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Does anyone still remember aircraft noise and contrails in the sky?

Flight delays and overcrowded terminals?

Until the beginning of 2020, such phenomena were one of the nerves of our everyday life.

Today, in times of omnipresent travel bans, one almost yearns to go back to noise and flight stress - okay, that may not apply to those who live in an approach path, but it is quite certain for tens of millions of others who have been without vacation and air travel for a good year due to Corona have to.

The virus has completely shaken up aviation.

In 2020, 60 percent fewer passengers were counted worldwide than in the previous year, even after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there was no such extreme decrease.

For 2021, the industry is expecting at best a slight recovery - even if things go well, by December only half as many air passengers should have been on the move as in 2019, the last year before the pandemic broke out.

The most booked flights in the world

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The corona-related changes in aircraft use have a massive impact on the chart of the most frequently used flight routes: While routes such as Bangkok – Hong Kong, Djakarta – Singapore or London – New York were the big hit in 2019, the Chinese are now ahead, reports the British flight analyst OAG.

In April 2021, at least twice as many passengers will fly on each of the ten top domestic Chinese routes as on the ten most popular international routes.

While over 750,000 people will jet back and forth between Beijing and Shanghai by the end of the month, there are just 166,000 on the most frequented international route.

This is the Orlando – San Juan route, which was never a record route before and is not even a real international route, after all, Puerto Rico is a US territory.

Source: OAG / Infographic WORLD

OAG lists Moscow – Simferopol (159,000 passengers) as the second most flown international route, but that too is not a “real” international connection, after all, it connects the Russian capital with the Russian-occupied, actually Ukrainian Crimea and is operated by the Russians as a domestic flight.

This month, Delhi – Dubai is the real international record route around the globe with a modest 143,000 passengers.

Despite Corona full planes in South Korea

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And Europe?

Is basically left behind by air traffic.

Not a single route makes it into the top ten international connections.

The old continent is also not represented among the ten most frequented domestic routes.

Asia dominates here with nine out of ten routes, three of them within China alone.

The Sydney – Melbourne connection is the only top domestic route in a non-Asian country.

The world's most frequently flown domestic connection is also by far the largest number of passengers around the globe: a fabulous 1.47 million South Koreans will be flying back and forth between Seoul and the holiday island of Jeju by the end of April.

Anyone who thinks now, “They're crazy, the South Koreans, how can they be so carefree?” Is on the wrong track.

In South Korea, the virus is virtually defeated.

With a 7-day incidence of just 8.8 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants (in Germany it is 20 times higher), the luxury of aircraft noise and full planes can long ago be afforded there again.

More sustainable travel to Corona?

An interview with Daniel Rieger, Head of Transport Policy at NABU, Prof. Dr.

Harald Zeiss, founder and managing director of the Institute for Sustainable Tourism at the Harz University of Applied Sciences, Ingo Lies, Founder & Managing Director of Chamäleon Reisen and Thomas Ellerbeck, TUI Group, moderated by Christina Brause, Managing Editor Investigation & Reportage at WELT AM SONNTAG.

Source: WORLD