Aviators Travel Long Distances to Start Jobs
Along with the Covid continuation, international travel is very limited, resulting in the modest number of aviators getting new jobs anywhere. The most remarkable stories we witnessed are about our aviation personnel who travelled the longest journeys on the earth to start new Brookfield contracts.
The first story is about Capt. Giovani, travelling in December 2020. His trip was from Colombia to Vietnam, lasting around 3 days with 3 transits. He had to choose flights with very complicated routes due to the Covid restrictions in different in regions and countries. The first flight was from Bogota to Miami with Avianca, then from Miami to Houston with United airlines, Houston-Doha (Qatar), then Doha-Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam).
He could have taken a shorter trip with available flights Bogota-New York-Vietnam, however at the time, New York was requiring quarantine, so he changed the route. There was a special request on his trip: Qatar Airways’ requirement of negative Covid test. The result must be issued 7 days before his arrival to Ho Chi Minh.
At Doha, he had a 20-hour transit which required hotel stay, m
eanwhile he couldn’t leave the airport. If he were to leave the airport, in Qatar, the
re is also request of quarantine. Strikingly, there was extremely limited choices of hotel at that time with little availability of rooms, so he only could choose a 400-500$/night hotel at Doha. He mentioned that his flight Houston-Doha was full, but flight Doha-Ho Chi Minh only had 2 passengers.
There is a useful tip here. Check online with each country’s Covid restriction, quarantine and Covid test requirements because Covid updates change all the time so you as well need to update timely. American states have different rules. At the period he travelled, he saw New York & California in the US needed quarantine.
The 2nd story is about Capt. Fernando’s journey from Bolivia to South Korea in August 2020. We are very proud of this aviator’s determination and quick actions with great problem-solving skill making it happen. Along with this, the Brookfield team made it work with him, as we succeed for more and more people even in difficult times.
Fernando took off from Santa Cruz (Bolivia) - Miami, then he travelled from Miami to Florida (US) to get his visa but he couldn’t get it as the visa office there closed, so he again tried to obtain a visa in different state, California. In Los Angeles, he finally received it.
So he had to travel to Los Angeles, then to New York to fly out of the US. Later he travelled New York-Incheon. At Incheon, he had 15 days quarantine.
In our last story, Capt. Marco had to travel Costa Rica-Miami for visa; but due to lock down changed the destination to Washington DC, where he went to the embassy for visa.
He then travelled back home and waited for another trip to start the new job. His first flight was to Houston from Costa Rica, he had 3-hour transit in Houston then took a 3.5-hour flight to LA with United Airlines, then LA to Incheon on the 14-hour flight (Korean Air with a nearly empty flight). 12 hour transit In Incheon, then a final 6-hour flight to his destination.
The international trips during Covid can be even more complicated and lengthy with requirements of negative Covid test results, as different countries require a test 2/3 days or 5/7 days before the arrival to the final country depending on the country, distance and length of the journey. However we have still successfully found our people new jobs in different countries in the Covid-high-peak year (2020) and also at the beginning of 2021. These are very rewarding and positive results for us, which motivate the Brookfield team to continue our great work in the industry at our best. As far as the pilots are concerned, there is nowhere in the world too far away to take a new Brookfield contract.
