COVID Casualties
Predictions, Observations, and Farewells Amidst Coronavirus.
What will air travel look like post-COVID? It’s still too soon to know. There are many moving parts to this. It’s happening globally, at different speeds, across a diverse range of cultures and economies and market environments. Things will be in flux for a long time, with no defined end.
Much has already happened, however, and there are signs and signals as to what may lay ahead. Airlines have fallen, trends are emerging, protocols are being set. Below is a look at what we’ve seen, and some thoughts on what comes next, both for airlines and their customers.
This post will be updated periodically as events occur, and as the author’s aggravation levels rise and fall.
September 1, 2021. Mask Mania.
If, like me, you’re a fan of the commercial aviation streams on Instagram, you’ve seen them: photo after photo after photo of airline workers cheerfully mugging in face masks. I’ve had it with this.
Yes, everyone who flies needs to put a mask on. This is understood and accepted, as is any airline’s attempt to make the policy clear through advertising, promotional materials, on-board safety videos, and so forth. In other words, treat it seriously. What drives me crazy are the constant attempts to cute-ify the wearing of masks. Because, in fact, there’s nothing cute about it. Masks are a physical symptom of a society, and an airline industry, in pretty serious distress. This isn’t something to giggle at, normalize, or make light of, and we should want them to go away as soon as possible (ironically, by wearing them when and where it makes sense to).
It’s not just aviation galleries. The entire internet is awash in mask selfies. These pictures seem wrong to me, and often feel sanctimonious. Posting a photo with a mask on is a little like posting a photo with a bag over your head. Why do it unless, for some reason of policy or regulation, you have to? Nine times in ten there appears to be no reason the person couldn’t have slipped the damn thing off for the sake of a picture — especially in shots taken outdoors.
Or is that the whole point? If so, it’s not a helpful one. Turning masks into political statements or fetish objects doesn’t keep anyone safer or halt the spread of coronavirus.
August 19, 2021. Covering Up.
Earlier this week, TSA announced an extension of its passenger mask mandate. Flyers will now be required to wear approved face masks aboard all U.S. commercial flights until at least January 18th, 2022. Considering current case rates and the high transmissibility of the COVID-19 delta variant, this was neither unexpected nor unreasonable. And so my reaction is little more than a shrug.
The extension is unlikely to affect passenger volumes in any measurable way. Love them or hate them, masks are simply not a part of most travelers’ go/no-go criteria. They do, however, add to the levels of aggravation and frustration in the cabin, and the big issue for airlines now is how the ruling might affect levels of so-called air rage. Instances of passenger violence and belligerent behavior have risen sharply, and masks are a part of that.
I have no big issue with masks on planes in a general sense. One thing I wish, however, is that carriers weren’t so blindly aggressive in their enforcement. I’ve seen flight attendants literally scream at passengers because their masks momentarily slipped beneath their noses. Stepping onto a jetliner, the first words you hear are no longer “hello,” or “welcome aboard,” but a stern, “Sir, your mask needs to be all the way over your nose!” A few days ago I witnessed a flight attendant interrupt and berate a customer because he dared to partially remove his mask in order to ask a question about a connecting flight. (If he can remove his mask to enjoy a meal, why can’t he remove it for two seconds to ask a question?) To say nothing of the endless barrage of mask-related public address announcements that begin well before boarding and don’t end until you’re at baggage claim five hours later.
This sort of combative, absolute zero-tolerance approach is not in the spirit of the rule, and does nothing to keep people safer. All it does is create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear in a setting where tension levels already are high.
May 19, 2021. Thresholds.
Daily passenger volume in the U.S. is now about 70 percent of 2019 levels. Airlines are reporting positive cash flow, if not quite profit, and many flights are full. Passenger confidence is returning and there’s the smell of normal in the air.
Of course, a full flight isn’t necessarily a profitable one. It’s easy to fill a plane with cheap tickets, and it’s low-yield leisure traffic that, for the moment, is driving the recovery. Business traffic is what airlines count on, and here any improvement has been agonizingly slow to materialize. It will come, eventually; not to the levels we saw before, but enough to return airlines to the black. Another asterisk is geography. Southern and middle-of-the-country airports are bustling, while places like Boston and San Francisco lag behind. The differences are driven by local economies, culture, even politics. Regardless, almost all of the signs are positive, at least for domestic markets.
The international front, on the other hand, remains a mess. With vaccinations sporadic or even nonexistent in many countries, COVID cases are increasing across much of the world, resulting in paralyzed economies, lockdowns and border closures. Just as worryingly, even “open” countries pose a challenge. What’s lacking is any sort of consistency in entry protocols. Some countries ask only for a vaccination certificate. Others require a vaccination certificate and a so-called PCR test (which can be time-consuming and expensive to get). Others ask for a certificate and the easier kind of COVID test. Others want only one (or both) of these tests, and don’t care about your vax status. Some mandate quarantines on top (or instead) of all this, while others don’t. And so on. The rules are a tangle and constantly being revised.
Just this week the European Union announced a proposal to begin allowing in travelers from select countries, including the United States, without testing or quarantine — just a vaccination. While this is potentially great news, when it might actually happen is unclear. For the time being, they’re not making it easy. To enter Italy, just as one example, a passenger must first pass a PCR test within 72 hours of departure time. He or she must then take a second test at the airport. In case that’s not enough, the passenger is then required to take a third test on arrival in Italy. Three tests, not counting the one you need to return to the United States. No exclusions for vaccination status.
Travelers are not gonna book holidays or business trips when the requirements are this onerous or subject to change on short notice. The world needs groups like IATA, A4A, and USTA to press for more streamlined and standardized procedures.
January 22, 2021. Nowhere Fast.
Newly sworn in, President Joe Biden is unveiling a flurry of policy initiative to stem the spread of you-known-what. Among these is a rule that incoming international passengers must self-quarantine for ten days. This comes only days after a requirement that arriving passengers present a negative COVID-19 test result prior boarding any flight to the United States. There’s no provision for taking a second test after arrival in lieu of quarantine, neither is there an exception for passengers who are vaccinated. Whatever impact these measures may or may not have on COVID-19 cases, they’ll certainly be devastating for airlines and their workers, and will all but crush the small amount of international travel that has begun to rebound — most of it in the Latin America and Caribbean markets.
The U.S. Travel Association lauded the testing requirement, describing it as “the key to reopening international travel.” However, the group is understandably less enthusiastic about the quarantine. “We believe a mandatory quarantine requirement for international travelers could be extremely difficult to enforce—and unnecessary,” the organization said in a press release, “in light of required testing and the many other protections now in place.”
Everything is just a disaster.
January 14, 2021. Norwegian Would.
All right, where were we? It’s been a while. Which is maybe understandable, since so little has changed. Or, maybe more accurately, everything and nothing has changed.
This week, discount carrier Norwegian Air announced that it’s giving up its long-haul network. The airline will downsize from 140 planes to about 50, all of them short-haul Boeing 737s, sending its fleet of more than thirty 787s back to the lessors. The carrier will “return to its routes,” so to speak, focusing on low-cost intra-European flying.
This is no surprise. Norwegian never made money on its long-haul services. The long-haul LCC (low-cost carrier) model is exceptionally challenging under even the best of circumstances, never mind in the middle of a crushing global crisis. Once COVID hit, Norwegian never stood a chance.
History — both recent and distant — is littered with the carcasses of LCCs that tried and failed to make it in transoceanic markets. Laker, Tower Air, AirAsia X, WOW, Joon. And now Norwegian. The track record is a dismal one, yet it always seems like someone is willing to try. Indeed, as we speak, Lufthansa is looking into launching a long-haul LCC tentatively named “Ocean.”
October 15, 2020. Bordering on Madness.
