The Return of the Golden Age of Air Travel: Related Stories and Resources
The Related Stories and Resources page is where you can find additional material related to the essay The Return of the Golden Age of Air Travel by Terence C. Gannon. Items below appear in reverse chronological order based on the date of original publication.
Qantas, Korean Air talk pre-flight vaccination requirements Associated Press via Travelweek, November 25th, 2020. “ International air travel could come booming back next year but with a new rule: Travellers to certain countries must be vaccinated against the coronavirus before they can fly.”
Deborah Yedlin on the airport’s new COVID-19 pilot project CBC Calgary Eyeopener with David Gray, November 4th, 2020. During her most recent Wednesday morning spot, the always insightful Chancellor of the University of Calgary Deborah Yedlin provides commentary on the COVID-related testing pilot project running the Calgary International Airport. Most notable is her optimism as to how the seemingly incremental program could still have a significant impact on Calgary’s travel-related economy. Listen to her complete thoughts on the subject as she is interviewed by host David Gray.
First travellers to take part in COVID border screening have landed in Calgary CBC Calgary, November 2nd, 2020. Calgary International Airport — supported by both the provincial government of Alberta and the federal government of Canada — have launched a pilot screening program for incoming passengers which holds the promise of shortening their COVID-related quarantine from 14 to as little as two days. In order to get passengers back on flights, the original essay asserted the airlines must “ensure every passenger who gets on every one of my flights is as 100% COVID-free as humanly possible”. However, being able to rapidly determine if disembarking passengers pose a risk to the destination’s population would also appear to be part of the solution. It’s certainly worth trying.
What It’s Like Flying Across the US Right Now CNN Travel, June 29th, 2020 by Brekke Fletcher. A detailed, first hand account of the author’s recent trip from New York to San Francisco. It provides a candid, balanced assessment of what’s it’s currently like to fly in the midst of the pandemic.
Air Canada, WestJet to Drop Physical Distancing Policies as Air Travel Picks Up CBC June 26th, 2020 from the Canadian Press. While it is quite understandable given the immense financial pressure airlines are under, it still surprising their patience is already wearing thin. It is also disappointing they don’t see an opportunity to re-invent themselves but rather return to the pre-pandemic business model and hope for the best. In the end it may all be academic. The airlines will live or die based on whether passengers show up or not. Will the thought of a jam-packed plane make you more likely or less?
Air Canada Jetz Aircraft to be Used on Select Flights as of June 1 Skies Magazine, May 25th, 2020. From the original article: “For the time being the seat I will be willing to sit in is going to be the requisite socially distant six feet from any other seat with a passenger in it. I’m going to occupy 36 square feet. Something on the order of what I would have enjoyed on the Graf Zeppelin, perhaps.” While it may not be zeppelin-esque 36 square feet, Air Canada is experimenting with “[s]pacious recliner seats with 42–49 inch seat pitch, as compared to our mainline A319 Business Class pitch of 37 inches.”
Robots and electrostatic sprayers: Air travel industry looks to technology to bring back wary passengers CBC, May 19th, 2020 by Susan Ormiston. A comprehensive article which looks at a wide array of options intended to restore the travelling public’s faith in airline transportation. Some of them seem to make sense. Other seems just seem plain crazy. Who is going to get that middle seat and be seated backwards? Will they get a discount on their fare?
Into the Future of Flying Into America Podcast, May 18th, 2020 hosted by Trymaine Lee. “NBC Correspondent Tom Costello has been covering the airline industry for 15 years, and says he’s never seen anything like this, for the industry or the flying public. Trymaine Lee talks to Tom about what the airlines are doing — and not doing — to win back the public’s confidence and save their businesses. No matter what, flying may never be the same.”
Revisiting the luxury and glamour of Concorde CNN, September 21st, 2018 by Jacopo Prisco. “No plane has captured the public imagination quite like Concorde…[t]oday, nearly 50 years on, it still stands as one of humanity’s most remarkable engineering achievements, and a truly timeless piece of design.” It may well have been the high water mark for the Golden Age of Air Travel: supersonic flight for the privileged few that left the rest of us, literally, far behind and far below.
