[Tom Otley]

We have been writing about these in news, but there are some good examples of other airlines as well…

Lufthansa

As part of the government repatriation operations, we landed in Auckland on March 26th to bring stranded people home with our D-ABVY. A historic flight! We usually don't fly to this destination, so the 744 is the first Lufthansa aircraft in New Zealand. #WeAreInThisTogether pic.twitter.com/hEGgHjDbqt

— Lufthansa USA (@Lufthansa_USA) March 31, 2020

Austrian Airlines

Austrian Airlines makes aviation history: The longest ever nonstop flight in the airline’s history from Vienna to Sydney was in the air for 17 hours and 16.000 km. The plane will repatriate Austrians who are stranded in Oz due to the Covid crisis. Well done, @_austrian 🇵🇪👏🏼❤️ pic.twitter.com/stCFHMGToR

— Steven Hint (@stevenhint) March 30, 2020

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Shamsh1

[AMcWhirter]

That OS 777-200 operated *non-stop* VIE-SYD. I believe it’s the first time a 777 has flown non-stop between Europe and Australia. The return OS flight operated with a stopover in Penang.

[rferguson]

The one I found interesting was the WAMOS 747.

It flew Madrid – Guatamala City – San Salvador – San Pedro Sula – Madrid.

A 51 year old DC8 operating as a ‘mobile hospital’ flew from Greensboro, North Carolina to Verona, Italy. It is operated by Samaritans Purse, a medical charity.

Wizz Air flew a cargo flight on behalf of the Hungarian govt from Budapest to Shanghai via Nur-Sultan and Irkutsk.

Air Baltic a wee lil A220 from Riga to Urumqui, China. Again as a cargo service on behalf of the Latvian govt.

El Al operated repatriation flights from TLV to Costa Rica, Perth and Bogota.

And LH had a one off flight to AKL via HND.

[rferguson]

[quote quote=995239]I believe it’s the first time a 777 has flown non-stop between Europe and Australia.[/quote]

Not 100% certain but pretty sure BA operated a 777 non stop LHR-PER years ago with HRH the Queen on board.

[MartynSinclair]

According to Sky News yesterday, they have estimated there could still be between 400,000 and 1 million Brits still trying to get home from around the world. Even at the lower number, I am not sure how this will happen, in an effective, and safe manner.

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mkcol74

[rferguson]

[quote quote=995245]According to Sky News yesterday, they have estimated there could still be between 400,000 and 1 million Brits still trying to get home from around the world. Even at the lower number, I am not sure how this will happen, in an effective, and safe manner.[/quote]

Yes the numbers are a very grey area. My neighbour just had her daughter return from Peru – where she had been resident for five YEARS. But apparently she wasn’t confident in the Peruvian authorities being able to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak so decided to jump at one of the ‘repatriation’ flights.

[MartynSinclair]

“where she had been resident for five YEARS” – now I can understand. So it’s not just tourists, but also ex-pats who may be long term residents overseas. I think it will be physically impossible to get them all back. Perhaps the advice in some cases should be to hunker down where they are… especially if the ex-pats have their own homes, where they are living. Not being insensitive, just realistic.

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mkcol74

[AMcWhirter]

Swiss (LX) operated a rescue B777-300ER flight to Santiago de Chile.

LX has just tweeted ( @LX_Newsroom ) that one of its B777-300s brought 216 stranded passengers back to Switzerland from Bangkok. That means a load factor of not much in excess of 50 per cent.

[SimonS1]

[quote quote=995241]A 51 year old DC8 operating as a ‘mobile hospital’ flew from Greensboro, North Carolina to Verona, Italy. It is operated by Samaritans Purse, a medical charity.[/quote]

37 year old 737-200 sent on a rather tortous journey from Canada…

Canada’s Fascinating Rescue Flight To Morocco

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ASK1945, rferguson

[ImissConcorde]

rferguson You surprise me! The Queen is HM!

[rferguson]

[quote quote=995270]rferguson You surprise me! The Queen is HM![/quote]

I always wondered why I wasn’t selected to work that flight! LOL.

Sorry. Royal families are a non existent feature in my home country. 🙂

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TerryMcManus24, Diplomat_BSB, mkcol74, ImissConcorde

[ASK1945]

[postquote quote=995258][/postquote]

I have no personal problem with the UK taxpayers funding flights to repatriate our nationals back to the UK, albeit the passengers are being asked to pay the usual flight costs they would have had to pay commercial airlines. That is the right and proper thing a country should do.

But mixed in with this are people who are having to be repatriated, who are the architects of their own misfortune. The newspapers this morning had a story about four ladies (between 68 and 78 years of age) who flew out to Bangkok on March 17th (the day of the lockdown) to celebrate the 70th birthday of one of them. We 70+ years old people were told to lockdown well before they left.

9 users thanked author for this post.

Shamsh1, GivingupBA, red_robbo, Frederic, Jacob, mkcol74, TupeloKid, fatbear, rferguson

[K1ngston]

[postquote quote=995253][/postquote]

Martyn, as an ex pat myself living in Thailand, for me its probably safer to be here than to repatriate home where I would have to go into immediate 14 day isolation and with no home etc it is far better for me to remain in my current home. Align this with the fact the numbers being reported in the UK far exceed anywhere here in Asia now! However I am surprised as I thought the flights were for stranded holiday makers alone?

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TupeloKid, TerryMcManus24

[Tom Otley]

… and Air France

Un grand merci à toutes les équipes #AirFrance et @transaviaFR d’avoir permis à nos concitoyens de rentrer chez eux.

Nous poursuivons notre engagement et notre collaboration avec @francediplo dans les jours à venir. https://t.co/PrnpuTkaTR

— Anne Rigail (@AnneRigail) March 31, 2020

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=995245][/postquote]

To be honest, it probably won’t. Many of those people will be quite happy where they are – UAE, parts of Asia etc and will therefore sit it out.

Of course the media love to dramatize it all, both the number of people allegedly stranded and the daily stats.

On costs, not convinced that the tax payer should be on the hook. Some people travelled knowing the situation was deteriorating and others have chosen to live their lives elsewhere. Honestly I find it strange that someone would live in Peru for 5 years, contributing to their economy and then expect UK government to step in.

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TupeloKid

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