Despite the near shutdown in most commercial air traffic, with only faint signs of revival, some airlines are still hard at work on special flights returning travelers to their home countries to wait out the virus pandemic.
In one of the biggest recent moves, for instance, Lufthansa has dispatched a fleet of five A380s and five 747s to New Zealand to collect up to 4,400 German nationals who were there when restrictions hit. The flights, using planes that had been idled and some scheduled for retirement, are flying from Christchurch and Auckland to Frankfurt via Bangkok.
Some of the evacuations are taking place from such far points that records are being set for flight distance, part because many countries that normally serve as stopover points are refusing landings. The longest was an Austrian Airlines flight from Sydney to Vienna, a bit over 10,000 miles, or 500 miles further than the longest regular scheduled flight, which is from Singapore to Munich.
Qantas flew an A380 on a Sydney-London route, a preview of its long-planned Project Sunrise. El Al’s flight from Melbourne to Tel Aviv was its longest; ironically, the airline had been scheduled to start regular service on that route April 2nd.
Perhaps one of the greatest ironies of the repatriation is that Britain, which dropped its membership in the EU on January 1st has tapped a special EU fund set up to enable member nations to get their citizens home. Britain was still able to get in on the fund because it’s in a transition period that ends December 31.
Ironic note: The repatriation process has now gone on so long that some returnees from the Pacific might now be safer staying there than returning to western countries that have now become the epicenter of the epidemic.
Photo: Lufthansa 747 on the ground at Auckland
