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Photo: flightradar24
The sky over the United States is yellow this Thanksgiving week.
Yellow for all the planes.
You move from north to south, from coast to coast, all over the country on the animation of the online service flightradar24.
In the middle of the third US corona wave - which could be even more devastating than the previous two pandemic outbreaks.
Thanksgiving, always on the fourth Thursday in November, is one of the most important family celebrations in the United States: just as important as Christmas in this country.
Traditionally, people come together with loved ones from all over the country for Thanksgiving.
And this time too, many Americans can not be denied: in spite of new infection records and more than 250,000 deaths.
Is the travel bug a foretaste of what Germany is about to see over the Christmas holidays?
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Security check on Tuesday in Denver: The US airports have as many passengers as they have not since the Corona outbreak
Photo: KEVIN MOHATT / REUTERS
Flightradar24 counted 6972 machines on Tuesday afternoon US East Coast time.
That is only about ten percent less than on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving a year ago - and even more than in 2018. Large US airlines such as American, United and Delta are providing hundreds of additional flights.
The number of travelers exceeds the forecasts.
The AAA - something like America's ADAC - had predicted a total of 2.4 million passengers for Thanksgiving.
But at the start of the holiday weeks last weekend, the US airports were handling around three million passengers.
The daily numbers were higher than since mid-March.
Despite warnings from Anthony Fauci.
“Is it really worth it,” the top US virologist asked in an interview with the BBC last week, “that people from different parts of the country are gathering, coming into your house from overcrowded airports and airplanes, where you will be 10, 15 , 20 people have, which increases the risk dramatically? "
Family party as a super spreader
Such reminders have not completely passed away.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the number of Thanksgiving travelers for the entire week could only be about half that of the previous year.
But from the perspective of epidemiologists, it is still far too high.
The family celebration could become a super spreader event.
For the US aviation industry, however, the rush is a good sign.
"Thanksgiving demand shows that private travelers in particular want to fly again," says aviation expert Gerald Wissel, head of the Airborne Consulting firm.
“The fear of getting infected on a trip is probably no longer so pronounced.
Many apparently think: ›I adhere to the hygiene rules on the way and then meet my family, nobody has Corona either‹.
While air traffic within Europe has subsided with the new Covid-19 wave and tightened travel restrictions, domestic US business has picked up.
According to the industry association Airlines for America, the number of domestic flights was 43 percent lower than a year ago.
In many US states there are hardly any corona restrictions for travelers from other states.
In Europe, however, numerous nations have introduced strict quarantine regulations for returnees from other European countries with a high risk of infection.
Above all, these rules slowed down the demand from private travelers for intra-European flights, says expert Wissel - and not so much fear of the virus.
If Germans think similarly to millions of Americans, there should be a lot of traffic around the Christmas holidays in this country too.
Not so much in the sky, but on the highways.
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