London City Airport says that it plans to start opening again towards the end of the month, which is either a welcome sign of normality returning or an unwelcome return of aircraft noise, depending on your perspective.
The airport closed on 25th March and was considered for use by the military if the pandemic had got worse, with talk of the airport being temporarily renamed RAF Nightingale to support the nearby Excel centre’s NHS Nightingale hospital.
The RAF even made some test landings of their huge C-130 military transport planes to make sure the pilots were comfortable with the steep approach and short landing strip for the large planes.
When the airport reopens, it’s likely that flights will be far below the pre-pandemic levels with domestic flights only, and international flights resuming in July, pending the government’s proposed quarantine rules.
I can’t see international fights returning while we have these quarantine rules that make it not worth travelling in place.
We also have the two metre rules which restrict passenger numbers and thus economic viability of passenger flights !
So locals could still be getting plenty of sleep for months to come ….
the 2m rule is basically out of the door as it’s being ignored by all and sundry.
1m distancing rule – China, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Singapore
1.4m – South Korea
1.5m – Australia, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal
1.8m – US
2m – Canada, Spain, UK
A flight from Denmark to London would have social distancing of one metre when flying into the UK, and two metres when leaving UK airports?
Total fiasco.
Its noticeable that EU countries don’t have a standard distance while the U.S 1.8 is basically 6 ft which I heard Rees-Mogg use recently!
Without a 1 metre distance nothing can get back to any normality!
Air industry bods say that any social distancing on a plane is a practical and economic impossibility. Also, that the air conditioning effectively scrubs the recycled cabin air.
Funny that, when we were allowed to smoke, the system was more efficient and expensive too.
If the present version is so good, how come I’ve always got a runny nose when I land?