- 2020 is a year we want to forget,
but we will not forget.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Aviation is in the midst
of its largest crisis ever.
- IATA says that 2020 will be the worst year
in the history of aviation,
with airlines set to lose $84 billion.
- [Narrator] Overnight, COVID-19 left planes on the ground,
airports abandoned and brought an industry to its knees.
- A real setback for an industry
that was already struggling.
- [Narrator] For 10 years,
Sam Chui has been the global face of aviation.
- We are all in this fight together.
- [Narrator] He's on a journey to explore the true stories
behind the global pandemic's impact.
(dramatic music)
Learn how this dramatic tale unfolded with no warning
at some of the world's most iconic airports.
- The health and safety of everyone at LAX
is our first priority.
- [Narrator] How aircrafts transitioned
from carrying passengers to medical supplies.
- Million face masks plus surgical masks,
gloves, coveralls, ventilators.
- [Narrator] How families were separated
and lives changed forever.
- You immediately saw the standing down
of tens of thousands of workers.
- [Narrator] And a story of the planes
that will never fly again.
- The drive here, it was like going to a funeral.
(dramatic music)
- [Control tower] Qantas 7474 for the last time,
you are clear for take off.
- [Narrator] And as aviation tries
to get off the ground again,
we see what the future of flying will really be like.
(dramatic music)
- Aviation started the year on a high.
We saw the Boeing 777X made it's maiden voyage in January.
(plane engine roaring) (dramatic music)
- [Woman] Beautiful landing.
- But at the same time,
China got hit hard by the Corona virus.
The virus was spreading at alarming rates.
Number of infections by the Corona virus
have continued to rise.
(dramatic music)
In China, Over 10,000 flights have been cancelled
on a given day right now.
(dramatic music)
Aviation came to rescue
with flights to repatriate citizens back to their country.
Every passenger underwent screening process at the airport
including temperature recording.
Crew member wear protective suits,
goggles and surgical mask.
All passenger had to wear a surgical mask
to prevent a potential spread of virus.
The US government chattered Kalitta Air Boeing 747-400
freighter cargo aircraft to fly
from Wuhan via Anchorage, Alaska
to Riverside March Air Reserve Base in California.
It was interesting to see passengers seats
had been added into cargo hold.
(gentle music)
Russia has sent Ilyushin 76 transporter
to take their citizens back from Wuhan.
The plane flew back 78 passengers to Tyumen in Siberia.
It is where they've set up a camp
to quarantine these passengers
and test them for the virus.
Here are some rare footage of the rescue flight ops.
(dramatic music)
- [Woman] The first passengers getting off that plane
and arriving home, evacuated now safely,
from the Corona virus outbreak zone.
(dramatic music)
(air whooshing)
- Then we saw a systematic lockdown across the world
with thousands of planes grounded in an unprecedented way.
- [Woman] Dozens of Southwest Airlines planes now sit idle
at the Southern California Logistics airport in Victorville.
- [Man] Just crazy, just the sheer number of aircraft
volume, I mean the amount of money
sitting there is just crazy.
- Up to 1.5 million people who worked
in this aviation industry
has now been laid off or on unpaid leave.
There's a lot of frustration, uncertainty
in a difficult time like this.
With most passenger flights grounded,
it almost broke the logistic chain.
- It's really a wild time in the global air freight world
and we're right at the centre of it.
I've been doing this for over 30 years,
60% of the globes cargo capacity varnished
in the bellys of passenger planes.
- Sam I think we can say that this Corona virus
has shown that air freight and the air cargo industry
in the world has become the lifeline of the world.
We are shipping medical supplies and aid and relief goods
from where they are to where they are needed
on a daily basis.
This is the least we can do.
We are extremely busy.
Everybody in cargo in Qatar Airways
is now working 15 hours per day
because we're operating an insane number of flights
just a lot more than normal.
- We saw every airline in the world
flew on cargo mission to bring back mask,
PPE and urgent medical supplies.
- This flight originated in Wuhan, China.
And we went through Anchorage to here to Los Angeles
(timer beeps) and on today's flight
we carried 53,270 kilos (magic wand ding)
of medical supplies.
- The lower deck is completely full with cargo.
It's 3,700 kilos, 504 packages.
You can see, there's a lot of packing going on.
If you think about it like this,
it comes out to maybe a dollar mask.
Well, if it's your life depends on that,
what is that dollar worth.
(dramatic music)
- I've been waiting for this moment
because now I'm seeing all the boxes
of cargo being offloaded.
I feel so great to be part of this journey.
Just to getting all this relief cargo,
sending some to the front line.
(air whooshing)
- With all the planes that were grounded,
there were lots of work for the engineers
to protect and safeguard the planes.
- Any system is exposed, has been protected.
P2 system, Angle of Attack,
landing gears are protected and well wrapped.
The protection does not allow any dust to go inside.
The leading edges are protected
with a special material to prevent corrosion.
