Page 81 - World Airnews Magazine May 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

On arrival, Kreuser spent about an hour in a long queue, being
screened for COVID-19 by having her temperature taken, filling
out health forms and going through passport checks. A German
federal police officer was present during this process.
At the next point, Kreuser was assigned to a bus and received a
packed lunch and a bottle of water. Chairs had been set-up 1.5m
apart, where passengers waited while all 300 of them were being
processed.
When all were finally gathered, German Consul General,
Matthias Hansen, bade farewell to the goup, encouraging them
to return under better circumstances – a a message greeted with
much applause.
“Everything was very calm and orderly,” Kreuser remembers.
“Apart from having to be patient, everything about the organsiat-
ion was near perfect.”
On the bus, only two people were allowed to sit in a row
to maintain social distancing. At the airport, the luggage was
unloaded first and examined by a police officer with a sniffer dog.
Passengers were then allowed to disembark, choose their
suitcases and proceed through check-in, security, passport control
and boarding, all of which happened as normal, but with social
distancing.

BOARDING THE PLANE
“The poor crew were wearing full-body protective suits and
masks. They looked like aliens!” recounts Kreuser.
“Dinner was a bread roll with chicken or vegetarian and to drink
we were offered water, coke or juice, tea or coffee. It was amazing
how many passengers asked about alcohol and were surpised that
there was none!
The flight was an hour shorter than planned because we were
able to fly straight to Frankfurt, as there were no other planes in
the sky and we could use air corridors that are not normally free.”
In Frankfurt, passengers had to disembark in groups of 40 with
three minutes waiting time between each group disembarking.
“What was immediately noticeable was that the German border
police we had to walk past did not wear face masks!”

KREUSER REUNITED WITH HER FAMILY
Kreuser was eventually reunited with her husband Christian and
sons Felix and Max, who had driven all the way from Munich to
collect her, normally a four-hour trip that now took less than
three hours because of a near empty Autobahn! Q

World Airnews | May Extra 2020
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