PARIS (AP) – The security officer pointing the thermometer barely glanced, wishing the traveler a “happy vacation”. The baggage belts dreamed of better times, and the list of departures didn’t even fill a video screen.
This is Christmas trip 2020, a pale shade of past holiday crushes, with less than 100 masked and sanitized passengers lining up for a flight from Johannesburg to Paris, hoping it won’t be canceled at the last minute. Covid-19 has just mutated and many flights from South Africa are being banned.
Normally, Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport is packed this time of year. Usually travelers pushing trolleys with oversized luggage meander through queues to check-in desks, followed by longer lines for security and again for immigration. Even the business lounges are packed and it can take 20 minutes to pay for a duty-free bottle of wine.
Not this Christmas.
Check-in is effortless. There is no need to show proof of a COVID-19 test. There are no lines at security, where the big old X-ray machines have been replaced by a high-tech full-body scanner. Just hand in a quick temperature check and tracking form to a health officer.
The international terminal is empty. Most stores are closed, except for the duty-free (but not profit-free) perfume, alcohol and tobacco shop, a sunglasses franchise, and a listless electronics store.
Boarding is a breeze, as it should be when an aircraft has less than 40% capacity.
Passengers wearing designer cloth masks are politely requested to take them off and wear the not so trendy, but widely recognized as effective light blue surgical mask.
Ten hours later, after a smooth flight across the African continent in the dark of the night, the 15-year-old Boeing 777 landed in a typical winter fog at Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris.
There, despite the very early hour, there are hundreds in line at the transit desk. Since London, a popular European transit hub, was a no-go zone for many, travelers returned to Paris or Frankfurt as their European transit point.
For those whose final destination is Paris, passengers will be emigrated depending on the origin of their flight. Evidence of a negative COVID-19 test is required, but social distances are not necessarily observed.
Curb, it is raining, dark and the taxi driver is inaudible as there is a thick plastic plate separating him from the passengers.
It’s now after six in the morning and curfews have been lifted over Paris – the highways are full.
Happy holidays for 2020!