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Comment by sjg007 | Hacker News Reader

Doesn’t matter if there’s no flights or boats.

There may well be flights. Crew are exempt, so at least for slot-controlled airports it's probably worth flying anyway to keep the slot; you'll have some US citizens / permanent residents and their families, and you can fill the belly with cargo since you have spare weight. Might be worth it even for airports that aren't slot-controlled.

Here in NZ the largest airport with such slots has waived that rule for the duration meaning that airlines can reduce their flights without losing their slots (and therefore be more likely still be around to be a customer for the airport when it is all over)

Various aviation authorities in Europe are relaxing the requirements that is driving the slot controls & ghost flights. Don't have the link now but read it earlier.

Here is one link:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/mar/10/eu-airlines...

I suspect there will be flights, from the UK (which is why it was left off).

for about 5 days maybe.

I suspect UK was left off because POTUS has resorts in Ireland and Scotland, and no where in Europe. There's nothing credible about UK being off the list while every surrounding country is on it.

I thought it was a reward for our big beautiful breakfast

The UK is an Island nation with entry controls - passports are required even from the EU and there is at least token screening at the airports and docks of people with fever or other virus symptoms.

Not that it’s the same thing, but being an island (so no walking traffic) and having some screening in place means that the UK simply doesn’t have certain diseases (like rabies) that are at least somewhat common in Europe.

Honestly though, the UK is one of, if not THE, staunchest ally of the US and banning its citizens would cause some minor political issues.

Yeah but the UK certainly has the coronavirus and more importantly, Heathrow has it. https://www.airport-technology.com/news/coronavirus-heathrow...

The UK is about a week behind Europe in terms of covid 19

Is that more or less than the US itself?

Hard to say when the US doesn't test.

Note that technically the UK does not require passports for entry from the EU - identity cards are also fine.

Having travelled back to the UK from a Schengen country in the past few days, I can also confirm that there wasn’t so much as a poster in the airport, let alone any actual screening.

Airport screening doesn't work.

"token screening at the airports"

I don't think I've ever had anything that even counts as token screening flying into the UK from Europe - passport check is automated and I've never even seen someone at customs for many years.

POTUS has to have someplace to golf, brag about his being impeached, and make the Queen visibly uncomfortable.

Which makes total sense since the UK is a haven from this pandemic... oh wait. Nope. It's spreading at bloody Heathrow itself: https://www.airport-technology.com/news/coronavirus-heathrow...

UK is currently 29th on total cases per million population (6.7). That's pretty far down the list.

27th (8.7). Things change pretty fast...

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