[Travel] When do you think full scale international travel will open up again?

[1066familyman]

Shouldn't the question be?...Why should international travel go back to pre Covid 19 levels.

We've been sleep walking into climate change disaster and living with mass deaths due to pollution for a long time. Why on earth would we want to return to that when we have a chance to begin to reverse it?

 

[highflyer]

I was surprised to see that the UK is bracketed with the US in this?
Is that an opinion or fact?
I was under the impression that the UK was doing better than many countries in this area and the worst offenders were USA, Russia,China and India.

Obviously opinion!

I happen to believe it is informed opinion, but opinion nonetheless.

And yes, true, I'd not bracket the UK with the current US administration. We are not THAT bad. The UK government talks a half decent talk, sometimes. But their record on actual action is generally poor and I think that reflects both ideology (that make it hard to engage in strong state intervention) and also who is pulling the strings behind the scenes. So am not optimistic, but I do hope to be proved wrong.

I'd also definitely take China out of your 'worst offenders' list (and add in the likes of Saudi Arabia and UAE).

 

[maltaseagull]

Obviously opinion!

I happen to believe it is informed opinion, but opinion nonetheless.

And yes, true, I'd not bracket the UK with the current US administration. We are not THAT bad. The UK government talks a half decent talk, sometimes. But their record on actual action is generally poor and I think that reflects both ideology (that make it hard to engage in strong state intervention) and also who is pulling the strings behind the scenes. So am not optimistic, but I do hope to be proved wrong.

I'd also definitely take China out of your 'worst offenders' list (and add in the likes of Saudi Arabia and UAE).

Surely China is, by far, the worst offender in climate change impact due to it's huge manufacturing output and not much concern for the environment?
Saudi and UAE have tiny populations and hardly any manufacturing so, unless you blame them for selling oil, I don't see why they count as much.

 

[highflyer]

Surely China is, by far, the worst offender in climate change impact due to it's huge manufacturing output and not much concern for the environment?
Saudi and UAE have tiny populations and hardly any manufacturing so, unless you blame them for selling oil, I don't see why they count as much.

- Per capita emissions (far more meaningful than just 'who emits most' and Saudi and UAE have some of the highest per capita emissions in the world - Saudi double that of China and UAE triple)

- Embedded emissions in consumption (eg most of China's manufacturing relates to consumption elsewhere, and many think that 'consumption' matters as much, if not more, than production as this is where a lot of change needs to happen - but of course you won't hear that so much when you live in countries which are high consumption but lower production)

- Investment in low carbon technology (yes China is building a lot of coal plants but also a hell of a lot of solar, which you don't hear so much about)

- Direction of travel (China is still bad, but has been generally moving in the right direction, albeit with some recent backsliding, while others are not)

- Commitment to global processes. Ask anyone involved in the UNFCC negotiations who the biggest blockers are (they won't say China)

- Historical emissions - China may be major emittors now, but bear less reponsibility than many others for the carbon already in the atmosphere and that means there is a good argument to be made (formally acknowledged as the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibility' within the global negotiations) that they should be under less pressure to reduce emissions quickly compared to countries with much greater historical reponsibility. That doesn't mean they get off scot free, and they have made their commitments in the Paris agreement (unlike the US, which has withdrawn), but it does mean that there is differences in the speed at which they are expected to reduce compared to some others, within the context of an overall global requirement for reduction.

Anyway. There are other threads for this discussion I think. So will stop myself here.

 

[Weststander]

Full scale - next Feb-ish?

With some routes earlier eg Austria seem to be unwinding lockdown.

But how as Brits do we use those routes, if all our airports are closed?

 

[Weststander]

America’s haphazard federal policy at the moment, not to mention the new immigration card Trump has thrown in, will make America a no go destination for many reasons. Many countries will now be reluctant to accept flights from America, Trump will obviously try and use political muscle to open up airline routes probably before its wise, all the while spouting vile nationalistic rhetoric.

Internal American flights will start up within a month, because they care more about the dollar than health.
International flights will probably start up again so, but not on a grand scale, most folk will now be planning on spending time in their own beautiful countries. I don’t expect full scale tourism back until next summer, the worry is a resurgence of the virus either now or again in the winter months.

It will also be impossible or ridiculously costly, for us to get travel insurance covering US medical costs. Making travel there entirely at our risk, potentially incurring a life-changing hospital bill.

