Joevr

If lockdown measures are not eased that means no flight in May and june...

LondonElite

That's correct. Given entry restrictions around the world, much non-essential travel is not possible anyway.

Grande Annee

I am due to fly mid/late June LCY JMK LCY. I was rather hopeful about this trip, but I am now thinking that this ain’t going to happen

cauchy

It's not the same, but secondhand smoking is how the risks of smoking are spread to others. My suspicion is that, for covid, we'll start seeing employers being required to provide staff masks or social distancing, together with gloves and/or hand-washing stations, and that being the full extent of legally-required mitigation.

Tiger_lily

Mykonos has been under a very strict curfew. A priest managed to infect a whole village with the virus by flouting Greece's lockdown rules and Greece itself is saying that they will not lift flight restrictions from UK, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Turkey & Germany until at least June.

argonath

Right now where social distancing is not possible (due to whatever the process is) then reducing the number of people involved and/or staff masking is used to mitigate the risk, as well as gloves /handwash.

Keiran Newberry

Why is it astonishing? We're (supposedly, depending if you believe the various interpretations of the data) we're all but at the theoretical peak. June is still six weeks away, we have no idea how it'll look by then.

As I said, at the outset I tended to agree that mid-May would see relaxation and June open fully. But I also said I can see that not happening now, in part due to reactions like yours an others.

This is going to become part of our lives. We are going to reach a point we accept the risk and those who wish to deal with it, can. It's all nice and sentimental to say we can wait it out for a bit longer, but global economies aren't sentimental

LondonElite

It's not about your wish to accept the risk. As I have said upthread, the real danger is asymptomatic carriers passing it on to those who later die from it, and the medical system being overwhelmed in the process.

You should read this (full disclosure, I posted the same link in another CV thread):

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020...dy-brain-toes#

Misco60

If we are at a peak of infections, it's because the country has been locked down for four weeks with very limited opportunities for transmission. If the restrictions were lifted before we have a vaccine or other method of fighting covid-19 then the infection and death rates will rocket again. That's the reality, and it's not sentimental: we have to stay at home to save the lives of the vulnerable. The economy - and flying - is going to have to wait.

Keiran Newberry

There is no way we can stay locked down until a vaccine arrives. Because it may take months. It may take years. Or, it may never come.

JohnnyCarmello

I'm not an epidemiologist, nor can I spell it without the help of google, but there's a sliding scale of lockdown measures, which can increase/decrease human contact, and therefore transmission rates / R0 values. Without a vaccine, surely the game will be about keeping the numbers in hospitals below a certain level so that they can cope, and a balance of lockdown measures and other public health measures (masks, quicker testing/results, contact tracing) to keep that rate acceptably low.
I can't imagine that air travel will be high on the list of things that they will be opening up again, as you're opening your territory up to a lot of unknowns.
Similarly, pubs and going to sporting events are probably goosed for quite some time.

As some countries are starting to open up now, there should hopefully be some useful data about rate of infection in 4 weeks time so that the decision can be led by science, and not public/media/political pressure.

Euronewt

I'm due to fly 3 June from IAH to LHR, then on to DUB. Any word there?

ISTFlyer

Unfortunately, you need to wait 3-4 weeks ( around 15 May ) to know if your flight would actually operate or not.
The final June schedule is not released yet, both for shorthaul and longhaul.

TOTH2015

Seems strange that the numbers of people who have lost their lives in New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Germany is a wee bit lower than here in the UK.
Im sure that there are very good reasons why the numbers are so high . I’m also becoming increasingly sure that lockdown will continue, simply because it is a blunt weapon to use and requires no justification apart from platitudes describing protecting the NHS, older people etc.

i have a business in Canada which is flourishing. I can’t get there, and short term can accept that.

But, I really do expect some joined up thinking from those elected to provide country wide leadership. Currently this expectation seems positively delusional.

LondonElite

I think you should operate on the assumption that you won't be travelling. You might, but probably not.