To ask why we are bothering with lockdown if planes are still arriving unchecked

[blackwych]

Just that really. I just saw on the Guardian live feed that planes are still arriving from New York, there is no checking at the airport and everyone just disperses. How effective can the lockdown be if we are still importing coronavirus?

Just read the same! It's utterly ridiculous,I can hardly believe we're letting this happen. Why are we even letting planes land here?

I agree. It's astounding.

If you look at flightradar24 there are planes going in and out from all over the place and they don't all look like cargo.

And almost nothing happening at Stansted which normally handles a lot -- namely FedEx, but also African, Eastern European and Russian cargo flights.

Sorry, the point i was clumsily trying to make was that if the flights were mostly cargo, i'd expect Stansted to be a lot busier. (It's cheaper to use than many other airports)
But there's almost nothing happening there.

It beggars belief! What are they playing at?! It makes a mockery of the lockdown.

The government needs to shut the airports right now.

A friend just came back from Japan (visa run out, so required to come home if possible) and apparently the plane was empty enough that they were managing to maintain social distancing! There might be fewer people on those planes than you might imagine.
I think they're then expected to self-isolate, although of course the problem is that they have to get home first.

I read that the airlines are running flights so they get to keep their slots - otherwise they have to bid for them again. Absolutely shocking waste of fuel if true. But I know someone who returned from the Far East last week and she had her temperature taken in the airport, so there does seem to be some testing going on.

The government needs to shut the airports right now.

No, just no, just absolutely no.....

I’m sure I’m boring the pants of some here with “freight” and “belly cargo” but there are to many here who look at aircraft and only think holiday makers and contagion, so I’m going to make the point again.

Close UK airports and you lose the ability for passenger aircraft...BA, Virgin, Malaysian, etc etc (who actually aren’t carrying that many passengers ATM) to carry in tonnes of cargo per aircraft in the holds, such as the several tonnes of temperature sensitive drugs that I was involved in transporting into the U.K. on a flight last night..

The disease is in the community in the U.K...closing the airports now and hence slowing down the import of drugs and urgent medical equipment would be lunacy.

They are often described as ghost planes as so empty now. Friends of ours were met at immigration and told to isolate for two weeks which they're doing.

I read that the airlines are running flights so they get to keep their slots - otherwise they have to bid for them again.

This. I imagine most of the planes are empty.

Because the lockdown is not to get rid of Covid-19! people need to stop thinking that if they self isolate they won't get it. We are on lockdown to help flatten the peak so that the NHS doesn't get inundated with all of the serious cases at once. There is no getting rid of it for it for a while yet. Either until everyone gets it, over a longer period of time so that the NHS can treat those effected badly, or there is a vaccine.

My friend's partner is a commercial pilot - not sure which airline. They've filled their planes up with freight (including the overhead lockers) and the only passengers are cabin crew who need to get home.

My Godparents are flying into Heathrow tomorrow morning on a rescue flight from the USA, they’re coming in from New York.

They should never have gone on holiday the pair of selfish arseholes! And yes, I have told them exactly what I think of them, they were given the opportunity to reschedule their holiday at no extra cost to them, but no. Wankers.

Apparently the Eurostar train is still running to France too.

I agree with the sentiment.
We should not be accepting any incoming flights unless they are freight.
Depending on wind direction we can get many flights each day to manchester.
The only thing that has flown over us today was an air ambulance from blackpool at less than 1000 ft.

Aren't some flights from Europe bringing in the workers needed to pick fruit ?

@simplekindoflife don’t be so simple. We need them open for several reasons. We need them for air freight. We need them because there are foreign nationals still trying to get out (you should be glad of this given that there will be less strain on the NHS asa result). There are British nationals still trying to get in and the government can’t turn away its own people. There are better, less panic stricken ways of dealing with this. Australia is taking returners into quarantine for example.

They're getting people home and bringing workers too. Lockdown is to try to flatten the curve ie buy time, not to get rid of it (it's already here)

1. The requirement to fly aircraft o keep slots was suspended pretty much by worldwide agreement several weeks ago, so the idea that aircraft are flying around "slot sitting" is incorrect, .

2. Sorry but have to reiterate yet again that if cabins are pretty empty ( they are ATM on most flight) that frees up payload for, dare I say it, freight..

1. Seconding CrispforTea's points - UK CAA has granted approval for some airlines to operate without passengers but with freight in the belly plus light weight freight (e.g; packages of masks, gowns) in the overhead lockers.

1. aircargoeye.com/air-cargos-silent-bureaucratic-killer/

5; All the above is why airline staff, even at what many here obviously think are only passenger airlines, are actually classified as essential workers.

1. In the context of UK and checking, the reality is that many countries such as Singapore are now starting to regard the UK as a potential source of contamination because of the lax nature of the lockdown and lack of testing for people leaving the UK.

Accepting flights is fine if quarantine measures are put in place.
My dh returned to China and is in a quarantine facility for two weeks. He was tested for the virus on arrival (no result yet) and put in a hazmat suit.

This video explains.

Because containing the virus was never the plan.
We are being tested for how easily we comply
HTH

Nobody wants to pick our fruit and veg, they've their own to pick, and the Eastern Europeans won't be back, as people were so racist to them, they got the message loud and clear.
We aren't attractive to them any longer, and i don't blame them, tbh.

A lot of the planes are cargo planes. If you look on FR24 you can tell which ones are.