General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHere's a map showing Delta Airlines international routes
One airline. Just one. Look at the flights from Beijing to the US. Folks were flying those routes every day, all the way back to the beginning of the COVID-19 problem and before that. Just one airline. Direct flights between Beijing to and from Seattle and New York. One airline. How many on those planes? Hundreds.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)Even more destinations...what are the odds that nobody flew to or from before anyone even knew about COVID-19?
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)You can find a chart at this link. Look at the right side of the chart to see flights in 2019.
Lots of travel between the two countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_route_authority_between_the_United_States_and_China
msongs
(67,417 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,742 posts)That was a long time ago and just before the merger with United.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)The man I work with on websites, though, has parents in China, and generally flies there once a year. He skipped this year, though. I flew Pan-Am between JFK and Istanbul, Turkey though back in the late 1960s, courtesy of the USAF. Long flights that were part of Pan-Am's round-the-world route. I always wanted to take that entire flight some day. Never happened.
greatauntoftriplets
(175,742 posts)The air was still breathable and much of the "old" China still existed. Now, I see photos and the cities are unrecognizable. Beyond that, for the most part they could be Mexico City or Frankfurt or Houston.
That has to have been hard for your colleague not to visit his parents this year. A wise choice, but a hard one.
MineralMan
(146,317 posts)He left China as a college student right after Tienanmen Square. He had been on track for medical school, but changed to neuroscience, and ended up with a PhD from Vanderbilt. I've been working with him now for 13 years. He's an interesting man.
greatauntoftriplets
(175,742 posts)Sounds like he's succeeded here, even if he didn't get the M.D. he originally wanted.