinker is an FT contributing editor and columnist. He is also executive editor of Headspring, the FT’s executive education arm. Born in South Africa, he began his journalistic career in Greece. He joined the FT in London in 1986 and has held many positions, including FT Weekend editor, FT Special Reports editor and management editor. 

He received the Work Foundation Members’ Award for his contribution to the understanding of working life in 2003 and was named WorkWorld Media Awards Columnist of the Year in 2008. At the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards he was named Business Commentator of the Year (2012) and Business Ethics Commentator of the Year (2015).

Email Michael Skapinker @Skapinker (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Michael Skapinker @Skapinker (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Monday, 19 October, 2020
    Business travel
    How frequent-flyer cards protect airlines from their passengers

    Moves to prevent criticism and legal action risk aggravating loyal customers

  • Friday, 16 October, 2020
    Business travel
    Covid nostalgia for the days of taking wing

    Travellers grounded for months by lockdown can now become reacquainted with the airlines

  • Monday, 5 October, 2020
    Business travel
    Test before you board is the only route back to air travel

    Previous generations knew what it took to deal with infectious outbreaks

  • Monday, 21 September, 2020
    Business travel
    The model plane that might be the future of flying

    The Flying-V raises the prospect of fewer emissions and more space (even though it’s only three metres wide)

  • Monday, 7 September, 2020
    Business travel
    When should we hit the road again?

    If your competitors start travelling, you might be forced to follow

  • Tuesday, 1 September, 2020
    ReviewHistory books
    Burning the Books — why memory matters

    In Richard Ovenden’s history when books burn, it is more than just words under attack

  • Monday, 24 August, 2020
    Business travel
    Excuse my French: learning a language in lockdown

    Podcast tutorials, foreign-language Netflix and international Zoom calls offer alternative ways to learn

  • Monday, 10 August, 2020
    Business travel
    Are we ready to travel on underground trains?

    From ultraviolet cleaning to crowdsourced apps — what the world’s subways are doing to get us back on board

  • Monday, 27 July, 2020
    Business travel
    The end of the jumbo jet era

    As airlines accelerate the retirement of their final 747s, Airbus is working on the final A380

  • Promoted Content
  • Monday, 13 July, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: why the world loves — and hates — British tourists

    A longstanding ambivalence has been accentuated by the UK’s handling of Covid-19

  • Monday, 29 June, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: is business travel dead?

    Virtual technology is changing the way we think about conferences and meetings

  • Tuesday, 23 June, 2020
    Airlines
    What 9/11 can teach us about aviation’s post-coronavirus future

    Aviation bosses at the time of the attacks expect passenger confidence to return slowly

  • Wednesday, 17 June, 2020
    Travel
    Are we ready to fly again?

    From temperature checks to luggage, Michael Skapinker on the challenges that lie ahead

  • Monday, 15 June, 2020
    ReviewNon-Fiction
    The New Long Life, a manifesto for better later years

    Andrew J Scott and Lynda Gratton want us to reinvent our patterns of work and retirement

  • Monday, 1 June, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: stories from the refund battle

    And the award for how not to handle readers’ refund requests goes to . . .

  • Thursday, 28 May, 2020
    Work & Careers
    Will ageism get worse in the post-pandemic workplace?

    New focus on older people as ‘vulnerable’ has serious consequences for over-60s at work

  • Monday, 18 May, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: the battle for airline refunds

    Travellers have paid $35bn for cancelled flights — getting it back is not proving easy

  • Wednesday, 13 May, 2020
    FT Books Essay
    The humbling truth about the limits of innovation

    How do promises of rocket planes and ageing cures sit with our failure to stop coronavirus?

  • Tuesday, 5 May, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: goodbye gold card, so long silver

    Grounded travellers are facing downgrades but some airlines are rewarding loyalty

  • Wednesday, 29 April, 2020
    Language and grammar
    Covid-19 creates new words that enter everyday language

    In times of emergency, previously unfamiliar terms rapidly enter daily life

  • Monday, 20 April, 2020
    Business travel
    How coronavirus will reshape the trade fair industry

    From Cannes to Shanghai, conferences are being called off. What will the market look like when it returns?

  • Monday, 6 April, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: how we fell out of love with the airlines

    Once a source of national pride, the industry’s current crisis elicits little sympathy

  • Monday, 23 March, 2020
    Business travel
    Frequent flyer: spare a thought for those who can’t work from home

    The airlines and hotels that look after their people now should be rewarded when the crisis eases

  • Tuesday, 17 March, 2020
    Work & Careers
    You say criteria, I say criterion

    Working from home will leave us sticklers with more time to stickle

  • Tuesday, 10 March, 2020
    Work & Careers
    Are all new bosses doomed by Buffett’s ‘organisational inertia’?

    Making changes to institutions or departments is far harder than it looks

Previous You are on page 1 Next

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