COVID-19 Has Stopped Many of Us from Flying

[MineralMan]

It has stopped me. My last trip on an airline was in February 2020, when my wife and I made our last visit with my parents. I miss traveling, though. I was thinking about that yesterday, when I remembered a couple of notable flights I've been on.

One was my first flight on an airline. It was 1965, and I had just enlisted in the USAF. It was either enlist or be drafted, so I chose a four-year enlistment in the USAF. Anyhow, I boarded a Continental Airlines Boeing 707 at LAX, along with several other new enlistees and flew to San Antonio, TX. I'm pretty sure it was the first flight for all of us. I remember eating a hot meal on the plane, something that no longer happens to coach passengers. I also remember the stewardess handing out little 5-packs of cigarettes to everyone. It was a pleasant flight, followed by a rude awakening at Lackland AFB and 8 weeks of basic training.

I've been on at least a hundred flights since then. Some memorable, and some forgettable.

The other most notable flight on a scheduled airline was a short hop from Las Vegas to the Nevada Test Site in the early 1980s. I had an assignment to write an article for Goodyear's in-house magazine. The subject was the enormous tires being used on the MX Missile transporter that was undergoing testing at the Nevada Test Site. The "scheduled airline" was that in name only. The airline had just one plane, a WWII vintage DC-3 that flew people to the Nevada Test Site and back to Las Vegas a couple of times a day, under contract. But, it had a stewardess who served coffee, so it was a legitimate airline, I guess.

A DC-3! History. So, I boarded the plane and took my seat. Not too many seats on it, really. Just two seats per row, with an aisle between them. The big old radial engines fired up, surprising me with the noise. The plane lumbered out to the runway and lumbered into the air, doing only about 100 MPH when it rotated. Very noisy. Not that comfortable, either.

It was July and we were flying over the middle of a desert. It was hot. The stewardess came around and served coffee. I remembered flying into Vegas the day before and encountering considerable turbulence. So, I gingerly held my coffee cup in the air, not putting it on the little fold-down tray. Sure enough, there was turbulence. It's a lot worse in a little DC-3, too. As the plane bounced up and down, I compensated for it by keeping the cup level. Now, most of the other passengers flew that route daily to go to work at the Nevada Test Site, so I was surprised when the plane suddenly dropped sharply in the turbulence. I didn't spill any coffee, but the person across from me had his entire cup dumped in his lap.

A DC-3. I was excited to be flying in one. In many ways, it was a lot like the B-17s my father flew during WWII. It only had two of those engines, while the B-17 had four, but they were very similar planes aerodynamically. Both were tail-draggers. Both were Boeing planes of the same vintage. As I flew to and from the Nevada Test Site, I thought about my dad, piloting a B-17.

Anyhow, I got my photos of the tires on the MX Missile transporter and interviewed a few people at the site. Then, I got back on the DC-3 and flew back to Vegas, where I got on a jet to fly home. A DC-3! Still flying in the 1980s. There are still some flying cargo routes out in the boondocks, even now. Good old basic transport plane.

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Hasn't Stopped Me, MM

But, not what you're thinking!
I traveled so much for my job that I knew it would take an act of congress to get me on a plane, in anything under 5 years.
COVID complications on air travel is just a coincidence for me. I wasn't getting on a plane, even if COVID never happened.
That said, if my prior travel had not occurred, I'd be the same as you.
No way would we risk air travel during these times.

[MineralMan]

3. If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd be on a plane often.

I like to go places.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. I Can See That

But, I've been on a plane something over 1,200 times. I've been to 38 countries are usually had the complete freedom to set my own schedule. Work a couple 12 hour days, a couple 8 hour days, & Friday was mine. Then fly home Saturday morning. Or 3 12s, Thursday is mine & I call the 20 hours on the plane as work.
So, aside from the pyramids, and Mayan ruins, I've seen pretty much all the things I ever wanted to.
I know my situation is somewhat uncommon, though.
By the time I'd be mentally ready to fly again, without it seeming like work, COVID should be in our rearview.

[MiniMe]

2. I miss traveling

[MineralMan]

4. Yes, me too.

[MiniMe]

5. Had bypass surgery in 2019, and really wanted to go somewhere when I was recovering

Haven't been able to go anywhere since.

[caraher]

6. A correction - Boeing did not make the DC-3

Their DC-3 contemporary was the Model 247, which was not the big success that the DC-3 was.

The DC-3 was a product of the Douglas Aircraft Company (which morphed into McDonnel-Douglas, which in turn eventually merged with Boeing). So in a very after-the-fact sense you can make a tortured argument for the DC-3 as a Boeing plane, but I think it would be very misleading.

[MineralMan]

9. Oh, thanks! I did not know that.

Very interesting.

