3 Links I Love: Airplanes are COVID-Safe, Goodbye Alitalia, WestJet Stays West

Oct 16, 2020

More Reading on This Topic: Alitalia, Links I Love, Safety/Security, Westjet

This week’s featured link

TRANSCOM/AMC Commercial Aircraft Cabin Aerosol Dispersion Tests – US Transportation Command and DARPA
You probably saw news coverage of this study, but here is the study itself. In short, transmission on airplanes is incredibly unlikely with mask-wearing, but it’s worth a read to get more details if you speak doctory-science language. I may write this up further next week once I acquire a translator.

*Image of the Week*: This creepy, disembodied mannequin is breathing virus all over the cabin as part of the USTRANSCOM/DARPA test. She looks ill.

Two for the road

Farewell Alitalia Airline: Hello Italia Trasporto Aereo SpA (ITA) – eTurboNews
Oh no, Alitalia is dead! Oh wait, no it’s not. It may or may not be coming back with a new name. I’m not entirely convinced the name will actually change, but that would sure be a huge waste of money to rebrand everything… so there’s a good chance it’ll happen. The name doesn’t matter to me. We all know who you are…

WestJet pulls back from Atlantic Canada – WestJet News
Canada has sealed itself off from its most important partner, the US, so you’d think that might give some hope to boosting domestic travel. Apparently that’s not the case if you’re in Atlantic Canada. WestJet is pulling out of several cities out there and reducing service to St John’s and Halifax.

Brett

5 responses to “3 Links I Love: Airplanes are COVID-Safe, Goodbye Alitalia, WestJet Stays West”

NathanP

Oct 16, 2020 at 5:42 am

The “NewCo” airline ITA looks to be the government’s attempt to restart Alitalia without the legacy unions and dozens of unwanted aircraft. It seems that they now realize that high speed rail + ULCC competition has made domestic flights unrealistic/unprofitable. Perhaps the “new” airline will function as an old fashioned flag carrier that serves prestige international routes with amazing service levels and no chance of ever being profitable.

Cranky, I join you as we wait to see the final outcome.

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1. SEAN
  
  Oct 16, 2020 at 6:25 am
  
  Ditto, but there’s a certain level of enjoyment we all get from watching our favorite zombie airline… right?
  
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Kilroy

Oct 16, 2020 at 6:35 am

I don’t follow Canadian news much, but my understanding is that the Atlantic provinces have been doing a great job (at least relatively speaking) in managing COVID-19 and in keeping cases low. Perhaps there are some “quarantine upon arrival” restrictions that are driving cuts to those flights?

Now that I think of it, I’m a bit surprised that the Atlantic provinces aren’t a more popular summer tourist destination for Americans, (at least during normal, pre-COVID, times). From what I’ve heard there is a lot of natural beauty out there, and Halifax is roughly an hour’s flying time from NYC and BOS, with St. John’s a little more than 2 hours away.

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1. Kristen
  
  Oct 16, 2020 at 7:08 am
  
  The travel restrictions in Atlantic Canada go well beyond just a “quarantine upon arrival” in a number of the provinces. Outside of the “Atlantic Bubble,” all non-essential travel into New Brunswick is still prohibited as well as entry into Newfoundland & Labrador and Prince Edward Island if you are from outside Atlantic Canada and do not own property in the province. The Canadian Travel & Tourism Travel website has a great map showing the current restrictions (https://time-to-travel.ca/where-canadians-can-travel-now) showing why it is so difficult for Canadians to travel within our own country.
  
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Elliott

Oct 16, 2020 at 9:04 am

Good to know that airplanes are safe. Once destinations are safe and offices are open to employees and visitors then people might get aboard airplanes again.

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