A world grounded: the pandemic halts global travel
As borders slammed shut and flights vanished, the most abrupt halt to global movement in modern history reshaped the industry.
In the space of a few weeks this spring, global travel came to a near-total halt, as the coronavirus pandemic prompted countries to slam their borders shut, airlines to ground their fleets and billions of people to stay home in the most abrupt stop to human movement in modern history.
Airports that had hummed with activity fell eerily quiet. Airlines parked rows of idle jets in deserts, hotels closed their doors, and the great monuments of the world — the Colosseum, the Louvre, Machu Picchu — stood empty, stripped of the crowds that normally throng them.
The shutdown was devastating for an industry that employs hundreds of millions of people worldwide and sustains entire economies. Airlines, hotels, tour operators, restaurants and the countless small businesses that depend on visitors faced an existential crisis, and many did not survive.
For travellers, the grounding meant cancelled trips, scrambles to get home, and a sudden, disorienting confinement for people accustomed to moving freely. The romance of travel gave way to the reality of closed borders and quarantine.
Yet the pause also prompted reflection. Images of clear skies and empty streets, of nature reclaiming over-touristed places, led many to reconsider how and why they travelled. As the world waited for the chance to move again, questions lingered about what travel would, and should, look like when it returned.