International travel was one of the main reasons behind the increased spread of Corona Virus infections and flights and aviation of most kinds had to be halted across the globe to keep a check on cases of Covid-19 going out of control. However the world is now truly global and international travel cannot be kept restricted for much longer. Gradually international travel will come back but things will be very different. Here are some changes which you can expect when you travel abroad after the lock down ends.
- First of all, insurance for international travel will become absolutely necessary. Until now when many people travelled out of the country, they never really bothered with insurance but as the global aviation system limps back to the runway once more, there will be a number of problems. These may be not being limited to aviation sector specific issues so
travel insurance will become an absolute must.
- Second factor is that many countries will keep on scanning and restricting international visitors from travelling inwards or outwards of the country on sporadic basis in the coming few months. This will mean that there will be risk of international travellers getting stuck in different places where they were not supposed to be. For example if you are travelling from India to USA via Dubai and if Dubai government restricts travel while you are enrooted, you will be stuck. Now if you were able to buy travel insurance online before departing from India, even while you were on airport in Delhi, you will be safe but if you were travelling without insurance, you will be in a complicated situation that may cost a lot to untangle.
- Third factor is that most planes will be flying at lesser capacity for the foreseeable future. As of now, the proposal is that middle seats will not be sold for some time, only window and aisle seats will be sold. If you have ever been stuck in the middle seat on a long haul flight, you would have experienced the sheer frustration caused by this. Non occupied middle seat will be at least one good thing to have come out of this entire thing.
- Fourth factor is that as of coming few months, there will be an extended risk of travel agency failures. Not many people have forgotten the recent failure of Thomas Cook of UK which left a number of people stranded. One of the reasons so many people had to suffer was because they did not have travel insurance. If those people had travel insurance, they would not have suffered so badly. In the coming months, the risk of such failures will be very high so you must always be prepared for any eventuality.
- Fifth factor is that waiting times at airport will increase to almost double. You will have to check in earlier and be prepared for thermal scanning even before you are allowed to enter the airport. Further in order to ensure no crowding at check-in and boarding, the entire process will have to be slowed down.
