Archives for May 2020

Athens, Greece (CNN) — Greece has brought forward its planned reopening to tourists to June 15 as pressure mounts on European destinations to roll back coronavirus restrictions to stave off economic collapse.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced the new date in a national address on Wednesday, saying only tourists from countries with acceptably low rates of virus infection would be permitted.

He confirmed that most flights to the country would resume by July 1.

Greece has suffered fewer than 170 Covid-19 deaths and has reported fewer than 3,000 cases two months into the pandemic. Mitsotakis said the country’s fast response and success in containing the virus would be a “passport of safety, credibility and health ” to visitors.

“We will win the economic battle just like we won the health one”, Mitsotakis said, warning that the financial impact from the coronavirus would be immense.

Tourists will be allowed to enter Greece without taking a coronavirus test or remaining in quarantine. Tourism Minister Haris Theoharis said health officials will conduct spot tests when required.

The government has said that healthcare capacity will be boosted at popular tourist destinations with medical staff and improved facilities, along with a comprehensive plan for the handling of possible infections.

Tax reductions

Tourism is the main engine of the Greek economy, accounting for nearly 20% of the country’s gross domestic product and one in four jobs. Having already suffered a decade of financial troubles, Greece desperately needs to restore its main income source.

Despite the country’s success in containing the virus, a number of indicators predict Greece is set to face the sharpest economic hit in the European Union as a result of the coronavirus because of its dependency on tourism.

Greek authorities are now hoping to soften the economic blow by being able to reopen the vital tourism sector earlier than other countries in the area, including Italy and Spain, that have been more heavily hit by the virus.

However, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Thursday said it would open its borders to all EU countries, with no mandatory quarantine, on June 3.

The measures announced by the Greek government are both long-term and seasonal, covering the summer months that account for most of the tourism revenue. Tax reductions for the travel and hospitality sector are being introduced while worker salaries, in the tourism, catering and industrial sectors will be subsidized through EU mechanisms.

According to the Greek Tourism Ministry, more than 33 million tourists visited the country last year. Forecasts for the summer in early 2020 had been indicating another record year.

As part of the gradual easing of an over two-month lockdown, beaches re-opened over the weekend while the Acropolis in Athens opened to visitors again Monday along with over 200 archaeological sites.

Bars and restaurants are expected to resume operations on May 25 the same day that a travel ban to the Greek islands will also be lifted.

(CNN) — We all know that travel broadens the mind. Thanks to that place on the seafront that sells delicious gelato, it has a tendency to broaden other body parts too.

We can’t deliver you two scoops of pistachio, but we can keep flexing those brain cells while your next trip across the world is on hold.

CNN Travel’s experts have been compiling some tricky questions to test your knowledge of the planet and to kindle your curiosity for more.

Think you can outsmart us? Try answering the following without resorting to Google. By all means hop on a video call to get family and friends in on the challenge.

There’s a link out to the answers at the end. We trust you not to do any peeking!

1. Which of these cities has not hosted the Summer Olympics?

a. Amsterdam; b. Madrid; c. Helsinki; d. Tokyo; e. Rome

2. Can you identify the city from its skyline?

3. The London Underground, or Tube, is the world’s oldest metro rail system. Which city has the second oldest electrified system?

4. Some nations have more than one capital city. Can you identify these countries by their perhaps lesser known capitals?

a. Brno; b. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte; c. Putrajaya; d. Valparaíso

5. In which city is the world’s tallest building?

6. Can you name the city from these landmark places of worship?

7. Which city has the world’s oldest Chinatown?

a. San Francisco; b. London; c. Manila; d. Jakarta; e. Toronto

8. Can you identify the city from the name of its airport?

a. General Edward Lawrence Logan; b. Hamad International; c. O.R. Tambo International; d. Soekarno-Hatta International

9. Name the world’s highest capital city

10. Which three destinations are widely recognized as the world’s only three sovereign city states?

1. Which famous aircraft made its last flight on November 26, 2003?

2. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, what was the world’s busiest airport in terms of passengers?

a. Beijing Capital; b. London Heathrow; c. Amsterdam Schiphol; d. Los Angeles, e. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta

3. Identify the airlines by their tailfin logos

4. What type of airplane is the US President’s Air Force One?

a. Gulfstream III; b. Boeing VC-25; c. Airbus A320; d. Boeing 777-300ER; e. Antonov An-148

