Inside Out | US, Europe travel chaos a preview of the pain and indignities to come for Asia

Those pining for a resumption of international air travel should be careful what they wish for as delays, restrictions and higher prices are on the way

A full global recovery is unlikely until China’s airlines and air travellers return, an outcome made less likely by Beijing’s strict ‘zero-Covid’ policy

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Travellers queue for security checks at Heathrow Airport in London on June 22. After two years of pandemic restrictions, travel demand is back with a vengeance but airlines and airports that slashed jobs during the depths of the Covid-19 crisis are struggling to keep up. Photo: AP

Published: 3:30am, 27 Jun 2022

Travel chaos during the past week across airports and airlines in the United States and Europe may be a source of cruel comfort for those of us in Asia who remain grounded by cruel and irrational Covid-19 travel restrictions.

But I fear that our guilty pleasure watching other travellers’ pain will be short-lived and we should be careful what we wish for. The odds are high that we in Asia will stumble into the same recovery quagmire as our own airlines and airports struggle to restore services when recovery eventually begins.

What are the odds we will fail to learn from the mistakes of Europe and the US as their airports have struggled to recruit new baggage handlers and airlines to recover the pilots and cabin crew who were sacked or furloughed through 2020? Can we avoid having the scenes of angry, stressed and weary European travellers choking airport check-in halls replayed across Asia?

As we pine for the chance to fly once again, I was reminded by an article I wrote in early 2019 about “the normal numbing reality” of the pains and indignities linked with air travel. “For most of us, an air journey brings together a unique combination of stress, aggravation, tedium and fatigue,” I wrote. “This unique cocktail often generates dreadful experiences that are only amplified by each airline’s preposterous marketing claims.”

Before we start to celebrate the imminent resumption of international air travel, it is important to pause and recognise that whatever the pains and indignities we bemoaned back in innocent pre-pandemic days, worse is to come.

Air travel is likely to be burdened for a long time to come by more and worse aggravations, including careful carriage of vaccine records, pervasive and time-consuming health security checks and higher airline and hotel prices. Let us pray we will soon be spared the indignity of compulsory quarantine.

.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}Inside Out | US, Europe travel chaos a preview of the pain and indignities to come for Asia

Inside Out | US, Europe travel chaos a preview of the pain and indignities to come for Asia