The recovery, if we can call it that, has been handicapped by the recent spike in COVID-19 cases — and, in no small part, by a media that will not cease its fear-mongering. Yet the numbers are improving, little by little. In the U.S., daily passenger totals are closing in on the one million mark. Looking long term, it’s no longer the domestic front that worries me. Even with a shattered economy and a frightened populace, a return to normalcy is possible within a year or two. What scares me to death, however, is what’s going on internationally.
Across the world, borders remain closed or heavily restricted, with absurdly onerous entry requirements. Countries with few or no coronavirus cases remain closed off even to other countries with few or no cases. And those letting visitors in typically require expensive and logistically complicated “PCR” testing prior to arrival. That’s in addition to secondary testing after landing and, in some cases, a lengthy quarantine. It defies logic, but not having COVID-19 is no longer an adequate criteria to visit many countries. To enter Thailand, for instance, a traveler has to undergo three COVID-19 tests and quarantine for two weeks, after which point you are permitted to stay only in government-monitored hotels, with your whereabouts tracked daily. This in a nation that earns 20 percent of its annual GDP through tourism.
Why simple, on-the-spot instant testing hasn’t become an acceptable standard for entry I can’t understand. But it hasn’t. By and large there have been very few efforts toward developing a rational or reasonable means of reopening borders. Instead we have heavy-handed policies that make any return of tourism or business travel all but impossible, and will further decimate the many industries that support and rely on global travel. That includes airlines, more and more of whom are headed to the brink or beyond.
September 2, 2020. Boarding School.
TSA has been tracking the number of passenger boardings at U.S. airports. To the surprise of many, we’ve been seeing daily numbers in excess of 800,000. That’s close to 40 percent of what we saw a year ago on the same days.
On the one hand that’s a spectacular and encouraging statistic, especially with most states only partially reopened, and with an economy off the rails. But looking at it more closely leaves me less sanguine than many of my peers. What I see, rather than a sudden lurch to normalcy, is a limited number of people jumping to take advantage of low fares. Although 40 percent of passengers have returned, 40 percent of revenues have not. Cheap tickets to domestic vacation spots will help fill TSA lines, sure. But looking down the road — especially for the legacy carriers, which rely heavily on international and business traffic — this is hardly a recipe for success.
It’s a positive sign, don’t get me wrong, but the real test begins next week, after Labor Day, when summertime leisure flyers return to work (or to their Zoom meetings). Will boardings continue to rise, or will they plateau and taper off? This will also be the moment when the legacies need to begin separating themselves from their low-cost counterparts. And for that, they’ll need those high-yield business flyers to start coming back, and overseas markets to begin reopening. Until then, “40 percent of normal” doesn’t quite mean what it seems.
August 6, 2020. Branson’s Blues.
I wonder what the record is for the most number of airlines going bankrupt in a six-month span. The post-Deregulation period was pretty brutal, but that was spread over two or three years, from 1979 through 1982. The early 1990s were another dark time, with Eastern and Pan Am going under. Never, though, have we seen such carnage in such a brief amount of time.
Earlier this week, Virgin Atlantic became the latest victim of the COVID panic, filing for bankruptcy protection in both American and British courts. Virgin joins Thai, Avianca, LATAM, and several other major carriers (see earlier entries below) victimized by the collapse in global travel. Virgin was especially hard hit because a high percentage of its revenues comes from routes between London and the United States, all of which have been scaled back significantly or canceled outright. More than 3,000 employees have been laid off. Co-owner Richard Branson was angling for a bailout, and offered up his private Caribbean island as collateral. It wasn’t enough.
This is actually the second Virgin franchise to hit the skids. Virgin Australia Airlines, co-founded by Branson twenty years ago, filed for bankruptcy back in April.
July 19, 2020. Going Dutch.
I survived the curse of July 17th, and find myself in Amsterdam the following morning.
Subdued, is how I’d describe it here. On a normal midsummer weekend, for better or worse, the central part of Amsterdam would be a virtual wall of tourists. On a midsummer weekend in 2020, however, it’s predominantly locals. Looks more like February than July. But otherwise routine: shops and restaurants are open, people are milling freely. And almost nobody has a mask on. The only place I saw masks was at the airport, where it looked about 50/50.
Meanwhile in America.
July 16, 2020. The List Gets Smaller.
Less than two weeks after I wrote about Qantas’s early retirement of the 747 (see the installment below), British Airways has announced it too will cease all 747 flying, effective immediately. This will leave Lufthansa as the only 747 launch customer still operating the jet in scheduled service — assuming it doesn’t follow suit.
Every day brings more and more good news.
I flew in the upper deck of a British Airways 747 once, way back in 1987, from Heathrow to Nairobi. It was an old -200 model with the spiral staircase. Sitting upstairs in a 747 was always special — a private, hangar-shaped mini-cabin distinctly separate from the rest of the aircraft, with its own lavatories and galley. And who couldn’t love those sidewall storage lockers? You were three full stories above the ground, and the view through the windows gave you a sense of the 747’s size. Parked at the gate, you’d be looking over the rooftops of many terminals.
July 3, 2020. Decline and Fall.
A lot has been made about carriers — Emirates in particular — having mothballed their A380 fleets. What’s sadder is the worldwide grounding of the 747. Only a handful are currently in service, and regardless of how or when this all pans out, few will take to the air again. History’s most influential jetliner becomes just another casualty of the hideous global panic touched off by coronavirus. More than anything else in aviation, the 747 deserved a more dignified end.
Later this month, Qantas will say farewell to its last remaining 747. The sendoff will include a hangar commemoration for employees and a series of sold-out scenic flights. KLM’s retirement took place in April, more than a year ahead of schedule. That leaves British Airways and Lufthansa as the largest operators. Their fleets sit idle at the moment, and may or may not reenter service. Each of these carriers had a phase-out plan already in place, but COVID-19 has changed everything.
All four of these airlines were among the 747’s launch customers, and have (or had) operated the aircraft uninterrupted for nearly fifty years, beginning with the -100 variant in 1970.
For what it’s worth, I did spot an Air China 747-8 at Kennedy Airport the other day. There’s an irony in there somewhere.
July 1, 2020. Going South.
Let’s welcome Aeromexico to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy list. Established in 1934, the carrier operates an all-Boeing fleet of 60 aircraft.
Depressingly, if somewhat predictably, it’s the older and more historic airlines that are biting the dust faster than the newcomers and LCCs.
June 23, 2020. Political Masking.
After the 2001 attacks, it was mostly people on the right who bought into the hype and fear; who saw terrorists around every corner and were willing to sign off on things like the Patriot Act, TSA, the Iraq War, and so forth. Left-leaning people resisted. This time, it’s left-leaning people who are the more fearful and pessimistic, while those on the right are advocating for a softer, more laissez-faire approach.
Both crises are similarly sinister in the way they they’ve warped people’s thinking and behavior, but they’ve attracted opposite crowds. Why? I suspect it’s because people who lean right are more naturally drawn to responses involving power and conflict; going after enemies, etc — all the things that came into play after 9/11. This particular crisis, on the other hand, centers on concepts like compassion and “saving people.” Thus it has galvanized that mindset instead of the more reactionary one.
Regardless of the reasons, the more this becomes politicized into a left/right conflict, the longer it’s likely to drag on. Often unfairly, people are being put into two camps. Those in favor of harsh quarantines are Democrats. Those in favor of easing them and opening the economy are pro-Trump. This prejudice extends to the wearing of masks. I live in West Somerville, Massachusetts, one of the most progressive neighborhoods in America. Mask compliance is virtually 100 percent, whether indoors and outdoors. It’s common to see people wearing masks even in isolation, well apart from others: sitting alone in a park, in their yards, or on their porches. Anyone who shows up maskless is immediately pigeonholed as a Trump supporter, regardless of their actual affiliation. Masks aren’t merely a practical tool against the virus; they’re are also a signal and a symbol. The crisis has become a social movement, a cause, and political sentiment is absolutely part of it.