5. Which two countries were connected by the Kangaroo Route?

6. Which direction — north, east, south or west — would you travel between these airports identified only by their codes? (Five bonus points if you can identify all the cities)

a. LAX to HNL; b. LGA to MCO; c. LHR to JNB; d. BKK to PVG; e. ARN to SVO

7. Match the massive airplane to its nickname

a. Whale; b. Queen; c. Dream. d. Superjumbo

8. Which airline had the most aircraft at the beginning of 2020?

a. Delta Airlines; b. American Airlines; c. Cathay Pacific; d. Virgin Atlantic; e. JetBlue

9. Why is three the magic number for the following aircraft?

Hawker Siddeley HS-12, the Tupolev Tu-154, the Lockheed L-1-1011, Boeing 727?

10. What aviation first did Amelia Earhart achieve in 1928?

1. Where in the world can you find these pyramids?

2. What is the world’s largest island?

3. Which country is home to Europe’s largest natural desert?

4. Match the image to the US national park?

a. Canyonlands; b. Yellowstone; c. Grand Canyon; d. Yosemite

5. Can you name the oceans that make up the so-called seven seas?

6. What links Java Trench, Challenger Deep, Molloy Deep, South Sandwich Trench, Puerto Rico Trench?

7. Match these desert oddities to the locations below

a. Qatar; b. Chile; c. Texas; d. Namibia

8. Which is the only one of the world’s 10 longest rivers to flow northward?

9. Where can you no longer see the Azure Window?

10. Which place receives the most annual rainfall?

a. Manchester, England; b. Mawsynram, India; c. Seattle, Washington; d. Quibdó, Colombia

1. Which two Asian destinations separated by the sea were linked by 55 kilometers of bridge and tunnel in 2018?

2. Match the image to the New York bridge

a. Manhattan; b. Queensboro; c. Williamsburg; d. Brooklyn

3. Which towering French engineer designed the Bolivar Bridge in Peru, the Truong Tien Bridge in Vietnam and the Imbaba Bridge in Egypt?

4. Which country is home to the world’s longest bridge?

5. Match the image to the London bridge

a. Millennium; b. Hammersmith; c. Tower; d. Westminster

6. What would happen if you tried to cross France’s Rhône River on the Pont d’Avignon?

7. Can you identify the following famous bridges?

8. Which two continents are connected by the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge?

9. What caused part of the Pont Des Arts bridge in Paris to collapse in 2015?

10. Which country is home to this handy structure?

1. Which city has the most Michelin stars?

2. Mirazur was named top of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2019. In which country is it?

3. Can you identify the country from the classic dessert?

4. What are the bubbles commonly made of in bubble tea?

5. The world’s “happiest country” also consumes the most coffee per capita. Name the country?

6. Which antipodean dessert is named for a ballerina?

7. Can you match these four British dishes to their names (without laughing)?

a. Eton Mess; b. Toad in the hole; c. Scotch egg; d. Spotted dick

8. Kartoffelknoedel, xiaolongbao, manti and pierogi are all types of what?

9. What color or colors is Neapolitan ice-cream?

10. Chef Mary Mallon worked in kitchens in New York and Long Island in the early 20th century. By what unhygienic name is she better known?

1. What do Colombia, Sao Tome & Principe, Gabon, Uganda, Maldives and Kiribati all have in common?

2. Which three Asian countries topped the list in April 2020 for the most powerful passports for visa-free travel, according to the Henley Passport Index?

3. Which country has the most official languages?

4. Four red, white and blue flags, four different countries. Name them

5. What happened in Samoa and Tokelau on December 30, 2011?

6. Which country changed its name to eSwatini in 2018?

7. Identify these countries from their outlines

8. Which is the world’s newest country?

9. These frontiers divide areas claimed by which pairs of countries?

a. The Line of Control; b. The Demilitarized Zone; c. The 49th Parallel

10. Which country is surrounded to the north, east and south by Senegal?

1. Name the protagonist in Jules Verne’s 1872 novel “Around the World in 80 Days”

2. Which four destinations have Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon visited in four series of “The Trip?”

3. Who led this ill-fated Antarctic expedition?

4. Whose fictional crusade took him from Utah to Portugal, Venice, Austria, Berlin and then Petra?

5. What record did US journalist Nellie Bly break in 1890?

6. Where did Anthony Bourdain have lunch with former US President Barack Obama?

7. Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl conquered what personal fear to cross the Pacific Ocean on his Kon-Tiki balsa wood raft in 1947?