 

[dazzer6666]

At 11.45pm on Bank Holiday Monday there wasn't a single plane flying over the entire UK.....
https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro....oment-wasnt-single-plane-sky-uk-12559914/amp/

Maybe 30-40 now, a lot of which are light aircraft.......quite interesting then to compare with the density of traffic over the US

https://www.flightradar24.com/53.97,-2.46/6

 

[Icy Gull]

If you own a small plane at Shoreham are you allowed to go for a little jaunt in it in the current situation. Assuming a take off, fly about a bit and come back to Shoreham?

 

[willalbion]

Shouldn't the question be?...Why should international travel go back to pre Covid 19 levels.

We've been sleep walking into climate change disaster and living with mass deaths due to pollution for a long time. Why on earth would we want to return to that when we have a chance to begin to reverse it?

Preach. I truly hope the world takes stock and uses this opportunity to re-set what's important.

Although I doubt it. One thing humanity excels at is a refusal to learn from our mistakes. We're all about the dollars and consumption.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

End of June I imagine some routes will be opening up

With about 75 percent by end of year

Normal frequencies sometime in 2021

As mentioned on here:

Trump will open up ASAP
Airlines won’t be around if it’s much longer than the above mentioned

I won’t be shocked to see the FCO advice change as soon as USA does because we won’t to annoy Trump.

No idea what the new normal will look like, but I imagine people will still want to travel - maybe more so now.

 

[Ⓩ-Ⓐ-Ⓜ-Ⓞ-Ⓡ-Ⓐ]

Preach. I truly hope the world takes stock and uses this opportunity to re-set what's important.

Although I doubt it. One thing humanity excels at is a refusal to learn from our mistakes. We're all about the dollars and consumption.

"The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history."

-Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

 

[Wilko]

Have you been to Lichtenstein?

I have. Been to every European country apart from Albania which I was due to tick off this August.

 

[Wardy's twin]

As a frequent traveller and someone who is trying to tick off every country in the world, this is one area I am gutted about. I tend to tick off at least 5 new countries a year but this year will get to none! I know in the grand scheme of things it does not matter and the health and well being of people is most important of course but as you say. cannot see any international travel in 2020 t all.

and the best one was?

 

[Wilko]

and the best one was?

I would probably go with Iceland. Though believe it or not, having been to many countries I still think the Island of Ibiza is beautiful along with parts of Scotland.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

It will come back, logistics will take a little time but the demand will be there, in a decade we'll look back at this period as a little blip, nothing more.

Some airlines will go bust, but the planes will be sold on and will be back up in the air with a new paint-job.

The world hasn't changed, as much as we might want it to be.

 

[marlowe]

Maybe 30-40 now, a lot of which are light aircraft.......quite interesting then to compare with the density of traffic over the US

https://www.flightradar24.com/53.97,-2.46/6

I saw a number of helicopters on flightradar when I looked earlier complete with revolving rotary blades. I've never seen a helicopter on there before, probably because they are usually obscured by all of the aeroplanes but today I counted four in the Sussex/Surrey area.

I also noticed a few moving rectangular objects. Not sure what they are, drones perhaps?

 

[dazzer6666]

I saw a number of helicopters on flightradar when I looked earlier complete with revolving rotary blades. I've never seen a helicopter on there before, probably because they are usually obscured by all of the aeroplanes but today I counted four in the Sussex/Surrey area.

I also noticed a few moving rectangular objects. Not sure what they are, drones perhaps?

Usually plenty of helicopters on there. The moving objects are vehicles of some sort I think - usually quite a few around airports ?

 

[daveinplzen]

Govt spokesman has freaked people out a bit here, saying no tourists for two years. Cant see it myself but you never know

 

[Super Steve Earle]

How long until we can just hop on a plane and go anywhere again?

We own a restaurant abroad in a town that is heavily dependant on tourism. As a best case scenario we're hoping things will get back to some kind of normality, although in lesser numbers, by January 2021. Although if we have a huge surge in US/European Coronavirus in cases again over next winter, perhaps it won't be until April 2021. I can't see any scenarios where it's sooner than 8-9 months away.

I imagine international air travel will be the very last thing to be reopened as it will require international cooperation from many countries, dependant on how much the virus is under control in each respective country. Probably some routes will open up sooner, I can see travel within Europe being possible perhaps in 3-4 months.

Poll to follow.

Edit: Doh! Forgot to click "Add Poll"!

2nd Edit: Found the retrospective poll button!

The poll is titled 'When can we travel again'.

I fear the answer would be later if there were another poll titled 'When will you travel again'.

Personally, I won't be travelling for a while after the restrictions are lifted. I fear that we will be allowed to travel sooner than is safe to do so.

 

[swindonseagull]

.

I also noticed a few moving rectangular objects. Not sure what they are, drones perhaps?

Ground support vehicles, tugs/ bird scarers etc