- You see the windows are actually individually wrapped
because you know, Dreamliner if you've flown it,
there's a dimmable window,
there's no actually a window shade
to shut that down from the inside.
- As you can see Sam, we are inside the 767 cockpit.
We are replacing all the humidity indicators everywhere
from the desiccant bags to the humidity indicator,
just to as well to make sure there's no humidity
going to the cockpit and run out
the expensive electronic component.
But we power up the aircraft every seven days
to make sure that the systems are working fine
and then we make sure that the aircraft
is ready in shape whenever we do the deep reservation
and back to service, everything will be function properly.
(air whooshing)
- Then the summer came,
things are easing and many countries have opened up.
I have the opportunity to fly again,
and I want to record and document,
how are the airlines doing.
- [Woman] Normal, 36.2c.
- 36.2, oh, this is cool.
Now you're coming through, sterilise here.
I hope I'm fit to fly, germ-free, sterilised.
This is a very interesting new technology.
See here, it's actually a touch-less way
to order the elevator, just use your hand motion here
and then the elevator will come.
Just like that, touch-less.
- This is our electrostatic sprayer.
The unique technology that the Clorox 360 product
has for electrostatic spraying is actually negatively
charges the disinfectant solution.
So actually spray it.
It's actually looking for anything
in the negative charge to be able to adhere to it
and begins to wrap around.
So you're able to actually get under the seats
and around the seats as you spray through.
- COVID also added lots of complexities
for cross border travel.
There's lots of extra paperwork
to get on this flight to Dubai.
As a residence, I have to have permission to return
and also I need a COVID test, a negative COVID test.
- Sir, do you have this form here?
- [Sam] I'll need to give health declaration at gate.
- [Man] Yes.
- [Sam] Okay, I will fill that in.
- [Man] Okay.
- So much paperwork to do in order to fly right now.
At the airport lounges initially the buffet
were all shut down.
Slowly the food and beverage made its way back to the lounge
with a strict protocol to avoid unnecessary contact.
It's actually better than my expectations.
There's at least food.
It's not just packaged cookies and chocolate and stuff.
There's actually real food here
but it's actually served behind a counter.
- Everything here we have they can see at the display.
So the passengers they have the chance
to choose which one they prefer.
And then from the hot food, this is how it is displayed.
We put everything in the hot cabinet.
From there we serve it hot for the guests.
- Now some food are coming down.
I'm so glad to see a hot breakfast is served
but in a different way, but still good.
(air whooshing)
But many airports suffered badly
with up to 90% drop in passenger traffic.
Some terminals were closed and like a ghost town.
I remember six months ago
when I fly from Abu Dhabi to Los Angeles,
I made a complain.
I said, the airport was super crowded.
Look at now the whole airport is deserted, it's unreal.
Looks like a little bit like ghost town here.
- Yes it's a ghost town.
- It's very unusual to have the whole terminal closed.
Whoa, it's so quiet.
There's no flights but there's still announcements.
- Yes the COVID announcements.
- [airport announcer] Masks at all times.
Thank you for your cooperation.
(soft music)
- This is definitely an experience.
I've been to so many airports
but I've never been to an entire empty terminal.
It's so quiet, I can just literally whisper.
There's no noise at all.
(soft music)
(air whooshing)
Airline has also started to enrol passenger
using their biometric data.
So your eyes and your face
became the boarding pass.
- [Woman] So just go on move a little bit.
- A little bit further? (computer beeps)
- So your biometric is done,
it's as easy as that.
Now you don't require anymore your passport,
your eyes are your passport.
(upbeat music)
- The boarding processes also changed.
Now, airline board by rows
often from the rare to the front
to avoid unnecessary contact.
- Please don't line up.
- Not there many people jam up the air bridges.
- Not at all, we make sure that we've got
the social distancing.
- Maintain the social distancing, please.
- Lots of airlines are providing hygiene kits on board,
including sanitising gels, and mask.
You will also see flight attendant
not only where masks and gloves
but some airline flight attendant also wears PPEs.
How comfortable are you wearing
your mask all the flight long like this?
- It's difficult actually because I don't hear
so many things that the people are talking to me.
And for me, of course, after eight hours or 10 hours,
it's getting very exhausting.
- So the only thing is that sometimes it might feel hot
wearing the mask as you're talking
and the heat comes back to your face
but other than that, we feel very protected.
(air whooshing)
- The inflight service has also been
severely impacted due to COVID.
Initially, airliner resorted to serve a box meal
to all the passengers,
but I'm glad to report almost all the hot meals
are back in the air
and a lot of service has been now restored.
So I asked the Purser, the Purser told me
they're serving this box meal.
It's because of the UAE,
United Arab Emirates country regulations.
It's not the typical Lufthansa catering.
(soft music)
I don't like the food right now, right?
It's all packaged.
I mean, like it's bad compared to the old days,
we used to get hot food on the tray.
- During the COVID pandemic
it's about safety and this pre-packaged.
I don't mind because I understand
what the ramifications are.
They're out of your control
and you just need to deal with it and accept it.
