Corona / Covid-19 virus - airport and flying restrictions, and licensing / medical issues

This is meant for wealthy US tourists.

Not the new el cheapo U2 that the RAF apparently got to keep a look on what happens on the mainland.
Such flights have happened down to the Alps, would you believe it ?

Peter wrote:

Does anyone know any more about this, from their local press?

Peter wrote:

I am surprised there is nothing in the mainland press/media.

There is plenty in the media. The problem is that nothing has been agreed yet. It’s just proposals, which include opt outs and emergency brakes etc.

Every few days there is a new proposal that is changed a little bit. So it’s not possible to answer your question as nothing is agreed yet.

As with most EU initiatives which require agreement of all member states, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed and the final picture rarely emerges until the final hours.

Switzerland has adapted their list of risk states for which quarantine is demanded upon return.

No longer on the list since 20.5.2021: Austria: Land Oberösterreich and Land Salzburg, France: Région Bretagne and Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Hungary, Italy: Regione Basilicata, Palestinian territory (Occupied), Poland, Qatar, Serbia.

However, for anyone entering by airplane while not in a professional capacity as crew member, a negative PCR test is still necessary. This particularly applies to GA pilots.

A pilot who enters Switzerland not as a passenger but also not in the context of his professional activity (for example, with his private aircraft) is not exempted from the testing and quarantine obligation by the current regulation according to Art. 8, para. 1, letter b.

It is also important to point out that a proof of vaccination, even if fully accomplished and after 14 days, will NOT exempt the person from the testing!

From what I gather Switzerland intends to keep testing for aviation passengers and GA passengers and crews compulsory until the end of the vaccination campaign. Which may well be in October. So i would not be surprised if a lot of vaccationers will drive across the border and fly with airlines from other countries who reckognize vaccination docs as exemption for testing and quarantine.

So how exactly does one get from Aquitaine or Brittany to Switzerland direct without flying then? Teleportation? Spacecraft? ’Cause surface transport means traversing “unsafe” areas and last tine I looked getting there by boat is a tad difficult…

The UK, including IoM and CI, is now back on the German list of „areas of variant of concern“, making such trips for Germans very impractical.

Here

Not curious at all, actually a lot more sensible than any restrictions based on the percentage of infected people, designed to delays things to allow vaccinations to catch up.

I have often written that restricting travel across borders between two countries where there is community spread is symbolic and makes no real difference. This is because the number of people spreading it in the community is vastly higher than those who cross the borders – it’s like opening your umbrella when up to your neck in water in the swimming pool.

But it DOES make sense very early when you have no or very little internal spread (opening your umbrella in an EMPTY pool keeps you dry for a while) and it slows things down.

Eventually, the pool will fill up from elsewhere (the “indian” variant, same as the “kent” variant, will make it to the continent and is probably already there) but it can buy time for vaccinations to catch up.

Whether the increased infectivity of the “indian” variant is enough to justify this is open to debate, though.