8. What have John “Wedge” Wardlaw, Mark Rumer-Cleary, Dallas Burney, John Molony and John Dickson done every five years since 1982?

9. Why doesn’t Dora the Explorer wear Boots?

10. Here she is in India in 1983, but which country has Queen Elizabeth II visited more times than any other?

1. Actor Stanley Tucci has proved his awesomeness by showing the Internet how to make the perfect Negroni. His recipe calls for double the usual quantity of which liquor?

2. In “The Devil Wears Prada,” Tucci’s character Nigel is overlooked for the job of Runway magazine’s creative director. Which city is he in when he finds out?

a. Paris; b. New York; c. Milan; d. Pittsburgh

3. Tucci has been involved in making a new travel series with CNN looking at the food of which country?

a. France; b. The United States; c. Italy; d. Croatia

4. In the 2004 movie “The Terminal,” Tucci plays Frank Dixon, the customs chief trying to prevent Tom Hanks’ character from living in his airport. Which airport is the movie set in?

5. Does Tucci prefer his Negroni straight up or on the rocks?

That’s it. You made it to the end. Now fix yourself a drink and click the link below to see the answers and find out how you did.

(CNN) — When Hilde Falun Strom and Sunniva Sorby began a long-planned expedition in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard last September, their main goal was to encourage conversation around climate change in the polar regions.

After spending close to nine months collecting data and samples for researchers in remote Bamsebu, situated 140 kilometers from the “nearest neighbor,” the adventurers were all set to bid farewell to the tiny wooden hut they’ve been calling home since the beginning of their trip.

However, as was the case for many people across the world, their plans were abruptly put on ice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now the pair have little choice but to remain cut off from civilization with only each other for company, along with their dog Ettra and various polar bears, reindeer and geese, until a ship is able to make it across to take them home.

“We have been very cold,” Strom tells CNN Travel via satellite phone. “There’s no electricity. No running water. It’s been challenging, but it’s the most beautiful area you can picture.”

During their time in Bamsebu, the duo have been collecting weather and wildlife data, monitoring clouds, sea ice and organisms for international agencies such as the Norwegian Polar Institute and NASA.

The twosome, who have known each other for around six years, also lived in total darkness for three months, which they describe as an experience “not for the faintest heart.”

“Neither one of us have lived so close, 24/7 in a small space [their cabin was built for whalers in the 1930s] with anybody,” says Sorby.

“So that had its learning opportunities and challenges. But there isn’t one thing that happened here that we haven’t figured out together.

“Then in March, the earth started spinning off its axis, and everything began changing.”

‘We’re more useful here’

While they have little access to technology in Bamsebu, Strom and Sorby, who both work in polar tourism, were kept up to date on Covid-19 developments by their social media team.

But they had no idea how serious things were until it became clear their four-day “pick-up trip,” in which family, friends, sponsors and science partners would arrive on a ship to collect them in early May, could not go ahead.

“There were a lot of tears,” says Sorby, who lives in Canada. “It was really hard. The same ship that dropped us off in September would have come to pick us up.

“We have not moved from this location in close to nine months and some of the same people we stood and waved goodbye to would have been there.

“But the rest of the world has witnessed a lot of tragedies when it comes to health and so many other disappointments with everything that has been canceled. So we were all in the same boat so to speak.”

“We had a goal when we left and we’re going to continue that,” says Strom.

“We feel more useful here than back home. But it’s hard, because we’re not with our family and friends.”

Sorby shares this sentiment, pointing out they’re in a better position in some ways, as they haven’t been “tainted” by the despair the coronavirus pandemic has heaped on the world over the past few months.

“We’re going to stay in the good news department,” she adds. “To abandon this project would be to sacrifice our purpose and what we value and stand for as women.

“So, it’s never been an option for us to stop this. Irrespective of the cost to us emotionally, and financially.

“We’ve honestly done a lot of soul-searching. We’re both over 50. and we care deeply about our values and how we show up in the world.”

Arctic tourism conflict

The fact that tourist ships are unable to travel to Svalbard, positioned halfway between Norway and the North Pole, due to global travel restrictions also means fewer data samples are being collected at present.

“The tourist ships provide big value to the scientists by collecting salt water and cloud observations,” explains Sorby.

“The tourists get involved in citizen science programs on board the ship. But there is none of that this year.

“Last August we had a ship in here every day with between 60 to 80 guests. The small ships start to come in May and the larger ships ones in June.”

As a result, the duo have discovered they’re the only people in their field actively collecting sea ice or phytoplankton at this time.

