Well hello there – and welcome back to my blog! It’s certainly been a while since I’ve updated anything on here, and this will be my first post of 2021, oops! I never meant to go so quiet, but as you can imagine, I’ve not been flying very much. Slowly things are starting to pick up and I’m seeing more and more flights on my roster, but since we are still not allowed to leave the hotel on our layovers, I don’t have a whole lot to update you on!
Flights are gradually getting back to normal, although we still have to wear our full PPE (mask, gloves, gown and visor) and of course passengers still have to wear a mask. More destinations are opening up though which is a great sign, and I’m hopefully that eventually things will get back to normal. Let me tell you, I’ll never spend another layover in my hotel room again!
Believe it or not, this month I have an *almost* normal roster – quite a few flying hours, which makes for a nice change. Especially since we get paid depending on how much we fly; it’s been over a year since a normal salary.
So if everything goes to plan and no flights get removed (fingers crossed!) in May I’ll be heading to:
- JFK – New York, USA
- AMM – Amman, Jordan (turnaround)
- HAM – Hamburg, Germany
- BP – Business Promotion Event
- DMM – Dammam, Saudi Arabia (turnaround)
- LUN-HRE – Lusaka, Zambia – Harare, Zimbabwe
- IKA – Tehran, Iran
I was actually quite excited when I got my roster, as whilst I have been flying a fair amount the past few months, this is the busiest roster I’ve seen since the pandemic!
Starting off with a trip to New York, one of my favourites. We’ve changed hotel locations so I’ll be admiring the Brooklyn Bridge on the drive over, and ordering something delicious to eat to my room.
Next up is a turnaround to Amman, which is around 3 hours each way. This is a nice afternoon departure which means I don’t need to get up too early, lovely!
Then I have a cargo flight to Hamburg. I’ve done a couple of cargo trips – they’re great fun as it’s something very different to what we usually do. All of the economy seats are removed from the cabin and it’s filled with boxes of cargo instead, so it’s not a full freighter aircraft but it’s still different to a normal flight. I have a layover there although once again I won’t be able to do much.
After that is something I haven’t seen for a while – a business promotion event! My last event was the Dubai Duty Free Tennis in February 2021, and I should find out the details for this one a few days before.
Following on from that I have another turnaround to Dammam, a quick one at around 1 hour flight time each way. Straight after that is a destination I’ve never actually flown to before – Lusaka & Harare! We fly to Lusaka but stay on ground on the aircraft, and then it’s onwards to Harare for the layover. I’m hoping that since we can’t leave the hotel that I’ll at least be able to use the pool and get some sunshine, let’s see!
Last up is another turnaround, this time to Tehran in Iran. Whilst in a normal month I wouldn’t be particularly excited about the number of turnarounds on my roster, these days I’m happy to get as many flying hours as I can.
Travel certainly isn’t anywhere close to being back to pre-pandemic times, and realistically I don’t think anyone knows when it will be. I know I am lucky to still have my job, as so many of my friends and colleagues sadly were made redundant this past year, and I’m grateful for that every day. For now, I’m trying to get out and enjoy Dubai as much as I can – restrictions have eased here and whilst we still have to wear a mask at all times (including while outdoors) most things such as restaurants, shops and gyms have been open for a while.
If you have any requests for blog posts feel free to let me know in the comments, and thanks for reading!
P.s. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂
