Flying during a pandemic

Last week my family and I went up to Scotland to visit friends. We travelled via air plane as it takes two days to drive. They live right at the very top of Scotland only 40mins from Jon O’Groats and we live just outside Bristol.

I would say what made travelling during a pandemic and with a 3 year old was made more manageable by the fact we were so well prepared. Being organised meant that we had the ability to be flexible if needed. Toys were brought to keep our son entertained and we had downloaded episodes of Paw Patrol onto the pad for him to watch with headphones during the flight.

There was a strict one way system in place in the terminal but you could get to a cafe/bar and the toilets safely. There was space for everyone to sit distanced within the cafe/bar and relax a little. I like to have a treat when flying and eating at the terminal is part of the experience for me. Yes it is more expensive but it is all part of the adventure in my eyes. Face coverings had to be worn at all times, except for eating and drinking, and everyone adhered to this well.

On entering the plane it was just as if it would normally be. Filing in and finding your seats I would have thought they might have taken there time with this more to give people space to sit down before having someone else waiting close by, but I also understand they have a strict time frame to keep to. I was also surprised to find we were a full flight. You can’t really distance on a plan so having every seat taken means you are sitting rather close to other passengers. I guess it wouldn’t be economically viable to have a flight with only half passengers on it. Luckily it was only a short flight, 1hr 25mins, so not many people needed to move around and it meant we weren’t having to sit for several hours with our face coverings on.

On the return journey Inverness airport is much smaller than Bristol's. This posed an interesting predicament in departures as there wasn’t enough space to socially distance well when several flights worth of passengers were waiting there. This flight wasn’t full on the way back and we were lucky to have spaces free in front and behind us. On arriving home it was very quick and easy retrieving our bags. People couldn’t wait for you in the terminal building, for social distancing reasons, so our lift had to wait by the car which was fine.

All in all it was a successful trip that, though I had been very nervous taking in light of the current climate, there was measures in place to try and help adhere to safety guidelines which help alleviate my concerns.