Decimated Travel Industry = No Airplanes In The Sky

If you don’t know already, an offshoot of this website is It’s About Airplanes. One of the joys myself and my two youngest kids share is heading down to Toronto Pearson International Airport and watching the planes land for a few hours.

Normally, this would be a once or twice (or more) occurrence each month. We’d plant ourselves in our favourite spot on a quiet street with a nice sidewalk for scootering, biking or whatever recreational activity we could think of. The aircraft would come in on a continual basis. A lag of more than ten minutes between airplanes was rare.

Sometimes, without much effort, we’d be there for five or six hours. Every time we thought of leaving, we’d see from the schedule app that another cool airliner was on the way and we’d stay just a little bit longer. I’d come away with photos of 20, 30 or more airplanes.

For It’s About Airplanes, this meant a constant stream of photographic content for the site. Life was good.

9Y-GEO Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737-800 Image Gallery

Then Came The Damned Pandemic

When the rumours started a few weeks before the actual lockdowns in the spring, we saw more and more spotters grabbing shots of the airplanes with a sense of desperation. It seemed we all knew that something great was about to end. Our passion was about to be radically changed.

For a time, there were simply no flights. You could drive by the airport and see zero out of country aircraft on the tarmac. In fact, other the bunches of parked airplanes in different spots on the property, there were very few actually at the terminal.

When the traffic did start again and was once more socially acceptable to be out in public, things had certainly changed. Things were not back to normal. Several models like the Boeing 747 and Boeing 767 had been retired en masse. It was like trying to catch a fish in a pond that was simply fished out.

But, it was more predictable. For a time, runways didn’t share takeoffs and landings. The traffic was so sparse that one side was reserved for those coming in and the other was for those leaving. You knew with some certainty where you were going to see the airplanes scheduled to arrive.

Why The Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737-800 Photo?

This week, I was able to get down to the airport for a few photos. It was the first time in over a month. The weather hasn’t really cooperated. The days are getting shorter. When we did have free time, nothing that caught our eye was on the docket.

I was in the city anyway to get the van undercoated for the winter. If anyone from outside Canada is reading this, we undercoat our vehicles with a kind of oil to avoid rusting out from all the road salt used in the winter months to melt the snow and ice.

Of the six airplanes I photographed on my short visit this week, only two were ones that I hadn’t photographed before. It’s About Airplanes is a collection of individual airplanes by their registration number. The law of diminishing returns is clear here in that it will become harder and harder to photograph aircraft that we haven’t already photographed. This is especially true with airlines not buying new aircraft and less, not more, airlines arriving in town.

The photos of 9Y-GEO, the Caribbean Airlines Boeing 737-800 shown above, was not one of the two. The photos of these beautifully painted aircraft were excellent. But, in the way we do the site, they were unusable.

Also, the photos we put on the site get submitted as stock photography at Dreamstime. Once again, most of the photos taken this week, including 9Y-GEO, are unusable because, obviously, they aren’t going to accept photos so similar to ones already submitted.

So…

I really just wanted to share this great photo with you because I can’t share it anywhere else. Not only do I like the photo but I also like what it represents. This B738 was flying in from Jamaica. This gives me an ounce of hope that I’ll be travelling outside the country again sometime soon. If it’s feasible to continue regular flights between Canada and the Caribbean during a time of crippling travel restrictions, those planes should still be flying when the time is right for us.

Will I fly with this airline? Probably not. It’s a matter of economics. The flights via charter airlines Air Transat, Sunwing and even WestJet and Air Canada Rouge are probably going to be considerably less expensive and will include a hotel package that can’t be beat.

But, it’s just so nice to see that the world continues to spin. It’s nice to hear the engines and catch a whiff of jet fuel exhaust despite the fact you just drove past a nearly empty park ‘n fly lot.

Here’s To Travel In 2021

It’s going to happen. This shit storm is going to end. A vaccine will be developed. The virus will weaken to the point where it’s not as deadly and not as contagious. We’ll simply develop immunity. Whatever evolves, I truly believe that 2021 is going to see a return to normality when it comes to travel.

After all, it’s that hope and faith that carries us forward. The alternative is to wallow in misery, which only brings the chance of more physical and mental illness.

Boost Your Immunity

Are you doing everything to boost your immunity? Are you committed to the temple that is your body and mind? Or, are you flocking to fast food and alcohol like so many are?

I’ve been vegan / vegetarian for 12 years now. I started strictly vegan but fell victim to the cheese monster. Since the start of October, I’ve eliminated all dairy again. I’ve also eliminated all grains, sugar and, well, anything that’s bad for you.

I’ve been met with nothing but incredible health. I’ve lost considerable weight. I no longer have aches and pains. I sleep like a baby. I wake up refreshed and not in a ‘brain cloud’. I have an abundance of energy. I’m not a miserable grouch.

I’m not preaching. I just feel that since we’ve had the good portion of a year dealing with a health crisis, we should all be looking at what we can do for ourselves to make sure we’re not ‘vulnerable’. Ultimately, the only person that can change you is you.

If we want to travel in the ‘new world’, optimum health is simply a must. Imagine travelling somewhere and getting sick in this new world. Imagine being hospitalized, quarantined and taken from those you came with in a strange land far from home. Being at the top of your health and fitness game will ensure that this won’t happen.

That’s all I’m going to say on that right now. In a future post, I’ll share the steps I’ve personally taken to drastically improve my health. It’s not a diet. I refer to it as a ‘lifestyle shift’ because it really is. It’s not just about what I eat. It’s about when I eat. It’s about how much I eat. It’s about how much exercise I get. Most importantly, it’s about what I don’t eat.