[Ocelot II]

8. I haven't been on an airplane since I retired 10 years ago

from my airline job. I used to be able to ride in the jumpseat sometimes, but as a retiree I'm at the bottom of the non-rev list, and I was already tired of waiting around in airports and ending up in places I didn't expect to be. I didn't ground myself on account of covid but because of the hassle. Maybe I'll go somewhere again some time, but obviously not for awhile.

[MineralMan]

11. Every once in a while, I've taken a Sun Country flight somewhere,

just because they had a sale on flights to somewhere. From time to time, you can fly somewhere for $29 each way. Hard to say no to that, somehow. Now, where you're going might not be a place you ever thought of going, but...

[Initech]

10. I really miss traveling.

Last time I was on a plane was last year when things seemingly looked normal. I was supposed to fly to Vegas next Friday but canceled my trip because of the omicron variant. And right now I'm losing my mind. It fucking sucks. When this wave is over I am traveling like there is no tomorrow.

[BannonsLiver]

12. Hasn't stopped me but it's complicated out there.

Well, it did stop me for a while. Most of 2020. We took 3 trips last year, all by air and have several planned later this year. The testing requirements are an issue as far as making sure you get them within said window to be able to return to the US from a foreign country, for example or to get into another country from the US. I experienced that in Saint Lucia last summer.

A lot of people don’t want to deal with the stress of getting the results on time etc. For me it’s been worth it. Others may not feel it is. What doesn’t scare me much is being on the plane given the availability of N95 masks, and of course the intricacies of cabin air filtration which few people understand.

[mainer]

13. rapid PCR tests are almost impossible to find now

We're booked on an international flight in 3 weeks (I made the arrangements last summer when the country looked like everything was improving) and now it's a scramble to find a place to book a rapid PCR test. We can't board the plane without it. I wonder how airlines are managing to fly anyone anywhere these days.

[BannonsLiver]

14. Definitely hard to find now for sure.

In the US at least. One reason I’m glad I’m not going anywhere outside the US for a bit.

One thing I’ve found helpful is to not make arrangements until the trip is close. That way you have a better idea of what the Covid situation is. But a lot of people are unable to do that for personal scheduling reasons.

[progree]

15. I haven't been on a plane since 2004 -- greenhouse gas emissions

A good group to read, as I do daily is the Environment and Energy group.

[FakeNoose]

16. I'm happy to travel places where I can go by car

... but I don't think I'll ever fly again. I hurts to say this because my large family is spread all over the country. I'll miss birthdays, graduations, weddings, family reunions, etc. but Covid is the reason. The airlines can't control it among their passengers or their own employees.

Someone I know personally flew to New York during Christmas holidays, caught Covid, tested positive, and then flew home again - back to Minneapolis! I was flabbergasted when I heard that the airline didn't stop him from flying. These planes are flying petri dishes now.

I will drive my own car or I'm not going. Those are my only choices now.

[brooklynite]

17. This year did a R/T to Rome and three trips to Seattle

Planes have a very efficient vacuum system that replaces the air every three minutes.

[Emile]

18. Been around 20 years since we last flew. I keep thinking I would like

to fly out to California, rent a car and show my wife Yosemite National Park. I haven't seen it since 1961 and my wife has never seen the park. Covid has really screwed up our retirement.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. I have had COPD attacks at the airport on my last two flights

At the last trip in May, Southwest bumped me and had the paramedics look at me. The good thing was Southwest had a wheelchair meet me in Orlando and got me to the baggage claim and the ground transport.

Due to the latest variant, my youngest and I ended up driving to Walt Disney World for a family vacation during the first week of December. My middle and oldest children flew and my middle child had her return flight canceled on the way home and had to fly from MCO to Austin via Nashville. It was nice having a car at the timeshare. I am glad that I drove. My son told me that the Orlando airport was a zoo and there were many who did wear masks properly. It the trip had been scheduled a week later we would have skipped it.

It may be a while before I fly again.

[Klaralven]

20. I probably averaged one trip a month over 40 years of working. Don't miss it at all.

One of my first flights in the early 60s was in a DC-4 in Canada, and it was also a bumpy ride. I had a hurried breakfast of coffee, doughnut and orange juice in the airport, which was a mistake. I did manage to keep it down, but that was made harder when the large, manly, flannel-shirted gentleman in the seat behind me lost his breakfast.

The flight was supposed to stop at The Pas, Manitoba, but after about three passes the pilot was still unable to spot the trees through the low clouds and wisely decided to go on.

[Deep State Witch]

21. I took 4 flights last year

Baltimore to Seattle and back, twice. Once with my high-risk husband. Alaska Airlines was great. However, the person next to us on our return trip in October was coughing almost continuously. Good thing we were all wearing masks!

