Why are flights still coming into the country?

[Ledkr]

Pil were stuck in NZ and flew home monday. They swanned through with no temperature checks or anything and said the airport was as busy as ever with arrivals. They can't all be repatriation flights surely?
I don't get this at all. Is this happening in other countries?

You have fully misunderstood.

I’m a pilot who flew out of Heathrow earlier in the week and arrived back there today. I flew a flight which would normally be a passenger flight but the country I flew to has banned arrivals by foreigners and instead we just flew freight. We still had the usual scheduled flight number though, so it is not always possible to tell from the flight number whether a flight is a scheduled flight with or without passengers.

WRT Heathrow, earlier in the week it was a ghost town. I have never seen it so empty. Only one runway is in use, and I did my first every take off from runway 09L in over 20 years of flying.

It was my first flight in over a fortnight, all my other flights have been cancelled. My airline is one of the few British airlines still flying, we have the most flights, and currently we are having between 11 and 17 jet movements per day, most of them freight. Some are repatriation flights. A very, very small number are scheduled short haul flights bringing passengers home who have previously been unable to travel. On my last flight with passengers, in mid-March, we had more cabin crew on board than passengers, and even putting them all in first class or business class we were able to socially distance them.

We are the largest long haul operator at Gatwick, and whilst Gatwick is not closed no scheduled passenger flights are taking place, and we are not using it for freight either. Talking with my fellow pilots today we are unsure who is using Gatwick, but it is 99% closed with only a skeleton staff.

The terminal building we arrived in today at Heathrow would normally have been busy with the early morning rush, but there were no passengers disembarking flights, no one at immigration, no one at the baggage carousels, and one of the two immigration channels was closed. I went past Purple Parking, and it was empty - not nearly empty but not a single car in it. Our crew car park, frequently full with a queue to get in, had only a handful of cars - one of my colleagues was delighted to be able to park in the space next to the bus stop, he has never parked there before. People who are saying it’s as busy as ever are perhaps not familiar with how busy an airport usually is.

The destination I flew to is normally one of the busiest airports in the world. This week it has closed completely to passenger traffic. If a passenger manages to find their way into the airport they are sent home to quarantine, and if a foreign passenger flight brings passengers in they are sent to a government run quarantine facility. This is one of the destinations mentioned up-thread as apparently running normal scheduled passenger flights. I can assure you that is not true either.

If anyone wants to ask how busy anywhere is I’m happy to tell you what I know. But flights are only running for essential freight or repatriation purposes atm. They are NOT carrying on arriving as normal. I’ve flown as a commercial pilot in the aftermath of 911, the volcano eruption, and through several recessions. I have never seen anything like this.

Don't really see what the problem is for repatriation, The UK already had as much endemic covid as anywhere else, so it's not as though we're bringing more of it into the country.....

1. Sorry to be blunt but anyone who thinks Heathrow is almost as busy as normal doesn't work there and therefore doesn't know the "norm"..last time I went through the Terminal was pretty much shutdown..

1. At least one airline that operates into LHR is running flights that are loaded to the maximum weight possible with freight (often medical supplies, PPE etc) and zero or minimal essential passengers (typically repatriation, diplomats, medical advisors). Those flights are often operating under flight numbers that tie in with what in normal times would be passenger flights..you cannot draw any conclusions about the number of passengers arriving in the UK by looking at Flight radar and the arrivals board.

1. Lack of inbound checks - you need to ask the government.

@backinthebox that was a really interesting post, thank you. Tell me, I'm looking at Washington Dulles airport and it says its open for essential travel. I presume other airports are saying the same? Who's policing that if anyone?

I'm an airport worker. Well I was. Unemployed not furloughs now.
There has NEVER been any checks for arrivals just a sign to ask people IF they have symptoms. A few bottled of hand sanitizer here and there.

Airports were considerably more quiet at the time.the pandemic was announced 11th to 13th March. Gatwick was positively dead on 14rh March, my last shift.
So no arrivals are not as busy as usual. I imagine it's even quieter now as many more airlines worldwide have stopped flying.
There are still some flights in and out but less than 5% of usual.
It is quite possible other flights may have arrived at a similar time but then it's probably dead with no arrivals for many hours inbetween.
Whwn I look on FR at the moment most aircraft are freight not pax.

it says its open for essential travel. I presume other airports are saying the same?

Sounds like "B in the B" and myself are in the same line of work possibly for the same company..and I heartily second their comments..I go as far back as Gulf War 1 and before I've never seen the industry and airports in such dire straits..anyone who think flights are operating anything like normal has been seriously misinformed.

Not all airports are staying open..as to who polices who travels through the airports is down to national rules - the likes of the French demand attestations, the UK..well we know...no idea what the States ask for.

I juts meant that there were still lots of people getting off flights and theirs was pretty full too

Everyone else has been saying that flights have been virtually empty, with say 10 people on a flight that would normally take 130. Hence they are also flying freight.

Lufthansa has 95% of its fleet grounded for example. Flights are not coming in as normal. There are a few repatriation flights and the rest are carrying freight.

Here is Southampton airport current arrivals - one flight for Jersey. That is it.

www.southamptonairport.com/departures-arrivals/

And Jersey has a 14 day quarantine period so it is purely to allow people to return home, nobody is going on holiday.

I've seen 3 planes fly over my house today (route out of Heathrow). It's the most I've seen in one day in 3 weeks......we've almost become like plane spotters!

I will be very glad when I hear planes again. The deathly silence when I wake up in the morning, although beautiful in some ways, is unnerving and a reminder of the strange times we are living in.

My parents are on the waiting list for the repatriation flight from India. We got an email saying there were over 2000 on the list. That was one area of many. They will he repatriation flights for some time. They arent coming here on holiday!

Everyone else has been saying that flights have been virtually empty, with say 10 people on a flight that would normally take 130. Hence they are also flying freight.

Last time I operated into Heathrow was a "passenger" flight where we carried perhaps a fifth of the number of passengers we would normally carry on the route - almost all Brits needing repatriating - but underfloor we also carried over 20 tonnes of much needed temperature sensitive pharmaceuticals (drugs) into the UK..

If the group think is still that stopping "passenger" flights is for the best I hope the group thinkers are prepared to own the consequences.

It has been so quiet these last few weeks. We get flights overhead for both Heathrow, Gatwick and a local airfield. We now only hear birds, and there are no con trails. It is quite something for it to be so quiet here. We had a plane overhead today, and we all stopped and remarked as it is now so unusual.