Politicizing COVID discourages people from thinking clearly or freely about what’s happening. Instead you’re assigned a “side” and expected to follow along. Never before has the nation needed to be more united around a cause, and instead we’re being wedged apart — on an issue that requires tough decision-making and bravery, not partisanship. Nonsense like this could postpone any meaningful recovery until after the election. For some, I imagine that’s the intent.
June 14, 2020. Creep.
Masks. Social distancing. Remember when taking off your shoes at airport security was just a “temporary” measure put in place after Richard Reid attempted to ignite his sneakers on a flight from Paris to Miami in 2001? Remember when the liquids and gels limits were a “temporary” restriction that came about after the London bomb plot in 2006? We have a habit of growing acclimated to even the most time-wasting inconveniences, long after they cease making sense. And rarely do the regulators or policy-makers enjoy undoing what they’ve done. It’s always a lot harder to rescind a rule than it was to put that rule in place.
Just saying.
May 26, 2020. Dominoes.
The newest addition to the 2020 bankruptcy flying circus is LATAM. Crippled by lockdowns and global quarantines, the carrier has filed for Chapter 11 protection. By far the largest airline in South America, LATAM traces its origins to the founding of LAN Chile in 1929. It was formed eight years ago when the LAN group, with operations mostly in Chile, Peru and Ecuador, joined forces with TAM of Brazil. The airline flies passenger and cargo services to 30 countries with a fleet of approximately 300 aircraft, including Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. LATAM is 20 percent owned by Delta Air Lines, with Qatar Airways controlling another ten percent.
May 19, 2020. Coast to Coast.
This past weekend I flew from New York to Los Angeles and back. The plane was about half full in both directions. That’s a hundred people, give or take, on a route that has been heavily consolidated (seven or eight daily flights reduced to one or two). It felt good to be back in the seat, though as happened last time I was left a little shaken by the spectacle of two of the world’s busiest airports almost utterly void of people.
The captain and I discussed books, travel, and airline history. I don’t think we mentioned coronavirus more than a couple of times. Like me he’s a bit of an airline trivia buff — a highly unusual trait among pilots, believe it or not — which provided some pleasant distraction.
If you haven’t flown in a while, brace yourself for a whole new onslaught of public address announcements. As if the PA cacophony wasn’t obnoxious and nerve-wracking enough before COVID; it’s been taken to the next level. Curbside to curbside, it’s blah blah blah masks, blah blah blah social distancing, blah blah blah aircraft cleaning, blah blah blah in accordance with the CDC, blah blah blah for the safety of crew and passengers. Boarding and deplaning are now longer and more complicated affairs, with every step of the way accompanied by some noisy and patronizing announcement.
I understand that passengers take comfort in an airline’s efforts to keep them safe. This is important. It’s also important not to scare them half to death or drive them crazy.
May 18, 2020. The Hits Keep Coming.
Colombia’s Avianca and Thai Airways are the latest major carriers to declare bankruptcy.
Avianca is the second-oldest airline in the world, and celebrated its 100th birthday this past December. Imagine making it through the Great Depression, World War II, and every other crisis to have come and gone over the last century, only to get knocked out by COVID in fewer than 90 days.
Thai, grounded since late March, dates to 1960 and operates a fleet of approximately 80 aircraft. The airline had been floundering for years until coronavirus broke its back.
Both companies hope to reorganize and resume flying. Thai is government-owned, giving it some hope, but could still go the way of South African (see below) if a bailout isn’t forthcoming.
May 8, 2020. That Didn’t Take Long.
Forty-eight hours, give or take. See my update below on temperature checks at airports. Just today Frontier Airlines became the first U.S. airline to require the infrared fever-screening of passengers. If your reading is 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, you cannot travel.
It’s just a short matter of time before the other carriers follow suit, and at some point TSA (or a whole new agency) will take control of the operation, setting up checks at a centralized location at or near the security checkpoint. Just a “temporary measure,” of course. Sure.
And that’s the scary part. Twenty years after September 11th and we’re still doing liquid confiscations and taking our shoes off. Nobody can really explain why. Is it crazy to think that twenty years from now we’ll still be wearing masks and having our temperatures checked?
More lines to stand in, temperature scans, mandatory masks, no onboard service, higher fares, scared passengers… I’d say the airlines are just about screwed.
May 7, 2020. Normal Nothing.
If I hear the phrase “new normal” one more time, I’m going to need medication. I understand that certain measures are necessary and helpful under the circumstances. One thing they are not, however, and should never be, is normal. Nothing about this is normal. Yet there are elements of society, both cultural and political, that appear troublingly eager to make a lot of what we’re doing permanent.
Other terms and phrases that have worn out their welcome include “abundance of caution,” “Zoom,” and “front lines.” Did you know that supermarket cashiers are now called “Front line food distribution workers.”
May 6, 2020. Grounded.
Several readers have asked if I’ve been flying. The answer is yes and no. Mostly no. In mid-March I worked a four-day trip to Ghana. Since then, the only thing I’ve done was a simple domestic out-and-back one day about two weeks ago. I bid and received normal schedules for April and May, but every assignment was quickly canceled.
Like many pilots, I’m effectively being paid to sit home. I realize there are far worse fates, but almost nothing about it has been enjoyable. We’re protected through the end of the summer. After that, who knows. Best case is that I’m looking at a significant pay reduction in the fall. Worst case… I’d rather not talk about it. I spent almost six years out of work after 9/11. The thought of having to go through that again is too much.
To repeat something I brought up in an earlier post: What a lot of people don’t realize is that for pilots, should you find yourself laid off, or if your airline goes out of business, you cannot simply slide over to another airline and pick up where you left off. The way airline seniority systems work, there is no sideways transfer of benefits or salary. If you move to a different company, you begin again at the bottom, at probationary pay and benefits, regardless of how much experience you have. You lose everything. So any threat to our companies makes us nervous.
And for any near the bottom of any seniority list, disaster is coming. Thousands of those pilots are about to lose their jobs, possibly for years.
May 5, 2020. On the Horizon.
Whats that in my crystal ball? It’s masks. Several carriers now require passengers and crews to wear face coverings. Don’t be startled if regulators step in and make them mandatory. And whether it’s the law or not, they won’t be going away. Expect many passengers to keep wearing them long after the COVID crisis subsides.
And coming soon to a checkpoint near you: temperature checks. You often see these machines when passing through immigration at airports overseas. I have a feeling you’ll be seeing them in the U.S. as well, giving you the infrared once-over before you’re allowed to board. This is great news, because if passengers want anything, it’s another line to stand in.
Overseeing these new measures will be the Transportation Health Administration (THA), to be formed early next year by President Biden.
That last one is facetious. Right?
May 3, 2020. Let’s Catastrophize.
You know what would really suck right now for a U.S. carrier? An accident. A crash.
On our side is the fact that airlines have slashed their timetables more than 90 percent, vastly decreasing the likelihood of a disaster. Still, and much as I hate saying it, we’re overdue for one. There hasn’t been a major crash involving a mainline U.S. carrier in almost twenty years — by far the longest such streak in aviation history. Carriers are in dire straits as it is. A mishap could put one under. Airline workers are under a lot of stress right now. It’s important we keep our heads in the game.
April 26, 2020. Knockout Number Two: Virgin Australia.
