Items
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airport
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2022-07-11
Social distancing sign at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
This is a picture my mom took while at the Phoenix Airport to visit my sister. I don't know if this was enforced since I was not present. -
2022-04
Drive Thru Test for travelers in American Samoa
Opening up the borders in American Samoa was great news for Samoans that were stuck in the states for a year and a half borders were closed in American Samoa. And just when they think going home would be easy, it wasn't. There were a lot of requirements that were set by the government for travelers to follow when entering the island. This was one of the many requirements that travelers had to follow to ensure the safety of the people of American Samoa. Even if your test came negative upon arrival, you still had to get a second test to make sure that you do not have COVID. Somehow, despite these requirements, restrictions, and quarantine, cases still emerged on the island. -
2022-04-20
Social distancing marks on escalator
At the Lima airport, the escalators contained the faint markings of social distancing indicators. The red Xs let you know to wait and the image of two feet is to indicate where you stand. Masks are still required inside the airport. -
2021-07
Traveling During Covid
In July of 2021, travel was open in the UK. My family immigrated to the United States in 1998 from England. My grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins all still reside in the UK. Covid has been a very hard time as I could not visit my family and they could not travel to the US. When travel opened back up we were thrilled. My mom and I planned to travel to England in July 2021. The day before we were set to leave we noticed that my passport had expired the month prior. Since my passport had not been used in over a year, we were not aware that it had expired. We tried everything to get a new one as soon as possible, but there was a delay on getting passports out because many people had the same problems. Fortunately I was able to get an emergency passport appointment in Buffalo. I got my passport at the end of July and my mom and I were set to travel in August. Traveling to the UK required many covid tests, forms and mask wearing. I had not been in an airport in over a year, and this new way of travel was very strange to me, but I was still happy to be able to travel. Traveling back to the US also required many tests and forms, the National Guards were even placed in US airports making sure travelers were filling out locator forms. It was an insane experience, and hopefully travel goes back to normal in the coming years. Although it is a different way of traveling it is still amazing that we are able to leave the US and visit other countries after a long time of not being able to do so. -
2021-05-15
South Africa Trains Dogs to Detect COVID-19 at Airports
In South Africa, a private security company that deploys dogs to sniff out illegal drugs and explosives at airports now is teaching the canine corps to detect COVID-19. Romain Chanson checks out the situation for VOA in this report from Johannesburg, narrated by VOA’s Carol Guensburg. -
2021-06-16
Get vaccinated at SFO airport
The SFO airport is now offering 1-shot vaccines at a medical clinic. I never would have imagined in 2019 that you could get vaccinated in an airport, but clearly the priority is on increasing the number of vaccinated people in the U.S. It sounds convenient, as no appointment is needed. -
2020-05-20
LaGuardia’s Ghost Town
For my primary source, I selected a photograph I took of the gate house area in LaGuardia Airport in mid March of 2020. In the picture it shows several employees, sitting around doing nothing at all, the whole airport was a “ghost town”, meaning there were no passengers to assist with there tickets and gate claims, or any questions in general. During this time we were all nervous, not just nervous about COVID-19 and from the horrific scenes in the news, but also as an 11 year veteran in the airline industry, our jobs were on the line because of the decrease in flying, fear of flying, and the travel restrictions of no flying. With the airline burning 35 million dollars a day how can they pay 80,000 employees system wide I told myself. The airline soon told us system wide that it’s recommended we take a leave of absence at least a year with no pay to save the company or else there would be cuts, not including the 25% cut in our salary we took already. All week I was on the phone with my work partner talking everyday trying to figure what’s the plan. All these thoughts came racing three my head. What are we going to do? Do you think we will be fired or let go since we have seniority? Why I didn’t finish college 13 years ago and became lawyer or something. My job made us an offer, hey said take the year off with no pay, and your still have flying benefits for you and your family as always, and you will still have full medical benefits and we will pay your medical as well. After talking with my family, my fiancé, my partner from work, I decided on March 26th 2020, I was going to take the leave of absence. A whole year later April 26th of 2021 I finally came back to work full time, and the airport passenger count is starting to increase. The reason why I seated this primary source is because I would like historians to know the insides that us airline employees faced during these challenging times. I know many airline companies asked Congress for help in payroll support for the employees which majority of them did get including us, but we never saw that payroll support, nor did they call us back Early to work since they got some kind of support from the government, instead that money went in the stock market, and for bonuses to the CEO, and managers in the company. While I am happy and very fortunate to be back at work, it was very challenging as I’m sure it was for everyone, but one good thing that came out of it, 13 years later, a year ago from today. I was able to join the family of bronx community college, and focus on my education while I was off. -
