Visiting Hamad International Airport and Qatar Duty Free is like taking an elixir for those COVID blues.
Airlines
From inconclusively negative in London to conclusively upbeat in Qatar
Checking in is not as simple a process at it was in those halcyon pre-COVID days. PCR test results need to be checked along with all other details. Do NOT – as we had been forced to – turn up at the last minute.
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Travel
Back where it all began and a Flying Kiwi again
My only fear is that all these Nasopharyngeal Swabs will play havoc with my wine nosing ability.
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Travel
Any day now I shall be released
I’m going to focus on the soon-to-be-opened rather than the temporarily shuttered here as I think the real story is now one of future renaissance not bleak recent past.
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Travel
Collinson joins the dots as I return to the skies
The closest I have come to an overseas trip in ten months is via my regular ferry rides between Discovery Bay and Central. Now I can experience the real thing again at last.
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Airports
How Hong Kong Airport is getting all dressed up and ready for take-off
Better times are coming at this magnificent gateway and the Airport Authority Hong Kong team is more than prepared for them.
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Travel
Lifeguards, drag queens and Dave Dobbyn all say welcome home
I would just about concede the Wallabies the Bledisloe Cup if all of us could start to travel freely again and sing our own equivalent of Nau Mai Rā.
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Travel
Pondering a post-batch 210102 visit to Mauritius
Today, my eye has alighted on Mauritius, all 2,040 sq kilometres of its loveliness perched out there alone in the Indian Ocean. I reckon I could be there in around 9 hours and 45 minutes.
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Travel
No shot in the arm but a stab in the heart
Now, as with so many others around the globe, my plans are – unlike me – up in the air. It sucks but to stay with that not particularly attractive verb, one just has to suck it up.
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Travel
Marking a grim anniversary and rediscovering the industry of beautiful memories
Life has changed so very much for every travel retail company on the planet since precisely one year ago today when the first death from a then-unnamed coronavirus was recorded in Wuhan, China.
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Travel
Your flight time will be 8,760 hours… you may experience some turbulence
In cities such as Seoul and Taipei we’ve seen plenty of flights to ‘nowhere’ in recent months. Is the Essence Corp Airlines destination more tangible?
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Airports
How Changi Airport turned itself into the ultimate destination
The whole concept is the best example I have seen yet of an airport adapting to crisis and one that has the added benefit of permanently underlining the allure of Changi as a destination in its own right.
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Miscellaneous
Keeping the (masked) ball rolling in Hong Kong
Who will be the first travel retailer to launch an own label mask? Qatar Duty Free perhaps? Dubai Duty Free through its in-house Akaru brand? How about destination-specific masks, surely a winner in the travel sector?