“It makes sense to us to continue so they’re not missing data sets,” adds Sorby. “We feel there’s big value in that.”

The Arctic tourist season runs from May through to September, which means if restrictions remain, there will be little or no tourism at all in the region this year.

“The whole Svalbard community has been really badly hit by Covid-19 and all the travel restrictions,” says Strom, who has lived in Longyearbyen, the main settlement here, for several years. “It’s really noticeable and a big thing for the tourist industry.

“But they’ve started to open up for guests coming from Norway from June, so we’ll just have to see how things develop.”

There’s been much debate around the environmental risks around Arctic tourism in recent years, largely due to the increase in the number of expedition ships built for sailing Arctic waters and the dangers the emissions from the vessels may pose.

However, as Strom and Sorby have indicated, the area also benefits from tourism a great deal.

“The problem is too many tourists arriving all at once from a ship. It creates friction in such a small community.”

Engaging a global community

Svalbard also happens to be among the regions on Earth worst hit by climate change.

Strom and Sorby were compelled to launch Hearts in the Ice as a result of such events, with the aim “to engage a global community in the dialogue around climate change and what we can all do.”

In between collecting data, they host live video “hangouts” with students and teachers around the world in order to spread the word. They also have a blog providing updates on their progress.

Both women say they’re finding it difficult to take in the enormity of what’s happening beyond their very remote location.

“It’s an odd turn of events,” adds Sorby. “We could never have imagined when we started this voluntary self-isolation, that the whole world would be in an involuntary isolation.

“It’s still really hard to wrap your head around.”

The pair, who’ve been using solar power and windmills for electricity, are very aware they’ll be returning to a new world once that ship finally comes in, and many of the things they’ve taken for granted in the past will have totally altered.

“The way we’ve cultivated meaning in our world is through travel and connecting people across countries and cultures and making ambassadors for the environment,” says Sorby.

“It’s very strange that that’s come to a halt and we find ourselves without jobs, like a lot of people out there.

“We’re not coming back to the same world. We’re not coming back to our jobs.

“So, we’re continuing to stay here to be relevant in the other crisis that our world is facing, which is the climate crisis.”

A ‘silent’ spring

However, they’re hopeful some good can come out of this situation, relating it to the 1962 book “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, which told how bird populations across the US were being affected by the widespread use of pesticides.

“The world is in a very different ‘silent spring,’ where it’s taking a very big deep breath, and we’re having to watch and observe,” says Sorby.

“And I think a lot of people are re-evaluating how they work, how they live and how they travel.

“That’s very interesting for those of us in the polar tourism industry.

“How do we introduce people to different landscapes, different cultures and different specially protected areas?

“How we do that matters. We get to try to understand how to redefine that. So, it’s an interesting time.”

Strom is hopeful that sustainable travel, already a hot topic before the pandemic, will become a way of life rather than just a movement.

“We as travelers will have a different view of how we travel [in the future],” she says.

“We’ll find sustainable operators and other ways to travel in order to avoid impacting environments as much as we did before.

“I think it’s going to be a new direction for all of us.”

While both women are looking forward to eventually seeing their family and friends, as well as having a hot shower and a cappuccino, they’re currently at peace with the isolation and looking forward to a very quiet (although not quite silent,) spring.

“There’s no traffic,” says Sorby. “No static in the air. No airplanes. No ship traffic. When we go outside, we only hear the sounds of the ice moving and the wind.

“We find a lot of strength in our goal and our vision, but also the nature around us.

“That’s something everyone can relate to. [We can all] go outside and feel the power of nature. Go for a walk, or a run, or a bike ride. Mother Nature has a lot to offer.”

The low-cost carrier resumed services from Düsseldorf to Sardinia, Italy, on Saturday — but was forced to turn around at its destination because Olbia Airport is still closed.

Flight EW9844 set off on the 730-mile (1,170km) flight to Sardinia’s Olbia Airport on the morning of May 23, but was in Sardinian airspace before being informed by air traffic control that it wasn’t open to commercial traffic.

The Airbus A320 hung around in a holding pattern hoping for permission to land, but no dice.

This little sightseeing tour of western Europe, for the benefit of the A320’s load of two Sardinian passengers, took a total of four hours and ten minutes.

So how did this misunderstanding happen? A Eurowings spokesperson told CNN Travel that “Against the background of the corona crisis, the situation at numerous airports in Europe is very dynamic.

