Int'l air passengers at Japan airports tank 97% over New Year holidays

So, 3% higher than it should be.

Bet the people still sat elbow to elbow in the planes though. Reduce flights and continue to cram people in.

I'm confused then. How did the 4 travelers from Brazil who have a new and maybe more virulent strain of the virus enter Japan? The other article called them travelers, not citizens, so are travelers from Brazil allowed in the county or not? And which other countries people are still flying in amidst the biggest explosion of the virus?

Good questions Mark, but where can you find the answer?

It wasn’t just air travel. It was local travel as well. Shinkansen were basically empty too.

I am personally tired of the overexaggerated writing in these articles here. Pray tell just who in the world has no idea that we are still in the middle of a world-wide pandemic? Pray tell just who doesnt know that, for the overwhelming majority of the countries in the world, there are travel restrictions in place? Just who in the heck doesnt know you cant go anywhere, even if you wanted to?

You want to report the statistics, fine, but do it like you do reporting the new corona cases every day.

Just give the numbers, and quite with the hyperbole !

Post pandemic I get 4 seats to myself on JR. Hopefully I can get 3 seats on ANA/JAL.

@yuburu

typical media overkill putting the fear into the public. Unfortunately, bad news sells.

Just give the numbers, and quite with the hyperbole !

You'd be putting the media out of a job. They don't have anything better to do, and thrive on hyperbole and fear. A cynic might even think the media are happy for this pandemic to continue, just to justify their existence.

36,570? Heck of a lot more than I would expect. Who in their right mind would fly on a plane right now? Especially to the most expensive county in the world.

I enjoyed my vacation! I spent two months on a beautiful deserted beach! My flight only had 3 people on it! I still worse my mask, goggles, scuba tank for air. I did forget my flip flops though!

Is this supposed to be “News”?

I traveled to the US in mid-December and just came back to Japan yesterday. I had no plans to travel this year at all until my father was diagnosed with a progressive disease this summer and kept getting worse. I knew that I would regret it forever if I did not try to see him. The night before I flew back to Japan, he was put in the ICU, so I feel I made the right choice.

No one should be traveling for fun right now, but please don’t demonize all travelers. There are legitimate reasons to travel, and many of us are doing everything we can to minimize the risks. I essentially stayed home from March through mid-December, and I quarantined upon arriving in the US (including wearing a mask 24/7 even inside my house for the first two weeks). Yesterday, I paid 15,000 yen to take a special taxi directly from Haneda to my apartment, where I will stay inside for the next 2 weeks. I’m doing everything I can to make sure my travel doesn’t hurt anyone else.

For those wondering if the planes are packed or not: The two planes I was on (Japan to US, US to Japan) were more than half empty. In December, I had 2 whole rows of seats to myself, and it felt like there were almost equal numbers of cabin attendants and passengers. Yesterday, my flight had more people, but everyone still had at least 3 seats to themselves. Masks were worn the whole time except when eating, and the air in the plane was totally replaced every 3 minutes.

Is it good to travel right now? Of course not. But as I wrote in my post above, there are some legitimate reasons to travel (ex. seeing a very sick parent for what may be the last time). ANA seems to be doing their best to make international travel as safe as possible, and I greatly appreciated that.

Well said, knittyelf. I would have done the exact same thing. Thank you for being considerate during your necessary travels. You are probably absolutely correct that you would have regretted not at least trying to see your ailing father. He appreciated it too, I am sure. I am glad your travel was successful.