[mnhtnbb]

22. I came back from Bonaire in March 2020

a week early. The day I'd been scheduled to come home turned out to be the last American Airlines flight from Bonaire to Miami for 15 months when Bonaire closed their airport to US and Canadian flights.

So last June when they reopened, I booked a trip. I would be there now but for COVID. When Omicron started circulating in December--and appeared to be highly contagious-- my son and I decided to postpone our January trip. We would have to test four times: before leaving, on arrival, at five days, and the day before coming home. Although we are both vaxxed and boosted, a positive test for either of us could really ruin the trip, requiring isolation or quarantine.

Turned out to probably be a good decision. I have a neighbor whose son tested positive after Christmas when he was due to come home from the Bahamas. Nope. He got to stay. Miss his flight and stay in his hotel room. I didn't want to chance having that happen to us.

I'm going in April.

[mainer]

24. I came home from Bonaire in Feb 2020

I remember when we flew back to the US the airline asked if we’d recently been in China. Little did we realize that was the clue the world was about to change.

I’m headed to Bonaire in 3 weeks. Now wonder if I’ll make it with all the PCR test requirements.

[mnhtnbb]

25. Good luck!

You may want to book your PCR test with a clinic that handles travel vax/tests. Prepare to pay up if your airport doesn't do PCR tests with guaranteed 24 hour turn around.

[marmar]

23. I fly a decent amount for work, and I've taken a few pleasure trips since the pandemic began....

.... honestly I haven't thought that much about it. I just take the same precautions as I do everywhere else.

[DFW]

26. It stopped me for about 6 weeks in 2020.

Schedules were drastically curtailed, and one of the routes that made my life easier (Delta's nonstop from Düsseldorf to Atlanta) has yet to be reinstated. Why, I couldn't say, as it was always full.

Other than that, I pretty much resumed my usual flying schedule. For both work and personal reasons, it is more or less a necessity. I often have to run down to Spain for the day, and that's either a 24 hour train trip or a 2 hour flight. Not much of a choice, despite the paperwork now required for all travelers to Spain, even from other EU countries. Scandinavia is closer, although Stockholm, Oslo and København are long enough train/ferry trips to make flying a necessity if it's for work. Same goes for Eastern Europe. No way I have the time (or desire) to do the long train trip down to places like Bucharest, Dubrovnik, Prague, Vienna or Budapest. Fortunately, the Europeans have improved some of their train routes, so that going over to Berlin, Brussels or Paris for the day can be done by train without sacrificing much time vs. flying. If there is a time-sensitive appointment in a place like Zürich or München, I usually fly down in the early morning, and then take the train home. Ironically, these days, the train is often MORE expensive than flying, but I prefer it all the same.

We always take our longer trips (usually December and July) to the USA, and we don't have the time to spare for an ocean liner, most of which seem to be far more dangerous than planes these days, anyway. Since most of my family is in North America, flying is the only practical option to see them. My wife has her mom up in a tiny village in northern Germany, about a 2½ hour drive from us. It has no public transportation in or out, so it's either car or horse. Our younger daughter lives in a storybook picturesque town in the Taunus hills above Frankfurt. She often has day trips for work to places like London, Zürich, Vienna and Hamburg, but she has two small children, so she flies round trip and tries to be home to put her children to bed.

I have been flying all of my life that I can remember. We used to fly up to New York City from Virginia to see our grandparents in the late 1950s. My first trip on a jet was in 1960, when I went with my dad when he was covering the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. I was all of 8 years old. I'm pretty sure it was on a Boeing 707, although it might have been a DC-8. For a while, we used to fly on a DC-3 when PBA (Provincetown-Boston Airline) used them to connect Boston with Cape Cod. One of their planes was called "Old 36," as it had been in continuous service since 1936, and this was over 50 years later! Those things were indestructible. The airline used to fly them down to the Caribbean in the winter so they wouldn't remain idle for half the year. PBA is gone now, and their routes have been taken over by Cape Air, which usually flies Cessnas. When I was in college in Philadelphia in the early 1970s, I would fly on Allegheny Airlines to see a girlfriend up in Boston.

So, now, I am in the middle of one of my yearly odysseys to North America. Düsseldorf to South Carolina to Texas to Florida to New York, etc. etc. Last stop will be to Northern Virginia and Washington before heading back to Germany. I already have had calls with the usual "how soon can you get back here?" from Spain, France and Belgium. Don't these people realize I will be 70 this year? (Just kidding, I know full well, it's my own fault). My wife was with me for part of the trip, but she had stuff to do back home that couldn't wait, and she left from New York back to Germany last Tuesday. I miss her already. But if there is anything drastic, I know she is as close as the nearest airport. Getting the paperwork and required testing done is a pain in the ass and often expensive, but I fill out the forms, get the frequent tests, and I pay the fees. And then, I fly.