2020-07-15
Travel in the Age of Covid-19
If you would like to know why I was travelling, please see this journal: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive/item/30217 Travelling at the best of times can induce stress and anxiety. In the times of Covid-19, it is a whole different experience. I am dropped off at Melbourne Tullamarine Airport. The departure screen, usually filled with flight information, now only has a handful of flights on display. Incoming flights into Melbourne have been suspended entirely. My destination is Bahrain via Dubai International Airport. Emirates Airlines EK409 is flying at about a third of its capacity (the Melbourne-Dubai route is, at normal times, a very popular one and flights are usually almost full). The extra room is welcome, allowing many travellers to lay down and enjoy a little comfort in these uncomfortable times. Masks as well as gloves are required throughout the flight. A hygiene kit is provided. I sleep for most of the flight. When I arrive in Dubai, sitting in the terminal building waiting for my connection (which is in 10 hours because of reduced flights frequency), and as a way of passing the time, I join one of my online University classes. Three months later, in October 2020, when this journal was written, travel is still a very complicated affair. This is the worst crisis to hit the industry since the attacks of September the 11th 2001. I will not take travel for granted ever again. This reflection was submitted as part of the HIST30060 Making History project at the University of Melbourne. -
2020-10-23
Travel During Covid
Travel during Covid what mostly like any other travel, just with a mask, and people didn't actually want to sit right next to you waiting to board the flights. The actual flights were different, though. The seats were not filled unless you were a member of a party travelling together. That being said, my first class ticket as a single travelling passenger with no other members of my party allowed me to have a full row to myself unlike most flights where everyone is seated in close proximity whether you know the passengers seated next to you or not. It was actually nice in terms of people respecting personal space. -
2020-09-25
Avoiding Sickness while Traveling
I’m sitting in the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport waiting for my flight to go to Chicago Midway airport while I’m geared up like doctor. I have my goggles on I purchased for my biology labs in college and my black face mask. I’m going to be seeing family, and much of my family is very old. I feel guilty being roped into going but I have to go. I’ve seen many people take off their masks for no apparent reason and I’m essentially blind because my goggles keep fogging. If there’s any obvious errors in this, that’s why. -
2020-09-03
Fewer planes and much less noise
I was offered a job at Arizona State University at the last minute. How last minute? I had already started teaching on campus in my previous position when I got the official offer. We moved to Tempe, AZ in the offseason. The rental market was full of pricey AirBnBs, but not a lot of homes for rent. I have two kids and a dog, so we set our sights on a house. I also wanted to be close to ASU, preferably walking distance, but I knew that was a big ask. We did, however, find a home. It’s walking distance to Rio Salado, downtown Tempe, and ASU. The catch is that it’s in the flight path for the Phoenix airport. When a plane flies overhead it sounds like a long, dull roar. It’s so loud you can’t hear yourself talk or talk to anyone around you (if you’re outside). Before COVID, the planes flew in and out of the airport like taxis. I counted how often they flew overhead, and it was about every 54 seconds for most of the day. Sometimes it felt so loud you didn’t want to sit outside. Post-March, however, everything has slowed way down. There are fewer planes, and that means we sit outside a lot more and enjoy our outside space. I recorded the sound of a plane passing overhead while I hung up laundry to dry. It gives a sense of how long the sound takes over the area. -
2020-03-15
U.S and China Relationship? Coperation or Banded?
Recently, I saw the U.S president used to want to ban the relationship with China. I feel really confused about it. In this cod-19, we get so much support from China. At least, I found so many Chinese help neighbor out during the epidemic. I got many masks from my neighbors. Most of my clothes were made in China, I just want to say that we can have good cooperation with China, and we can get much profit from it. They help us, and we should keep good relationship with them. -
2020-03-14
Thousands wait in line for hours at O’Hare international airport
Travelers trying to get home amid COVID-19 outbreak