Has Anyone Flown Commercially Lately?
 

Have any of you taken a commercial flight recently? How were things like social distancing, masks, queuing, carry-on bag checking, departure lounge seating, boarding and on-board seating handled? I need to take a Ryanair flight to Dublin from Gatwick in the next month or so.

I heard the other day that, based on 2 metre spacing, an average boarding queue for a 747 would be around one kilometre.

Not since getting back from trips to Bangladesh & Thailand very early January. The Wife got back from China on 27th January. Since then 0. My Lad will be flying back to HKG from UK early in June & will be in self-isolation for 14 days.

If you fly - get used to the inconvenience and given this viruses ability to infect - wear a mask, take your alcohol wipes and avoid eating/drinking (apart from what you can carry on yourself). I'd want an empty seat next to me if possible.

Seems a bit bloody pointless to apply social distancing in the queue if you're then sitting half a metre or less from maybe 4 other people.

Airport queues and security lacked logic or sense before C19. Don’t expect them to apply any now. You will sit shoulder to shoulder with a dirty stranger, but lip service will be paid in the security queue to keeping separate from the person ahead though you will be shoulder to shoulder with the oncoming snake ahead in the queue. You may be wearing a face mask, but you and your bags will be manhandled by security who may be wearing gloves, but the same gloves as when they touched the super spreader in front of you. Travelling will put you at additional risk and travellers will have to take responsibility for their own C19 safety because the airline, airport and other passengers won’t.

Have been flying Lufthansa short-haul through Frankfurt. Quite well organised with middle seats always empty. And always an A320NEO!

"Social distancing"
 

I'm probably stupid and thick, no doubt someone will be quick to jump in and tell me. However....... what is the use of an empty middle seat if everyone is breathing the same recirculated air?To thicko me, a bit like the Emperor's New Clothes. Elucidation, por favor.:confused:
alt

Individual choice seems to be the order of the day. Currently, I would only fly if it was a family life/death circumstance and I would seek out the best mask I could before departing.

Buster11
I have flown short haul to and from Germany often via various transit points as direct route was not option. Masks gloves and sanitiser, no food on board. Queuing was not really an issue as so few people in terminals and or security (I have been on a Gulfstream with more passengers !).
On board separation in seats, with crew also masked etc so not a great experience. Temp checks on arrival (but not in UK). The quarantine which maybe imposed at the end of this month in UK may preclude my commute though, this being the UK Govt things may change when Boris wakes up Friday or next week. Our legal dept are currently checking on quarantines, as we have a multinational staff who all travel to a greater or lesser degree from Germany .
There maybe some airport testing available (like Austria) in which case that maybe an option. I must stress that the only people who are travelling appear to be Business related, tourism is not on the radar yet, though it is being discussed here judging by holiday requests starting to creep in ! If Boris goes through with quarantine with no airport testing option then I will be based in Germany for sometime !! Long haul maybe more of a challenge, and at the moment I am due out to Texas in June and Tokyo so we will see how that goes. Hope that helps, and gives you a picture of what to expect, but on the plus side as I said limited queuing and security even polite at Manchester.
Kind regards
Mr Mac

Works very well indeed!

They have since dropped the empty middle seat rule though, but require the passengers to wear a mask at all times. Sure, if there are not many passengers on the plane, they will keep the middle seat empty anyway.

Last time I flew was late January from East Coast to Las Vegas - less then 50% on each flight. Routed through Detroit, normally there are 4 departure boards full at 6pm local. Only two were filled and of the few pax in both DTW and LAS, many were wearing masks despite not knowing what good they may or not be at that time. I will fly if the company tells me to but reluctantly. I'll also pick my airlines and flights carefully. It doesn't help that United and Delta both pulled out of my close airport. That leaves American and Southwest with the airport authority saying flights are 10-20% full and the airport has dropped 95% pax since a year ago.

Recent 100% packed American 737 flights in the news haven't helped their case. Frankly, it amazes me that certain routes (NY-FL) are so full. Nothing is open on either end.

RYR's MOL said this week that his flights will go out full - @Buster11

Pax will need to wear masks and RYR will supply a mask if they do not have one.

Have fun!

CDG and FRA getting busier this week. I would guess double the number of pax / planes.

This in the Uk today: The Guardian newspaper.

"Pax will need to wear masks and RYR will supply a mask if they do not have one."

Only £ 49.99 if you don't buy one in advance..................

Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport 'first' in the US to add PPE vending machines
[The Independent] Graig Graziosi The Independent15 May 2020
c/o Yahoo

Right next to the one-eyed bandits no doubt. Wonder if you have to win the PPE?

What? Both of them?

And yet just last night I received an e-mail from Ryanair instructing me that my flight on 24 June had been cancelled and how I could lodge a claim for full refund.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....c001bd97d2.jpg

There are videos you can search for that will show you how much extra viral load you'll get if you are sitting next to an infected person. You really want to be minimising your exposure anyway you can

I had 5 flights in late February/Early March and since then haven't flown. I went out to KUL,via IST with a day stopover in IST, where they were checking temperatures on arrival and departure. Other than that it was all pretty normal. IST was fairly quiet, but then again it wasn't normal peak time and that airport is huge so always seemed quiet to me anyway. A few people wore masks on the flight to KUL, but no more than usual. I noticed staff in masks and gloves at KUL as well as temperature checks on arrival. Cabin crew from my flight were wearing masks walking through the terminal at KUL. A few days later I flew to SIN and it was a bit different. KUL was more or less desserted, lots of cancelled flights to China on the boards. Lots of questions about my travel history and a lot more people wearing masks, but being a flight within Asia, that is quite common to see. I popped a mask on so I didn't look out of place, really.

At the time restrictions on entering SIN were only in place for those who had been to China or who were showing symptoms, neither of whch applied to myself, but temperature checks and travel history questioning were in place at the border. My flight back via IST was cancelled due to an infected passenger being on the plane the night before, so the crew had potentially been exposed, the aircraft flew back to IST empty and I was rerouted on EK, which was a pretty full 777 on both legs and barely anyone wore a mask. SIN was not as quiet as was being reported at the time, I still found it to be a pretty busy terminal, with temperature checkers everywhere, whereas DXB was notably much quieter than usual. I think I had temperatue checks taken while in transit in DXB, but upon arrival into GLA, absolutely nothing was done, not even a single poster about coronavirus was displayed. My flight arrived at the same time as one from Tenerife, which at the time was one of the hotspots. The difference between what I'd seen in other arirports and what I saw at GLA was asotnishing, it was clear the UK wasn't taking anything seriously.