“The large amount of information provided on operating hours or airport closures are often changed at short notice,” added the spokesperson, and there are “daily changes in entry regulations in the various countries.”

Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport is currently closed until at least June 2.

Eurowings’ spokesperson lays the blame on “a misunderstanding in the consolidation of the relevant flight information.”

The passengers — both of them — were rebooked and, it’s safe to say, were at least able to social distance appropriately on their A320 jaunt last Saturday morning.

(CNN) — It’s 10 years ago. I’m on a road trip to Germany with my then boyfriend.

I’m pretty useless as a travel companion as I can’t drive and I can’t speak German, so my boyfriend is doing both. We cross from the border from Switzerland then stop at a small town near Stuttgart.

Our first day is a sunny Saturday morning in July. We decide to visit the town’s “spa baths,” which is a glamorous name for a municipal pool with a sauna/steam room. Like many places in Europe, swimsuits must be worn in the pool, but you have to enter the sauna au naturel.

We paddle in the pool for an hour, and then I agree to meet my boyfriend in the cafe. I get undressed, grab a small face towel and head off in search of the sauna.

I follow the smell of cedar to a dark door. Opening it, I blink into the gloom to see the distinct shape of naked, middle-aged German men. Someone shouts something cheerful at me, and I reel out of there and down the corridor towards two unmarked doors.

It stands to reason, surely, that opposite the men’s sauna one would find the women’s sauna. On a whim, I pick the left-hand one and it slams behind me.

It’s not the sauna. It is the fire escape.

I am trapped, naked, inside the fire escape.

Nobody knows where I am

It’s two stories high, and dark and dusty. Above me, huge fans built into the wall are rumbling at airplane-engine volume. I yell for help, pounding on the door until I get bruises on my wrist. There is nothing so pathetically vulnerable about hearing your own, suddenly very naked-sounding voice, yelling “Help!” into the abyss.

Crying, I run down the metal stairs, trying to work out what part of me I should cover with this tiny towel — my face maybe? I bang on the doors of the floor below for another 10 minutes. Nothing.

I realize that nobody knows where I am. I have visions of my boyfriend calling the police, a nationwide search, my graduation photograph on the news, and then, months later, my nude body being found in a fire escape, a washcloth modestly covering my face.

On the ground floor, I spot a chink of light and I’m overcome with relief — this must be the way out!

But no, it’s an industrial machine room, a cacophony of whirring pumps, and inexplicable, monstrous engines with cages around them. Everything has an “electrocution” sign on it.

Sobbing, I scamper nakedly around the industrial machine room, clutching the little towel. There is no way out. There is, however, a service elevator. Out of sheer panic, I run into the elevator.

Primal shame superpower

In the elevator, I mash all the buttons, hoping for I don’t even know what. I take a few pointless joyrides up and down the fire escape. Then, I spot in the top left corner, the bulb of a security camera.

A horrible thought occurs to me — I really need someone to witness this, my greatest moment of embarrassment, because then they’ll come to my rescue. I switch the little towel around strategic areas while waving at the security camera.

After a while, there is a German loudspeaker announcement, and I just know, through some primal shame superpower, that this announcement is about me –that someone is giving me instructions.

But they don’t know I can’t speak German. And how do I communicate that to a security camera? I make “I’m stupid” motions while crying louder and waving at the camera.

Eventually, the elevator settles on the ground floor, and the doors open. A spa employee is standing there. He is, at most, 19. A child. No one has ever been more successfully wearing clothes than he is at that moment. He says something to me, and I cry. He sighs, his profound disappointment somehow even more mortifying to me in that moment.

He unlocks a door in the wall, and I realize, to my horror, that it opens onto the street. The only way out of the fire escape, apparently, is to fully leave the building, and re-enter the spa reception. I cower behind the door, hysterical. Down the street, people are lining up out of the reception doors, onto the pavement and into the parking lot.

At this point, I experience shame transcendence. I travel fully through embarrassment and out the other side. My whole body goes numb. I put my head up, pull my shoulders back, drop the washcloth, and follow this man along the pavement. Families are parking their cars. Children point. I cannot see them. I can taste the universe.

Saved by a lobster

Reception is packed with queuing people, and my chaperone has to call out so I can get through the crowd. The spa-goers turn around, tutting, looking for the culprit that is skipping the queue, and finding me.

The spa employee pushes through the throng to talk to the receptionist. Meanwhile, I am forced to stand there. Waiting. Next to me, an elderly lady wearing a be-flowered swimming bonnet offers me her pool float. It is shaped like a lobster. The claws become my makeshift bra.

The receptionist finally says something to me, and my generous, lobster-loving neighbour interprets. “She wants your ID.”

My ID.

I am wearing only a lobster.

Where, oh where, would I be keeping my ID?

Despite the language barrier, I guess that the receptionist has no trouble interpreting my expression, because she lets me through the turnstiles. They are, however, quite narrow, and after a few false starts bouncing off the rails, I admit defeat, and hand back the lobster to my savior in the bonnet.

Dashing up to the changing room, I have a 10-minute shame-shower with the compulsory scrub-and-sob, throw myself into my clothes and run to find my boyfriend in the cafe.

And after all that, he has the audacity to be grumpy, because he’s been waiting for an hour.

(CNN) — Alaska’s Anchorage International Airport lacks the waterfalls and razzmatazz of Singapore Changi or the eight runways of Chicago O’Hare.

But this unassuming little airport — equidistant between New York and Tokyo — has lately had an unexpected rise in prominence.

It’s now the busiest airport in the world… on some Saturdays, at least.

“Saturday’s a busy day for cargo operations, which is our bread and butter, but it’s also the slowest day for passenger service,” explains airport manager Jim Szczesniak over video call.

“So for example, on Saturday, May 2, we in Anchorage had 744 flight operations, whereas Chicago had only 579 and Atlanta had only 529.”

Anchorage also briefly snatched the world’s busiest title on Saturday, April 25.

Top of the world

The coronavirus pandemic means that passenger traffic is currently down by more than 90%, according to Angela Gittens, ACI World’s director general. “The demand is pretty much gone.”

One area that has been on the rise, however, is cargo traffic, which is why Anchorage Airport — in ordinary times, the world’s fifth-busiest cargo airport — is on the ascendant.

“We’re seeing an increased demand for cargo capacity,” says Szczesniak. “And that’s primarily because a lot of the supplies for the fight against Covid in North America are produced in Asia.”

Anchorage is positioned to perfect geographical advantage, at what the airport says is 9.5 hours’ flying time from 90% of the industrialized world.

Its location, quite literally at the top of the world, means that planes “fly up and over the top [of the globe] to shorten the distance,” says Szczesniak.

“The advantage of Anchorage is airplanes can fly filled with cargo but only half-filled with fuel. They fly into Anchorage and then they re-fuel and then onto their destination.”

The little airport that could

“We’re using different areas of the airport to accommodate parking that we normally wouldn’t,” says Szczesniak.

The airport has recently played host to the heaviest aircraft ever built, the Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane, and also some titans of sport — the New England Patriots’ plane stopped here because it was flying supplies between Boston and Asia.

In order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the aircraft crew passing through Anchorage “minimize their ability to interact with Alaskans,” explains Szczesniak. They use private transport to and from hotels and avoid mixing with ground crew.

Vacation destination

“Post-coronavirus, we think Alaska is going to become quite a popular tourism destination,” says Szczesniak. “You know, they tell you to stay six feet away from people. In Alaska you can come here and have a fantastic vacation and not be within six miles of somebody.”

There are around 60 glaciers within a 50-mile radius of the airport and this most gorgeously wild of US states is covered with mighty national parks and preserves. There’s hiking, there’s fishing, there’s white-water rafting and more; it’s ideal for backwoods adventurers.

The airport is preparing for the return of passenger service by upgrading its cleaning program to Covid-19 battle-ready standards, using all hospital-grade disinfectants.

In the terminal, they’ve added sanitizing UV LED lights to the escalator handrails. Says Szczesniak, “As the handrail travels through the machinery, it’ll be blasted with UV light to kill any microbes, viruses or bacteria that happen to them.”

$97 billion in losses

At the time of our video call between London and Anchorage, there were 90 planes in the air heading from the UK capital to the Alaskan airport, according to real-time flight-tracking site Flightradar24.

“There are more airplanes in the sky right now to and from Anchorage than there are for both JFK and LaGuardia,” says Szczesniak.

The world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, saw 110.5 million passengers in 2019. But in the first quarter of 2020, the Atlanta airport logged 20.7 million passengers, down more than 18% from the same period last year.

The aviation industry is facing a $97 billion reduction in revenue in 2020 and recovery is likely to be a slow and painful process.

The team at Anchorage are proud of their efforts in facilitating the transport of medical supplies during this time of global need — but they hope that their time as occasional record-holders will be mercifully short.

CNN’s Marnie Hunter contributed to this report