Airline Travel in Corona-times

Apologies for my long absence, I have been busy savouring life, through a face mask, obviously.  As the “to mask or not to mask” debate rages on in the U.S, here in Italy we’ve just been informed that we will continue being required to wear one (inside, where social distancing isn’t possible) until at least July 31st. In Lombardia, where I live, we still have to wear a mask outside, though there may be a decision to change this tomorrow.  Yesterday, the government released its umpteenth Coronavirus emergency decree, in which it extended the requirement to wear a mask and postponed the reopening of discotheques.

 One of the burning topics of the last weeks has been the “Bonus Vacanze”, a holiday subsidy that is part of the government’s economic recovery plan. It’s no secret that one of Italy’s biggest industries is tourism, nor that for Italians going on summer holiday is akin to a human right.  Most companies close for at least two weeks in August, and many shut for longer. So, to bolster the tourism industry and help those hit hardest by the crisis, the government is offering a voucher of up to €500 for families with an annual household income of less than €40,000. There is an app for requesting the voucher, but the only problem is, that only 50% of hotels accept them.  Hotels are reluctant to adopt the scheme because they only get the money back in the form of a tax credit for next year.  In other words, the subsidy doesn’t actually help hotels offset any live costs. Shockingly (for Italy), it has been reported that close to 60% of Italian families will not go on holiday this year. For 40% this is the first time this has ever happened.

 Speaking of holidays, I recently took my first pandemic-era flight. I expected the airplane to be only half full to accommodate for social distancing. I can’t tell you how many newspaper articles I’ve read that hypothesised about empty planes, with middle seats removed or plexiglass dividers being inserted between seats.  Well, au contraire my friends, the plane was packed. Not a seat empty. We had to fill out a self-certification, confirming, under penalty of law that we didn’t have any Covid-19 symptoms or hadn’t been in touch with any people who had tested positive in the last 14 days. The boarding process was more complicated and slower than ever, and the airline staff appeared to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown due to the added layers of bureaucracy and checks. For reasons that defy logic, we were not allowed to carry on any luggage. I am assuming the concern is that the surfaces of the luggage could have virus on it. Indeed, also when you go to the hairdresser or a doctor’s office you have to abandon your belongings at the entrance and seal them in a plastic bag, presumably for the same (mysterious) reason. Sometimes it feels like these rules and regulations have just been cooked up by some clueless people whose philosophy is to “confuse the enemy”. And who knows, perhaps it’s working. So far, infection numbers remain steady. While in some regions (Lazio, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Tuscany and Veneto) the Rt has gone over 1, hospitals have emptied out and ICUs have spare capacity. A nurse in a hospital in Cremona did raise concern a few days ago with a Facebook post in which he declared he had observed an increase in serious cases, but so far no one has sounded the alarm.