Coronavirus Pandemic: Who's Still Flying Around the World?
New Delhi: With the coronavirus pandemic overwhelming normal life everywhere, the aviation industry has largely come to a grinding halt in many parts of the world.
Even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day national lockdown with effect from March 24, all domestic and international (commercial) flights departing or arriving in India had been suspended. While many flights have been grounded in Europe, in North America and China the skies are still crowded.
(L-R) Screenshots of air travel over Europe and India on March 30. Source: Planes Live
As per data compiled by Flightradar24, a live flight tracking site, there has been a significant dip in the number of flights running regularly. From January this year, when around 1,75,861 flights took to the sky every day to 74,297 flights recorded on March 30, one can see how the global pandemic has forced the airline industry to scale back by more than 50%.
Source: Flightradar24
While cargo planes are flying in order to transport essential goods, some airlines are still operational for passengers. Airlines such as British Airways and Ryanair are functioning, although on a low frequency, to bring back residents from foreign lands. It appears that the airplanes are disinfected on a "daily" basis.
As the map of planes in the sky at 9 am on Monday shows, countries like the United States and China have not suspended their domestic air travel just yet.
(L-R) Screenshots of domestic air travel in the United States and China on March 30. Photo: Planes Live app
Two weeks ago, US President Donald Trump urged people to practise social distancing and stay at home; however, the aviation sector is not obligated to follow the restrictions.
Most domestic flights in the US are running empty. While American Airlines have dropped their fares to as low as $16 on long routes, hoping to attract more travellers, Qatar Airways has modified its flying schedule to increase the number of flights and take advantage of the fact that other airlines are grounded.
As per reports, even though the US domestic air traffic has observed a significant dip of about 40%, the air space is still covered with thousand of planes. It must be noted that this statistic does not differentiate between cargo and passenger airplanes.
Contiguous United States - March 1 vs March 29 - 21:00 UTC - 6800 vs 2800 aircraft within the map areahttps://t.co/EqV2Vo80Kd pic.twitter.com/76mp3NyxWx
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 29, 2020
The World Health Organisation (WHO) travel advisory released on February 29 states that "international travel bans generally do not work well". However, WHO did advise people to "restrict" their travel to foreign countries experiencing the coronavirus outbreak. It also said that such limits and restrictions can be helpful only on a temporary basis. However, the advisory did not say anything about travel limitations within a country.
The number of deaths due to COVID-19 is the highest in the United States, followed by Italy and China. The fact that the country has more than 100,000 recorded cases has not impacted the domestic air travel. But trans-Atlantic flights are down dramatically, especially with Trump announcing a ban on flights from Europe to the US earlier this month.
Rush hour over the North Atlantic four weeks apart.
🗺 https://t.co/hf8kPcp8oM pic.twitter.com/q3ktqZvbDU
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 30, 2020
While domestic air travel elsewhere across China remains more or less normal, air services are set to be resumed in Hubei province from April 8.
This article went live on March thirty-first, two thousand twenty, at twenty-eight minutes past three in the afternoon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
