Over the last few years, I had been contributing quite a bit to the degradation
of the Ozone layer. My frequent flights thanks to work had taken me up to a high
tier membership with Jet Airways before the airline shut down. But none of that
made any difference this year. COVID-19 struck and all plans went spiralling
downwards. The run-cation to Bengaluru got cancelled. The safari at Ranthambore
got postponed indefinitely. Travel was restricted to the grocery store or D-mart
ready or Star Bazaar.
Gradually as restrictions lifted and visits out of home
increased, a glimmer of hope appeared. I was asked by a running friend if I
would like to visit Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in December. I pounced on the
opportunity, knowing that things are likely to be a lot better by December in
terms of travel curbs etc.
The first few steps were smooth. With low demand, the
flight tickets were reasonably inexpensive. The rest of the trip was planned
through a travel agent. We had sufficient time buffers between flights, road
travel, safari etc. making it a proper leisure trip without the hustle. However,
things are seldom so straightforward in such times. The return flight on Indigo
got rescheduled by 5 minutes. The onward journey on Go Air got rescheduled by a
whopping 2 hours. As the travel date came closer, I received an SMS from the
airline urging me to comply with the state regulations which included Web
check-in. Being a good citizen, I interpreted this to be a mandatory step. When
I tried the Web check-in, I was mighty annoyed by the fact that all window and
aisle seats were paid seats. Instead of losing my head or money, I simply took a
middle seat next to my travel buddy's window seat with a devilish smile on my
face. In retrospect, I felt I could have skipped the entire exercise and simply
checked in at the airport.
A frequent traveller tends to travel lighter than his infrequent counterpart. No
check-in luggage means you can zoom through check-in and halt only at security.
But this time it was bound to be different thanks to the virus from our
unfriendly neighbour. There were long queues rivalling the queues I have often
negotiated with for the security check at peak flying hours. These queues were
to enter the airport! This was thanks to tests like the temperature check and
the Aarogya Setu app check. I think this last test needs to be eliminated. What
is the point if someone can just download the app while entering the airport,
perform a self-assessment and get an all okay result. Unfortunately the policy
of honesty is not subscribed to by a large part of the general population. A
home printed boarding pass let me zip through the check-in area and reach the
next hurdle, the security check.Thankfully the queue at security check was short
and super quick. A long wait then ensued for boarding the flight. When we
reached the gate, we were in for a surprise. Middle seat passengers were given
PPE gowns. And all passengers received masks, sanitizer sachets and face
shields. We were supposed to don these through the entire flight.
Now it is very
clear that a huge variety of people travel on any given flight. The spectrum
varied from paranoid people who would not let anyone sit even 2 seats away, to
people who had their masks covering their chins. My favourite group from the
spectrum(sarcasm intended) are the collectors. They collect the mask, face
shield, PPE gown and carry them in their arm-pits or hand bags. One such
gentleman was sitting in the row behind me. He misplaced the first face shield
and when the flight attendant gave him a second face shield, he wore it for a
minute and put it in his bag along with the PPE gown. A lot of the points from
above were applicabe on the return flight too. Face shields(they are terribly
uncomfortable), masks, sanitizer sachets, PPE gowns for middle seat dwellers,
freebie collectors etc. I took the free middle seat in this one too. However
there were a few noteworthy differences.
First and foremost, the return flight was fuller than the onward flight. That
speaks volumes about the airline's ability to fill its planes and thus remain
profitable. Secondly, the boarding process on the return flight was a lot more
systematic with rows at the back of the aircraft being filled up first. Third
and the most striking difference/change was the deplaning process. The onward
journey was as chaotic as always but the empty flight made it manageable. On
reaching Mumbai, the process in Indigo was wonderfully systematic. They only
permitted people to stand up after the row in front of them had deplaned. It
showed that everyone has the ability to be disciplined. Of course it needed part
of the crew to be like the class monitor in school days. But it is something
which I hope will continue even after things "normalise" after the pandemic