[progree]

27. How your flight emits as much CO2 as many people do in a year, The Guardian

Last edited Mon Jan 17, 2022, 05:17 AM - Edit history (3)

The Guardian, July 19, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year

Taking a long-haul flight generates more carbon emissions than the average person in dozens of countries around the world produces in a whole year, a new Guardian analysis has found.

The figures highlight the disproportionate carbon footprint of those who can afford to fly, with even a short-haul return flight from London to Edinburgh contributing more CO2 than the mean annual emissions of a person in Uganda or Somalia.

... The figures are averages taking into account which aircraft models are typically used on flight routes, and the estimated occupancy of seats on board those planes. The figures include only the CO2 generated by burning jet fuel, not any emissions embedded in the construction of the plane or any other greenhouse gases that might be produced, such as water vapour.

Edited to Add:

Flight carbon footprint between Paris and New York: per passenger, one way: 909.6 kg CO2, which is 5.5 months budget based on the Paris Agreement objective of maintaining global temperature warming "well below" 2 deg C.

(me: remember that is ONE WAY so double it for a round trip -- that's 11 months. And that "budget" assumes earth's absorption capability is 11 billion tons CO2/year [from another source] -- maybe so maybe so -- a lot of that is the ocean absorbing CO2 which is getting more acidic as a result)
Source: https://curb6.com/footprint/flights/paris-cdg/new-york-jfk

[MineralMan]

28. What flight? I just said I'm not flying.

Your reply is irrelevant to what I posted, frankly.

[progree]

29. "How your flight emits..." -- It was the title of the Guardian article, I should have clarified

Last edited Mon Jan 17, 2022, 04:26 PM - Edit history (1)

And it was a reply to the thread, not a specific reply to your OP post. (That's why the little link has "reply to this thread", not "reply to my post" )

A lot of people in the thread seem to be oblivious to the impact on the environment of non-essential or for-pleasure-only air travel. (To be clear, not all the air travel mentioned on this thread is non-essential, some is virtually essential. I'm hoping people will consider the environmental impact of the other kind of travel).

Shocking to see this on a progressive message board in this day and age. With atmospheric CO2   50% over pre-industrial levels and average temperature about 1.1 deg C (2.0 deg F) over.

And no, it is not irrelevant to what you posted.

3. If it weren't for the pandemic, I'd be on a plane often. I like to go places.

11. Every once in a while, I've taken a Sun Country flight somewhere,just because they had a sale on flights to somewhere. From time to time, you can fly somewhere for $29 each way. Hard to say no to that, somehow. .

Somehow.

My posting was to inform people of the high per-person greenhouse gas intensity of air travel. If you think that isn't relevant to you, then you are one very special person.

Thanks for the Kick, more people will see this as a result.

Rinse and repeat.

=============

The Guardian, July 19, 2019

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/jul/19/carbon-calculator-how-taking-one-flight-emits-as-much-as-many-people-do-in-a-year

Taking a long-haul flight generates more carbon emissions than the average person in dozens of countries around the world produces in a whole year, a new Guardian analysis has found.

The figures highlight the disproportionate carbon footprint of those who can afford to fly, with even a short-haul return flight from London to Edinburgh contributing more CO2 than the mean annual emissions of a person in Uganda or Somalia.

... The figures are averages taking into account which aircraft models are typically used on flight routes, and the estimated occupancy of seats on board those planes. The figures include only the CO2 generated by burning jet fuel, not any emissions embedded in the construction of the plane or any other greenhouse gases that might be produced, such as water vapour.

Flight carbon footprint between Paris and New York: per passenger, one way: 909.6 kg CO2, which is 5.5 months budget based on the Paris Agreement objective of maintaining global temperature warming "well below" 2 deg C.

(me: remember that is ONE WAY so double it for a round trip -- that's 11 months. And that "budget" assumes earth's absorption capability is 11 billion tons CO2/year [from another source] -- maybe so maybe so -- a lot of that is the ocean absorbing CO2 which is getting more acidic as a result)
Source: https://curb6.com/footprint/flights/paris-cdg/new-york-jfk

[Dial H For Hero]

30. I regularly take 2 or 3 international trips per year strictly for pleasure, and always fly business

class. I spent decades working at the post office so I could retire relatively early and see the world in comfort. Covid has certainly had an impact, but it hasn't stopped me; I have a tour of Scandinavia scheduled for May. Five more countries off the bucket list!

[progree]

31. Are you oblivious to the impact of air travel on the unfolding global climate disaster

or is it you don't care? I'm trying to think of a possible alternative explanation, but I can't come up with anything.

How do you feel about anti-vaxxers and maskholes? As an example of people who don't care about the impact of their decisions on those around them.

Thanks for the kick.