At the end of the day, it's all about safety
and doing the right thing.
- This is how the tray set up looks like.
So everything is covered
and the customers have an option to be covered
or with the covers removed.
So this person chose with the cover us on.
We are just waiting to pre-heat the hot meal and the bread.
We do have a few changes in first class.
As you can see the note pad and the pen
is wrapped in some plastic, everything is wrapped.
The aircraft is thoroughly sanitised.
You can see just in the mini bars this is-
- [Sam] Everything it seems is wrapped.
- Everything is completely wrapped.
As does the duvets and the mattresses in first class.
- I think the biggest change for us as the crew
has come from the part that we're not interacting
with our customers as much as we used to before.
That was the biggest part of our interaction
and our jobs to speak to people,
to interact, to see what's going on,
to move around but we're coping.
We are basically bottom line is that we are very happy
to be able to fly nowadays.
- I do miss the good old days.
I miss talking to people.
I miss laughing with people, hearing their stories.
It's really hard to understand people
with not being able to read lips because of the face mask
and that's what I miss about my job.
- I feel sad, I feel sad about this flight.
Look at how many passengers around the cabin.
There're a maximum 50 passenger in the economy.
You know, the frequent changing of rules,
border closures, requirements of flights puts people off.
I knew lots of people would travel,
but because of all these rules and regulations
really put people off
and now we have very few people
who needed to fly, are flying.
Government need to work together with all the stakeholders
and airlines to figure a way to provide safe air passage.
(air whooshing)
But what's breaking every aviation enthusiasts heart
is the retirement of the 747.
Airlines like KLM, Qantas, British Airways
all brought the 747 retirement ahead of schedule.
(plane engine roaring) (gentle music)
- [Many] Oh yes (cheering).
- [Woman] Oh wow!
(camera clicking)
(plane engine roaring)
(air whooshing)
- COVID has also posted uncertainty
to the world's biggest aeroplane, the A380.
The A380 now became an obsolete aeroplane
that no airlines want to talk about it
because of the very low passenger demand right now.
- Unfortunately it was the wrong aircraft
at the wrong time.
- Airlines don't even know the A380
will be used in the future.
Well, I know one airline that is still flying A380
around the world, and that is Emirates.
- We are looking forward
to welcome you all back on the A380.
(dramatic music)
(air whooshing)
- In November, the Australian airline, Qantas,
celebrated the 100th birthday.
The 787 flew over a well lit Sydney Harbour Bridge,
like it was blowing a birthday candle.
(soft music)
(air whooshing)
At last some good news in early December,
the COVID vaccine is out.
How to transport the COVID vaccine timely
will become aviation's next challenge.
- From the point of manufacture,
they will contact the freight forwarder
and give them instructions to move the shipment.
So they will pick up the shipment
for the manufacturing site and bring it to the airport.
And they'll hand it over to Emirates.
At origin, we will then keep it in temperature control
and then we will load it on the aircraft.
And let's say starting from India,
it will then fly through Dubai.
In general, we bring both pharmaceuticals
in big volume into Dubai.
We bring it in here.
Like you bring it into this room.
Then we break down a large pallet into smaller shipments.
And then we send those out
to multiple different destinations.
Let's take Chicago, when the freight then lands in Chicago
we also have a large pharma facility in Chicago,
it will come off the aircraft into the facility
and then it'll get customs cleared
and handed over to the consignee.
On the freight board again,
you will take it to the end party,
who will be a pharmaceutical distributor.
Many pharmaceuticals and vaccines have to be kept
at a really cold temperature.
As an airline, we fly them at 2 to 8 or 15 to 25 degrees.
This is a passive solution, a passive box.
What this does is it protects the pharmaceutical
at even further lower temperature.
So in this room now with 15 to 25,
but inside here could be 2 to 8 or could be deep frozen.
And this here is one of our cool dollies.
We use these on the ramp to protect the pharmaceutical.
The biggest risk to the pharma air freight supply chain
is actually out on the risk
where it's exposed to extreme temperatures.
So in Dubai, when we see our plus 40 degrees in the summer,
as soon as the cargo comes off the aircraft,
you put it in this cool dolly
and it can be kept at exactly five degrees.
(air whooshing)
- 2020 has been a roller coaster year
in commercial aviation.
Really there are no words can express
the feeling we all went through.
I want to thank you for your support
of viewership in the past year
and we hope the next year will be better in aviation.
- We will get past this.
- Don't loose hope guys, stay strong.
- A new golden age is yet to come.
- I didn't have the chance to fly on an Airbus 380
but I hope I will in the future.
- We are both going to be very happy
if we could step foot on the plane again
- we'll be back in the air very soon,.
- Stay safe, stay strong.
- We will get through this.
- Take care.
- Fly safe.
- We can go through this hard time together.
- Stay in positive spirits.
- And we will get back up in the sky as soon as possible.
- Everything we've got back to normal
so that we can see planes taking off again.
- The aviation people, we are survivors.
We will survive.
(air whooshing)