Virgin Australia, the second-largest carrier Down Under, has gone into receivership. The company, co-founded by Richard Branson as Virgin Blue twenty years ago, operated close to a hundred aircraft to over 50 cities throughout Australia, Asia, and the United States. On April 20th the airline entered voluntary administration and filed for bankruptcy. Supposedly a couple of Chinese banks are eyeing VA’s assets with plans to resuscitate the brand, but details are unclear. For now, Virgin Australia becomes the second of what we might call “major” airlines to be punched out by the COVID panic. Others will follow.
April 10, 2020. Knockout Number One: South African Airways.
South African Airways has ceased operations after 86 years. The company had been struggling for some time, and in early April the South African government announced it would cut off any further assistance, forcing the airline close its doors and and lay off all remaining staff. This is a very depressing one. South African Airways was one of the world’s “classic” legacy carriers. In the 1970s and 1980s, its 707s, 747s, and 747SPs helped pioneer ultra long-haul flying (albeit during the apartheid years, when airspace bans often forced its planes to take circuitous routings). Its demise is no less sad than the fates that befell Swissair, Sabena, and some of the other great airlines. Gone too is the carrier’s legendary radio callsign: Springbok. Its “flying springbok” logo from 1971, pictured below, was one of the all-time best.
I flew South African Airways three times, aboard 747, 737, A330 and A320 aircraft, on routes between Johannesburg and New York, Windhoek, Lusaka and Victoria Falls.
There’s talk of a new national carrier emerging from the ashes. Chances are it’ll be given some awful-sounding name like “Sunjet.com,” a low-budget paint job and some goofy-sounding callsign.
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65 Responses to “COVID Casualties”
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Listen, some of us have an ugly smile hahahaha… my eyes are my best feature. I’ve been waiting nearly my whole life for something acceptable to cover the lower half of my face – HA! I’m debating asking if I can wear it in my badge photo ;D
Seatbelts?
Boarding pass?
Overhead bins?
Footwear?
Underwear?
Papers, please.
Pilots always squirm and the ordinary people are still expected to blame the low-level employee, never the pilot most of whom should be duct taped back home in the creaky Lazy Boy in their moldy bathrobe or what.
The PCR testing situation here in the States is ridiculous. At SFO I cannot find a PCR test with guaranteed results within 24 hrs unless perhaps for Hawaii for $300.
In Switzerland, however, ZRH airport offers PCR tests with 5-10 hr turn-around guaranteed for $150. They’re open daily, 4am-10pm, no appointment required. Results via PDF attached to email.
What happened to this country being the land of opportunity and business venture? Ugh.
Also, I’ve been fully vaxxed for weeks, but I still need testing to enter the country. Wtf???
Have used Circle Health walk-in ugent clinic place in Westford, Mass. Close to me in Harvard, but still out by 495.
PCR back same day if you go in early. For sure within 24 hours. Used it for travel to Aruba, no issues. Bills insurance.
https://www.circle-health.org/locations/circle-health-westford
Australia has become overly obsessed with keeping our cases at zero. We now have a travel bubble with NZ but that has been suspended on a couple of occasions after only 2 or 3 cases.
At this stage our federal government is looking at mid to late 2022 to maybe start reopening borders but most people in the tourism related industries say they can’t wait that long.
I recently traveled to South America (fully vaccinated). In Quito, at least, the PCR testing situation was surprisingly great. For $65, someone came to my hotel and took the swab. I had the results within 8 hours. It seems many labs in Quito were offering similar service. I don’t see why this can’t be the norm in many places.
Cambridge is doing an excellent job with testing. PCR tests available every day somewhere in the city. You can make an appointment but don’t bother, the wait has been less than 5 minutes each time in the past few months (mostly at the North Cambridge site but also Harvard Square, Central, and Cambridgeside). Results within 24 hours every time and sometimes much less. Our record was testing at 7pm just as the site closed with results by email around 1am.
https://www.cambridgema.gov/covid19/Testing
Also free.
I’m disappointed to hear that Norwegian is pulling the plug on its long-distance flights; my wife and I flew to Paris a couple of years ago on Norwegian, and while it wasn’t the most comfortable long-distance flight I’ve ever taken, it was nice for the price.
My question is this: What’s the difference that allows the established carriers to fly large numbers of passengers on long-distance flights that dooms the LCC model? There can’t be that many flyers traveling on their companies’ expense accounts – especially now – that keep AA, BA, etc. in the black while the Laker Skytrains and Norwegian Airs of the world fail. Patrick, if you’ve covered this already and I missed it, a link to the article would be greatly appreciated.
Norwegian is finished because it already was losing tons of money. And unlike the US carriers it didn’t have a vast domestic network to fall back on.
LCC carriers operate with tiny margins, and with little or no business traffic. Aircraft utilization is another thing: A 737 or an A320 can fly back-and-forth between cities multiple times a day. Any long-haul route, on the other hand, requires a minimum of TWO large and very expensive planes: one operating in one direction, the other in the opposite direction. The logistics are challenging. To have any chance of making money on cheap fares, you need to keep those planes full, all the time, and constantly running.
Yes, Patrick covid 19 is under control in your country…make sure you wear your MAGA cap when flying
This comment makes no sense.
Patrick, as usual, your ignorance is showing. Progress against COVID isn’t measured in airline passengers–things are not improving because there has been a slight increase in air travel. Even more importantly, you have no idea–again–what you’re talking about with regards to testing. There are multiple reasons why rapid testing isn’t particularly useful–the first is that it isn’t very accurate. I’m happy to explain that to you further if you care. The second, more obvious point, is that people infected with COVID will be a) asymptomatic and b) will not have enough viral load for either the PCR or the Abbot POC test to pick up at the beginning of their illness. This does NOT mean they are not sick and does NOT mean they are not contagious. This is simply reality, whether you like it or not. Strict two week quarantines are the ONLY way to be relatively safe–period. What about this is so complicated to you? This isn’t fear-mongering by the “media”. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead, and as far as I can tell, all you care about is airline traffic. What’s wrong with you?
If the airlines are serious about luring back their business customers and other premium seat travelers before the pandemic ends, one thing they need to do is change their boarding protocols. Because as things stand, the passengers in the priciest seats are likely to receive the most exposure to possible infection as the queue of other boarding passengers makes its way toward the back of the aircraft. Not only does every other passenger lumber past those in front, but that happens at a time when cabin ventilation tends to be limited because the airplane is running on auxiliary power.
If it is impossible to board the seats at the back of the plane first ― and I understand that may be logistically difficult ― one solution would be for the flight attendants to rigorously enforce restrictions on the use of the overheads in the front cabin(s), for aircrew as well as coach passengers, so the passengers with premium seats could wait to enter the aircraft until everyone else has boarded and still be assured of space being available for them to stow their carry-ons in the overheads. Before the pandemic, when the airlines were selling every seat on many routes, it was common for passengers lugging too many carry-ons, or large items which should have been gate-checked, to stuff them in the overheads in the front of the aircraft, leaving little or no space for those who had paid for the seats underneath if they failed to board at the beginning of the process.
I can do without the cheap shot at “the media,” whatever in hell that is, spreading “fear and panic” non-stop. My main news sources — The New York Times, Washington Post, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Atlantic and The New Yorker — keep me pretty well informed. If you care to critique individual publications or stories, as you have in the past, please do. This kind of criticism, so broad as to be meaningless, is best left to those who see news reproters as the enemy of the people.
I had to travel to Sydney last week (for family reasons, certainly not for pleasure) from my home in Brisbane (Australia). Returning home on Saturday, the Qantas captain directed our attention to the last remaining Qantas 747 in the hangar as we taxied away from Terminal 3.
He sounded as wistful as you do about the end of of the 747 era. Fifty years is a long long time for an airplane model. With the exception of the 737, I can’t think of any other airplane that has lasted as long; in the civilian world anyway.
The 747 had a good run but technology has moved on. My last flight in one was 2018, LAX to BNE. As a passenger, I’m not going to miss it. The new aircraft are far more comfortable to fly in. External aesthetics are a moot point from the inside.
The scene in Terminal 3 at SYD (and at BNE, for that matter) was like something out of The Walking Dead. It certainly is a depressing sight to see formerly bustling places as ghost towns.
I weep for the livelihoods that have been lost in this pandemic and for the now hundreds of thousands of people that have lost their lives, and the millions of surviving family members and friends left behind. I personally know one person that died from COVID-19 in the UK.
A large percentage of the dead didn’t really die from the virus. They were killed by toxic politics. Something of a statement of the bleeding obvious, but the toxic politics cannot finish soon enough!
Stay strong.
What British Columbia got right in the fight against COVID-19
https://www.straight.com/covid-19-pandemic/what-bc-got-right-in-fight-against-covid-19
The Top Doctor Who Aced the Coronavirus Test
Dr. Bonnie Henry kept the disease in check in British Columbia without harsh enforcement methods. Now, she is leading the way out of lockdown.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/world/canada/bonnie-henry-british-columbia-coronavirus.html
Just an addition to my other post: Yes, when not with other people, driving in your car, out in a park walking or cycling when you are not coming in to close contact with others, obviously you can remove your mask. I am one of those individuals.
I didn’t read through all your comments about masks but you seem to fall into the same trap that unfortunately many others fall into. Wearing masks in a pandemic is one of several straighforward tools to control airborne viruses. It is nothing new or unusual but is used along with other measures on every similar threat that we have faced over the recent decades and well before that as well. It is only in the recent period that it has become an issue. Every outbreak of aerosol or airborne infectious involved wearing protective gear including masks and other face coverings. It is the same reason that your surgeon and the entire operating room staff go through a very thorough sanitizing procedure before donning full body coverings including face maskes and many times shields, head coverings etc. It is to prevent them from spreading any infectious material to you the patient. With extremely transmissible viruses the same precautions must be taken. And is it really such an imposition to don a mask to help contain the spread of a lethal virus which so far has taken the lives of 140,500 American lives in five months? And many of those who so-call recover have lasting and sometime chronic problems from the infection. A friend of mine’s father was the director of the TB sanitariums here in Chicago years ago. During that epidemic highly infectious patients were quarantined. You didn’t have a choice: your were quarantined. Less infectious patients were allowed to quaratine at home.
That’s not what I’m saying. I was pretty anti-mask at the outset, but I’ve come around. Where I draw the line, however, is with the performative or “statement” mask-wearing that I so often see, particularly around my neighborhood (where people are exceptionally self-righteous and the whole COVID crisis has become a social movement more than anteing else). I’m all for wearing a mask indoors, but sitting in a park alone, 300 feet from the nearest person? Or while gardening? Or while sitting by yourself on your front porch? And then CHASTISING other people for not doing the same? I’m sorry but I can’t accept that.
I have to take a flight on a major US carrier this week. As an already terrified/ superstitious flyer, your section “Let’s Catastrophize” has me…well…catastrophizing. Do you have any advice or reassurance?
I was biking in mid-March (pre-17th, which was a big cusp date here in Ontario) and on my outbound leg in the early evening I saw 747 KLM coming in on final to YYZ, while coming back it was one on final for Lufthansa. Probably a couple of last sightings that, in retrospect, I should have kept my helmetcam video for. Oh, well. Plus ca change.
BTW, I’ve been biking with a mask since 2002 (respro techno gold filter), not for the current reasons, but after my natural heritage planning colleague at the time, who shared my cubicle wall, pointed out my lingering cough after my daily bike commute to work. Riding with a filter cleared that up and I’ve never looked back – keeping it on maintains my authenticity in the current environment, and lends me a Darth look. YMMV.
Keep up the good work, and take care…
The seniority situation at airlines is so archaic and makes very little sense. It would be like a PGA Tour Pro having to start again as a caddy if there was a competitive tour. You would think there could be a work around with something like hours flow maybe with credit given as a percentage for experience. Of course, the airlines would have to pay more that way, and younger pilots would object-I recall they finally allowed flying past age 60 even though younger pilots objected.
Along with health, it got to be something hangin over pilots heads throughout their whole career. Skill and experience on the job should count-today its plain luck.
Patrick,
Hello neighbor. Thanks for the always interesting posts. I agree with you on the masks here. There are lots of situations where they’re very effective at protecting others (supermarket, shops and other indoor venues, protest marches, etc.) and many where they’re not (driving in your car, riding your bike, walking on the bike path or sidewalk when no one else is around, etc.)
Curtatone has just relaxed the mask guidelines: “when you are outside and able to social distance at least six feet from others, you may temporarily remove your face covering but must put it back on when others are nearby” which seems reasonable to me and more or less what we’ve been doing…
In any case, no one should be hassling others for not wearing masks, especially outdoors; there are lots of legitimate reasons for not doing so and it’s none of your business why, just walk around… Also, for the record, wearing a mask in the summer sucks.
@Andrea G:
No, you’re wrong. People aren’t wearing masks because they don’t like Trump. They’re wearing masks because it is the correct thing to do. But that’s a great example of right wing projection.
People are wearing masks all over the world, @Andrea G. Are the people wearing masks in Singapore doing it because the oppose Trump? in Dubai? In Bulgaria? No, they are doing it because they have been advised that doing so slows the spread of the virus.
I’ve heard from many Trump fans who think that all of this Covid stuff is just a conspiracy to make Trump look bad. Yikes. I try to answer logically – such as pointing out that nearly every nation on the planet is reacting similarly or with more restrictions – they can’t ALL be doing that just to make Trump look bad. The one nation that became an unlikely hero to the right wing – Sweden – because they didn’t issue strong anti-Covid restrictions is now publicly stating that this was a major mistake (literally the same person who set the policy has admitted as much).
Masks might be the “correct thing to do” in certain circumstances. The problem that I’m highlighting, though, is how certain people have taken a good idea — masks — and carried it to a ludicrous extreme. And to an extent, it is political. Around here, masks aren’t merely a practical tool against the virus. They are also a signal, and the crisis has become a social movement, a cause, and anti-Trump sentiment is absolutely part of it. Which is mostly Trump’s fault. He sowed the seeds for this, and it’s hardly a surprise that it’s gone this way.
I think the partisan swing between the Right willing to give up civil liberties in the wake of 9/11 and the Left willing to give up those liberties during the Covid pandemic is also tied to the party that holds the Presidency. Republicans agreeing to greenlight intrusive measures to support Bush. With Covid, Id bet alot of mask wearing orthodoxy amongst Democrats stems from opposition to Trump. One of the many things that has gotten under my skin during the pandemic is people saying/writing “believe science”. Science is absent of faith and belief. Science is theories and conclusions reached by careful and continuous research and supported by thorough studies and replicatible experiments. And unlike religious ideologies, “science” changes and evolves as new information is available. Turning every aspect of our lives into absolutist partisan battles does nothing but harm and it doesnt seem like things will improve any time soon, its only getting worse.
Good to hear that you are still flying
@Alex –
Look, just for clarity, yes, the Chinese government lies about stuff. Of course it does. For one thing, it’s a government, and governments lie. Yours does. Mine does. Theirs does. For another, it’s a one-Party state, and it’s a lot easier to lie when you’re not held to account by an opposition or a free press.
That’s why it’s easy for the international press, and for Washington, London and Canberra, to accuse China of lying on coronavirus. (And for them to accuse China of lying on things like emissions policies in order to cover up their own failings and lies.)
The Chinese government is lying now (in large part to benefit American farmers!) about Australian barley dumping. That has been the focus of my work this week.
But that track record is also what makes the fact that I know they’re not lying about coronavirus really significant. And that your government and your media are lying.
I know this is a complicated issue. It is hard to understand, and reporting is confusing. But you really need to question your sources. Look at their motivations. Why would the President of a country with 90,000+ reported deaths and vast economic damage want to shift the blame to someone else? Why would his supporters in the media do the same? Is everything really what they say it is?
@Alex –
—–It has nothing to do with their form of government or their race. It has to do with the fact that their government has long-term, documented history of dishonesty. —–
Mmmm… Yours doesn’t, though! I remember this one time when the US President said that coronavirus was nothing to worry about! And that time when he said he wore a mask at a mask factory! And the time he said he had the biggest crowd at any inauguration! I could go on… Obviously. Even mention lies under other Presidents. With words like Vietnam. Or Pinochet. Or WMDs. But I won’t.
——“And on this, they’re telling the truth.” And what brings you to that conclusion?—–
Vast amounts of research. Like I said, it’s my job. I get paid by large multinationals to tell them when China is lying and when it’s not. I work hard on this, and so do my staff. The Economic Times, meanwhile, reprints made-up nonsense from a xenophobic “historian” in a Murdoch newspaper that’s been retweeted by someone known mostly for lying. And you Googled it! So that’s research too!
I know which of those approaches you’ll trust, unfortunately – retweeted lunacy always trumps rigorous research – and I know that this is how the world works. It doesn’t matter how much truth China tells or doesn’t tell: you, and many like you, have made up your minds. They did this deliberately because they hate you.
@Alex –
The Wuhan airport thing.
There are normally multiple direct flights on Chinese airlines from Wuhan to Australia every day. From mid-January onwards, there were none. Because they had been banned, both by Australia and by China. The Australian government arranged specially-chartered Qantas flights to pick up Australians trapped in Wuhan: it took ages for this to be arranged.
So there’s an anecdotal thing. Here’s something more numbers-based and global.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/05/trumps-flawed-china-travel-conspiracy/
China stopped international flights out of Wuhan on January 23.
—-
The Economic Times is part of the wildly-nationalist Times of India group. Both the Times of India and the Economic Times have a track record of parroting Trump-led conspiracy theories and any anti-China conspiracy theory they can get their hands on.
So this conspiracy theory – initiated by Niall Ferguson in The Times (the British Murdoch paper), promoted by Trump, and aimed to show that the Chinese are all criminals who can’t be trusted – really is right up their street.
—
My understanding is that, other than foreign-government-chartered repatriation flights, the only direct flights out of Wuhan after January 23 were direct to Dulles. They carried children, who were taken directly from the plane at Dulles into a blacked-out A-Team van driven by Hillary Clinton directly to the secret basement entrance of Comet Ping Pong Pizza.
@Bruce
“Not sure where you got this from (although I have a good idea). International evacuation flights out of Wuhan – chartered by foreign governments – were allowed. Foreign governments had to get permission to do these.”
You can find this information on many sources. Just doing a quick Google search now I was able to find an article from the The Economic Times (India – just in case you thought my source had an American political bias). Evacuation/charter flights may have been allowed after 3/27, but up until that date they permitted regularly scheduled international departures.
“I don’t automatically assume they’re lying because they don’t have the same form of government as me, or because they’re not the same race as me.”
It has nothing to do with their form of government or their race. It has to do with the fact that their government has long-term, documented history of dishonesty.
“And on this, they’re telling the truth.”
And what brings you to that conclusion?
Anyway, back to topic….
It’s sad to see Thai going under.
We last flew on them a couple of years ago – SYD-BKK-HKT and back for a wedding. I’d always thought my kids would never get the chance to fly on a 747, but Thai were still running them on the Sydney-Bangkok route. It was fairly recently renovated, and it was lovely. The kids really enjoyed getting to go on one. Service and food, even in economy, were good too. I suspect these will have been my last – and my kids’ only – flights on 747s.
Tourism is so fundamental to Thailand’s economy that I can’t see the government allowing its national carrier to disappear, so I’d hope that they’ll resurrect it one way or another.
@Alex (Jones?)
“Bull$hit. China began imposing domestic travel restrictions in/out of Wuhan on Jan. 23, but allowed international flights to continue departing the city until March 27.”
Not sure where you got this from (although I have a good idea). International evacuation flights out of Wuhan – chartered by foreign governments – were allowed. Foreign governments had to get permission to do these.
“Please don’t tell me you actually believe the numbers the CCP is releasing…”
It is in fact my job to know when the CCP is telling the truth about stuff, and when it’s lying. I don’t automatically assume they’re lying because they don’t have the same form of government as me, or because they’re not the same race as me.
And on this, they’re telling the truth.
“Then I’d expect you must be outraged at Barack Obama and Eric Holder over the Fast & Furious scandal”
I didn’t know about this, and I have to admit that I assumed when I read your post that it had all the credibility of Pizzagate.
But yes, from a quick look, I’m appalled. I’m always appalled by America’s keenness to export its gun problems to the rest of the world.
Are you trying to make this a Democrat vs Republican thing? It’s not.
@Bruce
“For the first week, possibly. But most of this was caused by a belief among epidemiologists that this was going to be as containable as SARS. That mistake was because this was a new thing and they didn’t understand it yet.”
“Not true.”
Bull$hit. China began imposing domestic travel restrictions in/out of Wuhan on Jan. 23, but allowed international flights to continue departing the city until March 27. Imagine how many more would be infected if President Trump hadn’t banned travel from China on Jan. 31 (something the left/media including Joe Biden called him a racist and a xenophobe for doing, yet the rest of the world soon followed his lead). China has been suppressing information coming out of the country since last December, including silencing doctors who warned early on of human to human transmission.
“China (China!) has 4,600 deaths”
Please don’t tell me you actually believe the numbers the CCP is releasing…
“Are you aware of the economic and health damage that has been done to Latin America by the US’ failure to contain gun ownership?”
Then I’d expect you must be outraged at Barack Obama and Eric Holder over the Fast & Furious scandal which shipped thousands of firearms across the Mexican border, most of which ended up in the hands of drug cartels. Yes?
Hello Patrick,
Not to pick nits, but you flew three times on South African Airways on four different airplanes. Does that mean you flew 12 times, or are your fingers just tripping over each other?
Phil
@Alex again – “It’s also evident that the CCP was initially more focused on information suppression and face-saving than containment.”
For the first week, possibly. But most of this was caused by a belief among epidemiologists that this was going to be as containable as SARS. That mistake was because this was a new thing and they didn’t understand it yet.
Also, there are two governments which are even now more focused on information suppression and face-saving than containment, and neither of them are China. The head of one of those governments said in the past week “America has risen to the task, we have met the moment and we have prevailed”, while having the highest (and rapidly-rising) number of infections and deaths in the world. The head of the other said “We have so far succeeded in the first and most important task we set ourselves as a nation – to avoid the tragedy that engulfed other parts of the world”, while having the fifth-highest per-capita death rate (and rising) in the world.
@Alex – “… protecting the rest of China while they allowed international flights to .. departing out of Wuhan.”
Not true.
@Alex – “..I think China should have to pay for every penny of economic damage that has been caused by this pandemic.”
Are you aware of the economic and health damage that has been done to Latin America by the US’ failure to contain gun ownership? How much should they sue for? Are we suing every country for everything now?
@Alex – “Can you honestly blame folks for having an anti-Chinese sentiment nowadays? I mean the Chinese government is basically responsible for the situation we’re in today.”
No, it isn’t. Diseases happen, and they originate in places. The DRC wasn’t responsible for rubella, and Kentucky wasn’t responsible for “Spanish flu”. China acted extremely quickly to contain the virus. Its actions gave the US five weeks to prepare: five weeks that other countries used wisely, but that the US and UK did not use at all. That’s why, as of today, Australia has 98 deaths, Taiwan has 7, China (China!) has 4,600 deaths, the US has about 86,000 and the UK has more than 33,000. Your government (I’m assuming you’re American – forgive me if I’m wrong) messed this one up, and it’s searching for someone to blame so that it can distract from its own failings.
@Alex – “the evidence does point toward this being a naturally developed virus that escaped from a lab in China”
No it doesn’t. The White House and the Murdoch press are saying that, and you’re buying it. Five Eyes (the US, UK, NZ, Canada, Australia intelligence-sharing operation) says there is a “less than 5% chance” of that being the case. Other health authorities put the figure lower.
I can’t “blame folks for having an anti-Chinese sentiment nowadays” because they are being lied to by those who are supposed to inform them.
re: experts and predictions
I doubt anyone will call this correctly, but I recommend the speculation from Laurie Garrett, who wrote an excellent book in 1994 “The Coming Plague.” She says her best guess scenario is a 3 year corona-crisis. And 3 years to develop and mass produce and then distribute a safe and effective vaccine would be the record.
If you consider the original SARS, that was about 10% lethal but fortunately not as transmissible as this one. If we had a pandemic with that lethality, there would not be any debate about the dangers, no campaigns to reopen anything, no plausible deniability that it might be a difficult flu.
I hope predictions for a second wave, especially in the interior of the USA, are wrong. There are economic implications in this happening, but am even more concerned about the psychological breakdown of the society.
Remember, estimates for US casualties without staying at home were about 2 million, and with the shutdowns between 100 and 240 K. We’re likely to reach 100k next week. It’s anyone’s guess what happens to infection rates once restaurants, shopping mauls, hair salons and the like reopen. While viruses don’t care about politics, it is probably noteworthy that many of the emerging hot spots are in places that voted for Dr. Trump. Painful lessons ahead.
@Bruce & Tod Davis
“Sadly though there is a strong anti Chinese sentiment”
Can you honestly blame folks for having an anti-Chinese sentiment nowadays? I mean the Chinese government is basically responsible for the situation we’re in today. Now I don’t believe the conspiracy theories that this was created as a biological weapon, but the evidence does point toward this being a naturally developed virus that escaped from a lab in China due to carelessness and lax safety standards. It’s also evident that the CCP was initially more focused on information suppression and face-saving than containment (not unlike how the Soviets first tried to cover up Chernobyl). It’s also evident that when they did implement containment measures they were more concerned with protecting the rest of China while they allowed international flights to continue departing out of Wuhan.
It’s been cited that if China had acted properly to contain this virus from the beginning that 95% of the damage could have been avoided. Thousands of lives could have been saved. Personally I think China should have to pay for every penny of economic damage that has been caused by this pandemic. One can only hope that once this is all over we will see an investigation into this disaster that will make the 9/11 commissions pale in comparison, and that enough of the world will work together to hold China accountable for their wrongdoing.
“If I’m seen walking or bicycling around my neighborhood without a mask on, I’m immediately pigeonholed as a Trump supporter — which I assuredly am not. The other day when I attempted to explain the concept of herd immunity, and why it’s such a important goal in fighting COVID, her reply was, “Oh that’s a Trump thing.””
Such nice people up in Boston. Kind of like those folks on Cape Cod who were made to wait too long for their ice cream. They berated and harassed the [teenage] employees so badly that several employees quit and the shop was forced to close.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/11/massachusetts-ice-cream-shop-cape-cod-closed-amid-harassment/3107162001/
“COVID Gets political”.
I agree this should not be political and we should not destroy the economy and we should be openly debated the strategy without trying to drown your political opponent. In reality we are divided. One think could be important for both sides and key to opening the economy and aviation is implementation of COVID self test and treatment which drastically reduces mortality. There are some countries which are practically there but not US mostly due to politics which spills over into medicine, this is horrible.
@ Eric: What do you prefer then, God Bleach America?
Standard issue for passengers could also include chem-suits and respirators. Walk through a sanitary spray tunnel before boarding. That would most certainly cancel any spread on-board.
Excellent post as usual, Patrick.
I just don’t see how mandatory temperature checks can be sustained without destroying the airline industry for good. Imagine you’re returning from vacation with your family and one of your children is running a slight temperature, for any of the 1,000 non-COVID-19 reasons this might happen. Now your’re stuck and you can’t get home. Good luck renting a car and driving back from Hawaii.
Seriously, is anyone going to take this risk when they can just choose a closer destination and drive?
No one is going to fly unless absolutely necessary, and there aren’t nearly enough of those people to save commercial air travel. This will be the end of air travel.
A shame to see South African go under, although it has been on life support for a long time now and seeming unable to find a willing better-financed partner. I guess its fleet of graceful A340s will go to the scrapheap.
As for a replacement – I wonder if British Airways, which already runs the Comair franchise in Southern Africa might line up as a replacement for long haul to Europe. Either that, or I could see Ethiopian which is rapidly becoming a regional carrier developing a Southern Africa franchise feeding into their global network.
And you want bright liveries? There’s nothing quite like Mango’s planes under a bright veldt Sun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango_(airline)#/media/File:Mango_Boeing_737-800_Smith.jpg
Ben, re: “If people who have had it don’t develop some immunity, then a vaccine won’t be possible.”
I’m not sure that’s true. It would only apply to traditional vaccines based on a weakened or deactivated virus. However, there are other models being developed and tested including novel types of vaccines that use RNA and DNA. I don’t profess to be an expert on this, but my brother is, and he told me two successful vaccines were developed for SARS COVID-1 (COVID-19 is technically SARS COVID-2, so they’re closely related), both of which conferred immunity in humans. The years spent on that were not wasted; they provided a template for doing the same with this virus. So there’s some reason to be optimistic about a vaccine.
This is in reply to Craig, comment #11: Re “Herd immunity requires that a certain percentage of the population be vaccinated.” That’s not quite my understanding. Herd immunity actually requires that a majority of the population be immune to the virus. This could be because they harbour a certain number (we don’t know that number yet!) of antibodies in their system, OR that they have been vaccinated – and therefore have antibodies promulgated by the vaccine. So one way or another, it comes down to antibodies. The virus would potentially see those, and go “Oops, nope, been there, done that, gotta go somewhere else.”
Re May 8, temperature-taking before boarding – well and good, BUT. BUT many positive cases will be missed. There are *asymptomatic* people out there – those who have the virus in their system but don’t have symptoms; plus *PREsymptomatic* – those who don’t have symptoms *yet*. As we know, the incubation period is anywhere from 2 – 14 days. Suppose you get on a flight but you don’t have a fever YET? And no cough YET? etc. This is a huge crack that would-be travellers can fall into.
Personally I would not get on a plane now; the risks are just too damn great. (I was supposed to visit my son & his wife in Brooklyn next month. Now I’m trying to get them to *drive* up to Montreal.)
About time to form a new political entity – the Pity Party.
My complaint is about complaint. Many of us – like me – are epidemiology ignorant and spend inordinate amounts of time bloviating about a subject we know little about.
And we are damn opinionated; the less we know, the more perfervid our expression.
So it’s with great forbearance that I muzzle myself and suggest, quite humbly, that we are only four months into this pandemic. If ANYONE suggests they understand where we’ll be this summer, this fall, this winter, they’re either liars or fools. We don’t know, with this particular new virus, if immunity can be acquired after infection, or if the virus can return weeks or months later. We don’t know – having not tested enough to find out – what the statistics are.
We may have a number of answers at some future date, but not now.
Angry assumptions, therefore, are silly. Bloviation in all its forms is pointless and only reflects the meanest, most tawdry elements of our nature.
Again I’m writing from the same lack of knowledge and understanding – but I find the vituperation and bitterness shown by so many to be immature, not to mention premature.
