Argentina re-opening international flights in August!

[antipodean]

Consider it up in the air.

International flights still "scheduled" for SEP. I do see there will be more flights from SEP even with the status-quo but that does not mean there will be tourism for a long time yet since current entry restrictions show no signs of changing.

As for domestic tourism.... well, flights remain "scheduled" from SEP, but I am not sure it will be that easy to go on holiday given the number of new cases in AMBA and that "clean" provinces don't want to be soiled by us virus-ridden porteños. There was talk of moving AR hub to COR to avoid AMBA altogether but enable tourism between normalized provinces.

Here in CABA hotels and restaurants are expected to be allowed to reopen in stage 6 of the plan announced today. Keep in mind we are almost in AUG and have not even started stage 1 yet.

With any luck however, maybe we will still be able to enjoy summer holidays frolicking in the frigid waters of the South Atlantic.

Some positive news from Peru - Domestic flights and travel resumed this week. They followed a process much like what was announced today in terms of a gradual opening. Just don't look at their COVID or economic stats...

 

[Renzi]

Some positive news from Peru - Domestic flights and travel resumed this week. They followed a process much like what was announced today in terms of a gradual opening. Just don't look at their COVID or economic stats...

Keep in mind that lockdown there means martial law with army patrols in the street. There was a story in the BBC about foreign backpackers in a hostel in Cuzco being prohibited by soldiers from even stepping out to get groceries. The snowflakes on this board who whine about lockdown here would do well to stay way given the reasonable probability that some form of lockdown could happen there again (Peru has been consistently having around 4K new cases and 200 fatalities per day).

I was in Paracas last December, and I really want to go back again before the protected beaches get sold off to an all-inclusive resort.

Alternately, Costa Rica is definitely opening Aug. 1: https://ticotimes.net/2020/07/15/co...august-airport-reopening-health-ministry-says

 

[antipodean]

Keep in mind that lockdown there means martial law with army patrols in the street. There was a story in the BBC about foreign backpackers in a hostel in Cuzco being prohibited by soldiers from even stepping out to get groceries. The snowflakes on this board who whine about lockdown here would do well to stay way given the reasonable probability that some form of lockdown could happen there again (Peru has been consistently having around 4K new cases and 200 fatalities per day).

I was in Paracas last December, and I really want to go back again before the protected beaches get sold off to an all-inclusive resort.

Alternately, Costa Rica is definitely opening Aug. 1: https://ticotimes.net/2020/07/15/co...august-airport-reopening-health-ministry-says

Was speaking to colleagues in Lima this week and it seems things have eased up a lot since it was apparent most-all was lost anyway, despite still having a lot of new cases and deaths. Early stage quarantine was similar to here in terms of strictness - remember when foreigners were caught sneaking out of their rooms at the Sheraton. The next day they were rounded up at dawn by the PFA, put on buses to EZE to be deported en-masse.

Guns or not, it didn’t really work in the long run, and for me, Peru is a scary example of what not to aim to be in a pandemic in terms of lives lost and havoc wrecked. Unfortunately I can too easily imagine Argentina following in those footsteps.

Paracas? Am interested to know more about the beaches there...

 

[Alby]

The notion that Peru's lockdown was ruthlessly enforced at gunpoint is exaggerated. It was certainly stricter than here, with night time and Sunday curfew. And the police did do media stunt shows of force to breakup prívate parties and even operating brothels. I am in touch with friends and clients there every day. Life goes on. The lockdown was a complete failure. Extra death figures indicate that so far 50,000 people have died (the official figure is closer to 10,000). Two million people back in poverty, so far. Like here, the lockdown ceased to be observed or enforced many weeks before it formally ended. They are a couple of weeks ahead of us in terms of adjusting to life with coronavirus but without quarantine. The deaths there will continue to mount, as they will here. All very sad.

