PPRuNe Forums - Coronavirus Impact on Air Travel

I'll just add my 2 penn'orth to the debate having recently experienced the quarantine regime from the other side...

Normally I spend my winter flying balloons in Bagan, Myanmar and acting as the CTO of the largest balloon maintenance organisation in Asia. Obviously this year things are rather different... However our boss decided to get a few of us back to fly the local pax we had booked and in the hope that things might improve later in the season; We had our own views on the likelihood of this but hey, they're paying and this is my full time job...

Anyway, we eventually got permission to enter the country from the various ministries and embassies and ended up on a flight from Paris via one of the 'Stans repatriating ship crews and delivering French heli pilots/engineers working here in support of the oil and gas industry in mid November. (Just getting to Paris from near FRA was an adventure in itself as our flight was canx as were two trains!)
We had to have a PCR within 72hrs of the flight and also to have self isolated for a week previously. The seating on board was arranged such that the middle seat was free between people to maintain distancing.
We eventually arrived in Yangon to be met with ground staff kitted out in full hazmat gear, and were shepherded onto a bus and taken to a transit lounge where we were taken by taxi(driver having had a negative test beforehand) to the basement of our government selected hotel( a smart international chain establishment) whereby we were processed by the hotel staff (again in full gear) individually through an airlock door system with everything being disinfected as we moved or touched anything. We were then directed to our hotel room via a service lift and ordered not to leave on pain of a 500$ per person fine. The lift wasn't useable from the floor we were on. Food was delivered 3 times a day by staff knocking on the door; it was served with plastic cutlery and plates that were taken away and burnt after use(don't mention the environment:{). The housekeeping staff were not allowed access for the week.
After 4 days we were escorted down to the underground car park for another PCR test again under strict conditions, and immediately escorted back to the room. If the results were negative you could stay in the hotel, however it was rumoured in a case of a positive result it was off to a government quarantine facility:sad:. At the end of the week we were tested again and then released directly into a taxi limo for the 8hr drive up to Bagan. The driver had in the previous 24hrs tested negative ... On the journey we were subjected to several spot checks plus controls at every Division(county) boundary, whereby our papers, Covid tests and permissions to travel were checked. At the city boundary we had to change vehicle as our driver wasn't allowed to enter as he was from a different division and another negative tested driver picked us up and took us to our hotel/home. Here we were instructed we could move around the hotel but not permitted to leave for a week. Masks had to be worn when outside of your room at all times by everyone in the hotel. After a week, providing we were asymptomatic we were released into the real world...
Obviously all hotels and most restaurants were closed and everyone without fail was wearing a mask(and for the most part still are) and distancing as per the rules. Up until last weekend there was a curfew from midnight until 0400 and there was a checkpoint restricting movement into the different parts of Bagan.
Some quarters(districts) had erected their own barriers/checkpoints to keep non residents out of their bit of town.
There were/are various reasons for all this: 1. No real health care system outside of the emergency hospitals, 2. The penalties for disobeying the rules(The authorities don't mess around here) and 3. The fear of the disease spreading as per the rest of the world.

As this area lives from tourism then they're desperate to get back to normal but at the same time in no rush to open borders before the situation is contained enough to be safe. The international airport has been closed to all but freight and repatriation flights since march last year and all land borders have been closed until very recently. Our local airport is open for limited domestic flights from certain 'safe' areas, but all travellers must have a negative PCR test before travelling.

Up until now understandably we haven't been given permission to recommence flying but there is hope that rules will be relaxed in early February, however initially that will only be for currency/check flights. How long we continue to sit here hoping is anyone's guess we can all see the reasoning for the delays and just have to take a leaf out of the locals and be v very Buddhist about it all.

The results however speak for themselves with probably one of the lowest infection and death rates in the world even allowing for some massaging of figures. We've had 4 cases here in the time we've been here in an area with a population of around 50-60,000 people, and one of those turned out to be negative. 1 person has apparently died here but he was from outside the area(truck driver who'd avoided getting a test when he left Yangon).

My point is that this strict quarantine for EVERYONE entering the country and the strict control of EVERYONE moving around the country, plus the locking down of areas with more cases(Yangon, Mandalay) at different times has paid dividends, and the UK and the rest of Europe could learn a lot from it...

As a case in point, when I returned to Germany last march on one of the last flights out of Asia there were NO controls whatsoever regarding where I'd been or where I was going. I also worked in France last summer(A whole story in itself) and again crossed over to Germany on my return with no checks.
I briefly visited the UK in September to renew my medical and was horrified to find I was boarding a flight that was jam packed with people:uhoh: Masks were worn however but distancing was impossible. Again no controls on arrival at LHR and I made my way through a half deserted airport to the bus station. I caught a bus to Wiltshire to pick up a car from mate. On board the bus there were only seats available on the window seats, so basically each aisle seat was empty for distancing.
My experience over the long weekend I was over ranged from strict controls at my AME for my medical and also for the CAP611 fire/first aid course, to blatant disregard for the rules in most other places. I then reversed the procedure on my return and boarded the fully loaded aircraft back to FRA...
I also had to carry out some inspections in the NL in November and was horrified to discover after leaving masked up Germany that NO-ONE was required to wear masks and again there were no border controls either way. I kept my mask on at all times and was given some very strange looks over the weekend:ugh:

The lack of joined up thinking amongst the European nations and the UK means that I can't see that there's going to be any return to normality in the near or mid-future. The only hope is that these vaccines work and that despite the various governments and individuals attitudes there will be some sort of new normalcy restored...

Sorry for the long rambling post- I hope it makes sense:\

I'll try and add some pics...
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