That’s a good comment, and you make good points. You’re fighting human nature, though. And a very strong aspect of it.
All we have to go on is what the experts indicate are PROBABLY the wisest courses of action, to the best of their knowledge and abilities. I think they have a REASONABLE idea of what to expect.
About this airline seniority system for employees/pilots — I’ve read about this before at this site, but how set in stone is this? The system appears to be outdated or broken in the face of this crisis. Who mandates it and is there any work-around? Can this system be changed? Who does it continue to serve? Is it part of some union deal that could be re-negotiated? Some background context and information would be very helpful to us outsiders.
It has been like this for many decades and I don’t foresee it changing. It’s not “mandated,” per se. It’s just the way airline crew hierarchies have always been structured (at least in the U.S.). Union contracts are organized around these systems as well; indeed, they are responsible for developing them in the first place. Maybe in the old days they made more sense. Today there is much too much salary disparity between those at the top and those at the bottom, and no protections when moving from one company to another. The idea of a “national seniority list” was tossed around at one point, but the idea never went anywhere.
“You move to a different company, you begin again at the bottom, at probationary pay and benefits, regardless of how much experience you have. You lose everything. ”
if you think only airlines pilots experience this, you are seriously disillusioned. Tons of us in IT, Healthcare, Finance or Retail also lost our jobs in previous lives; we all went back to the end of the line, and had to crawl back, desperately fighting again to progress and be recognized, having to deal with the lucky ones who had seniority but were not as smart as us…
Do not complain, you are likely unionized, are paid until Fall, have some welfare and social protection from the great Commonwealth (nothing wrong with that) and likely have some savings/equity which will help you survive.
Do not cry on yourself and help others, much less fortunate. Think on how, with all your skills (intellectual, engineering, airline experience, media and blog talents, etc) you can help our society overcome this challenge so our less fortunate neighbors or children survive.
I just wanted to say that I am sorry. As a former flight attendant who was involuntarily furloughed after 9/11 I know something of what you’re feeling. In that “glamorous” job our pay was already hopeless, but starting over again after 3 years of waiting to be called back was not worth it, and I had already taken a job in Europe. Anyway, I hope things do not end up being as dire as they look at the moment. Bon courage.
@Tod Davis – “Sadly though there is a strong anti Chinese sentiment in Australia and a lot of people would rather see it go under putting 10,000 people out of work than let China own it.”
This is very true, and that anti-Chinese sentiment is being fuelled by our media and our politicians. It will cost us a fortune: we’re at risk of losing our biggest export market.
The idea of this directly putting 10,000 people out of work is of course a major issue. But there is more to it than that. If we lose Virgin, we face a Qantas/Jetstar monopoly. We’ll see massive increases in fares, and very limited services on some routes. That will have a knock-on effect, especially on the economies of smaller towns and rural industries: the 10,000 direct job losses from a Virgin collapse will be the tip of the iceberg.
Things are particularly surreal here in the Pacific Northwest. WA has a population of 7.5 million, and we’ve had 870 deaths. About 600 of which were elderly nursing home residents, who by definition are not exactly the healthiest segment of our population. For this, our fearless Governor has basically destroyed the entire state, with no end in sight.
We’re doing our sentence, but we’ve committed no crime. The Governor reminds us often that we’ll be released from house arrest when he says so, and not a minute sooner. In his tweets he always writes the word SCIENCE! in shouting caps. At this point I’d prefer less SCIENCE! from the governor and more STATISTICS.
Many hospitals here are empty and about to go bankrupt because they haven’t been allowed to do elective surgeries for 2+ months. No one seems to notice or care.
Lately it seems that we’ve divided society into two groups: There are the privileged few, who get paid to attend Zoom meetings from their bedroom and are just fine doing that forever. And then there are people like my sister in law, who’s spent the last 25 years building a salon business from the ground up and will probably lose everything, her entire life’s work.
As someone who still has a job in IT, I’m horrified by what’s happening to the people of my community who work in the service industry. Their lives have been destroyed by the lockdown order, and their lives don’t seem to count for much.
I totally agree David.
I’m not in the high risk group (I’m only 36) but the social impact is going to be far greater than the virus. We could end up with a society of healthy people who wish they were dead
Virgin Australia was in trouble to start with however this pushed them over the edge.
Australia needs virgin, if Qantas got the monopoly there is no saying what would happen to fares plus a lot of regional areas would be cut off.
Sadly though there is a strong anti Chinese sentiment in Australia and a lot of people would rather see it go under putting 10,000 people out of work than let China own it.
Virgin are a great airline who have always had competitive fare and great service, sadly I was meant to fly with them this week to Fiji
Response to Craig: herd immunity comes naturally OR via a vaccine. A vaccine is accelerated herd immunity with low risk. Herd immunity will eventually develop if enough contract it. If people who have had it don’t develop some immunity, then a vaccine won’t be possible.
How are herd immunity and not wearing a mask related? Herd immunity requires that a certain percentage of the population be vaccinated. No vaccine exists. It’s not even clear that people who’ve had it are immune. One purpose of wearing a mask is to protect others; so asymptomatic people don’t infect those they come in contact with. That’s why you should wear one.
As someone married to a South African, I’m going to miss SAA. Even coach was bearable for those 15-hour flights from the US to JNB.
Things are looking up, a bit, in Australia.
Singapore Airlines and a couple of Chinese airlines are rumoured to be interested in Virgin Australia. I’d be surprised if our current government were to allow a Chinese company to buy it, as it wouldn’t fit our government’s “all Chinese people are evil” narrative. (Virgin does have one Chinese minority shareholder – HNA – already, but HNA itself is circling the drain.) But maybe SQ will be allowed to. I really hope someone is allowed to rescue Virgin, because otherwise we’re going to face an effective monopoly on domestic flights.
But the main way things are looking up is that we seem to have got the virus under control, and so does New Zealand. There’s now talk of a “travel bubble” within the next few months, encompassing Australia and New Zealand, and later maybe some Pacific Islands: once living restrictions are lifted, we’ll be allowed to travel internationally within that bubble. Some prominent people are even suggesting that the bubble be expanded later to other safe countries, like China, Taiwan (yes, I know – it’s not a country) and Vietnam. Travel into and out of the bubble would remain heavily restricted.
If this happens, it will be great. But I can’t see the rest of the world being comfortable with travel into and out of the US and UK being opened up any time soon. That’s annoying on a personal level: my parents and my sister live in Britain, and I have no idea when I’ll see them again.
Patrick,
Thanks for the post — these are my thoughts exactly.
I was born in 1966 so I’m in a “high risk” group. But I’m not afraid of COVID-19 because I’m old enough to know that there are worse things than death, and that quality of life *matters* and needs to be balanced against risk. Otherwise it would be illegal to drive a car.
What terrifies me is not COVID-19. What terrifies me is that the changes we are making now to our lives will mandated by the government to be permanent.
We can do anything as long as we know it will end. But this? Never seeing anyone’s face in public again. Never shaking hands again. Breathing through a mask 90% of the our waking life. Never getting closer than 6 feet to another person. Lining up single file to enter the Grocery story and being herded like cattle up and down one-way isles, with many empty shelves.
And all of this for years upon years with no end because it’s the “new normal”? I hate that term also, but it pops up more and more in my newsfeed each day. And if I see one more “cute” MSM human interest story about how awesome it is to be locked away alone in your house I too will scream.
I’ve never been more depressed about the future of the human race, but I see it as a weird glimmer of hope that at least one other person shares my dread.
“Overseeing these new measures will be the Transportation Health Administration (THA), to be formed early next year by President Biden.
That last one is facetious. Right?”
If you’re referring to President Biden, let’s hope so.