 

[EL_TIGRE_de_Tigre]

The notion that Peru's lockdown was ruthlessly enforced at gunpoint is exaggerated. It was certainly stricter than here, with night time and Sunday curfew. And the police did do media stunt shows of force to breakup prívate parties and even operating brothels. I am in touch with friends and clients there every day. Life goes on. The lockdown was a complete failure. Extra death figures indicate that so far 50,000 people have died (the official figure is closer to 10,000). Two million people back in poverty, so far. Like here, the lockdown ceased to be observed or enforced many weeks before it formally ended. They are a couple of weeks ahead of us in terms of adjusting to life with coronavirus but without quarantine. The deaths there will continue to mount, as they will here. All very sad.

With the new attempt to loosen the quarantine, which is being done strictly because of mounting pressure from the people amid record infection numbers, it is a recipe for a big ramp up in numbers of infected / dead. Using EE UU as an example, there are currently 50K to70K new infections daily. This is a number that really got stronger as restrictions in the community were relaxed. Furthermore, it seems to have ZERO relation to the transition from winter, to spring, to summer. Point being, relaxing of quarantine and transition from cold to warmer months will, in all likelihood, resemble an infection rate that really spikes higher. This is very sad and very serious.

 

[TheDonald]

The AF government's stated objective was to bend down the curve. The opposite is currently taking place, yet the quarantine is being relaxed. AF has accepted that neither extreme works with Chinavirus. It doesn't work to shut everything down, because the economy hits the floor. It doesn't work to let personal behavior run unchecked, because then hospitals collapse. There is no good solution to the chinavirus and we are going to have to learn to live with it until a vaccine.

I am still surprised that international travel has been excluded from announcement thus far. My guess is AF wants to give Aerolineas a monopoly for as long as possible, to reduce it's economic burden on the state.

 

[dsp27]

What was the situation like at the airport - any forms to sign saying you can't come back etc?

So it was really sad, depressing. I left during the coldest night this week (1C/33F). Late night flight. A friend gave me a ride to Ezeiza from Caba. We were stopped once for a permiso check -- I actually just did a 24hs "urgency" persmiso online that I had on my phone in the cuidar app, and didn't even have to show my ticket at the check point. If you have a DNI you can do that, if not you would need to get a letter from your embassy and show the ticket if/when stopped.

The check-in was quick, there was no wait time. They make you fill a form acknowledging that if you leave you might not be able to come back soon due to Covid-19. Residents and citizens can come back -- as long as there are flights and (as of the current rules) do a 14 day quarantine when they return. You agree that the AR government is not responsible for you and you cannot ask for financial support or repatriation if stuck abroad.

Only a small part of the terminal is open, the rest is restricted/closed. No shops or stores are open. It was very cold in the terminal -- heating was not on -- I was shivering. There are only 2 vending machines if you want to get some drinks or snacks. As you board they give you a bag with some snacks, cheese and ham sandwich and a bottle of water. That's it; zero service on a 12 hour flight. You can go and ask for water, tea and coffee at the back of the plane -- but that's it. Flight was at 70% capacity. Aerolineas did not bother to spread people out and leave empty seats between passengers. So I and many people just moved to the empty seats at the back although technically you are not allowed to change seats as if there is a confirmed case on board after the trip they need to know where people sat -- but the flight attendants could not be bothered to enforce the rule. Many people snatched 4 seat rows and made themselves a makeshift bed -- which I thought was dumb, they could have spread out everyone evenly.

Once you make it to Europe -- more relaxed -- people still wear masks and observes social distancing but I don't feel like in prison anymore as I did in BA.

 

[Somewhereinba]

Interesting that it was 70% full - seems like the demand is still there.

 

[another]

The comparison with Venezuela is fair and justified. Argentina has an awful lot of issues. It may not be an identical comparison ... IT's NOT! ...But it's the best OTHER COUNTRY to compare Argentina to.

Russia

 

[EL_TIGRE_de_Tigre]

Russia

Please elaborate if you would ...