Reality impacts continued...(as per header)

Accounts highlight material uncertainty of the Belfast City Airport operation as a going concern.
The Boss of the airport said the business is still "resilient" despite a question mark over its future in company accounts & will have to secure a new agreement next year to protect it from onerous financial covenants.

"And for what? To keep a load of Octogenarians alive for another few months?"

Jonty, I'm not yet an octogenarian but I find this sort of remark glib and disrespectful. I've no idea which statistics are correct any more than you have, and while some may have had only a few months to live, others will have lost years. Back in the early days when deaths were rising, there were similar remarks on social media along the lines of "they would have died anyway" which many found offensive.

However, I believe we do have to live with this virus to prevent unacceptable excess deaths from other causes and to avoid even more disastrous consequences for the economy, business and jobs. But that probably means protecting the vulnerable or at least encouraging them to take appropriate measures themselves.

We still don't seem to know how effective antibodies are, how long they last or how they can vary from person to person. In the meantime, until there is a vaccine that works and is safe, let's hope the virus loses some of its severity, and with better treatment with drugs in hospitals, means that some of those octogenarians can enjoy life (seeing grandchildren grow up for example) a little longer than a few months.

Sadly, it's a terrible time for many in aviation and likely to get worse this winter. Unfortunately, so far the Chancellor has elected not to introduce any special concessions for this particular vital sector of our economy.

Unfortunately it doesn't just kill octogenarians - the impact can be many and varied, a family friend in his early fifties contracted COVID back in March (on a skiing holiday in Italy...). He's normally as fit as a butchers dog, triathlons, wind surfing etc, but although he is now back on his feet he goes to bed at 4 p.m., exhausted. I'm sure that many people have similar experiences.

Quite right SWBKCB. The longer term effects of even relatively mild symptoms of the virus at the time is an important aspect of current medical investigation.

North East England, North West England, Yorkshire/ Humber and Scotland have now all been placed on the naughty step by Germany

When I was perusing the RKI website yesterday they only mentioned Wales and NI; obviously it's been updated since. Doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

As the Tory Party (remote) Conference begins Raab has said The Government will make an announcement about airport testing "in the coming days" = feeling the heat!

Like Germany did and then gave up on it

https://www.flightglobal.com/strateg...139903.article

Yes, that turned out to be something of a fiasco with people in Bavaria not getting results of (positive) tests.

ATNotts
I was going back to Germany today, but will now be working from home in the UK as our area is in special measures, and after discussions within the business we agreed this maybe a sensible approach. Interestingly our area (Kirklees / Calderdale) has less infections currently than Sheffield which is not locked down. The inconsistency in the UK is the thing that strikes you most when looking at the German v UK approach, with blanket inconsistent lockdowns being done in the UK, with more precise targeted lockdowns in Germany in my experience over the last 7-8 months.
Kind regards
Mr Mac

According to this in depth report if you want to reduce your risk of catching Covid on an aircraft then grab a window seat https://www.nationalgeographic.com/s...ds-on-a-plane/

Let's suppose that later in October, the relevant bodies in UK Govt announce test-on-arrival at UK airports for Covid. Maybe there will be just a single test on arrival, maybe there will be a 2nd test a few days later. If you test positive, you go into some form of quarantine; if you test negative in both rounds, you are free to go as you please.

Under such a scenario where free movement post arrival is not guaranteed (asymptomatic carriers still have to quarantine), would people suddenly become much more willing to get on an airplane and fly off ? My feeling is there would be a slight increase in flying, but most UK residents still wouldn't want to risk it until either Xmas or Easter, but I'm interested in what others think passenger demand for air travel would look like

We can see how easy this virus spreads. Being tested on arrival would not protect fellow passengers. What about the time I could be sitting next to someone who was spending half an hour eating and drinking so not wearing a mask. For me it would make no difference, which is not helped by the airport experience either with no socially distanced queues and people being piled into airside buses as though there was no pandemic.

Maybe if I was 40 years younger I would not feel so vulnerable but testing at airports would not change a thing.

I tend to agree. 2020 is dead as far as I’m concerned. I think most people have written this year off as far as holidays are concerned, most bookings for this year have either been refund requested for moved to next year and it’s probably fair to say, consumer confidence in the air industry has been dented in the last few months. There’s a huge percentage of the population now either unemployed or potentially looking at unemployment over the next few weeks and months. The confidence to go and splash the cash booking a last minute holiday I would suggest, is in short supply.

Most of the people I know are just waiting for 2021 to come in and have a ‘reset’ and are hoping to have a much better year next year.

I can't even get hopeful about 2021 to be honest. I fear that this is going to go on a lot longer than we think. Boy do I want to be wrong!

I don't think many people are suggesting testing once only at an airport prior to departure, or upon arrival.

It'll probably catch maybe 1 in 5 of people who go onto contract it (which is still better than 0 out of 5), but if you test again after 5-7 days, the odds on many not being caught after this period is far lower.

Whatever happens, it has been proven in Europe that as soon you release the lockdown restrictions, the virus is still spreading amongst the general population.

I have close relations who won’t download the Covid tracker app and other close relations who have no intention of getting vaccinated.

I hope other families are better than mine but if they are not I fear this virus will be with us for a very long time.

PM has told Holland-Kaye (LHR) that UK will begin airport Covid19 testing in two weeks time.

Question is which airports? I reckon it will be LHR, MAN and EDI to start with with some of the UK's smaller airports being well down the pecking order, unless of course they're prepared to pay for the facility.

So how many tests would that remove from the testing system so someone can go on holiday?