ESA Satellite Images Show Parked Airplanes, Anchored Ships Amid Pandemic Pause

The coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected the global transport industry. Images taken by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission showed the usually busy airports across the world and a bay in Manila, Philippines, transformed into “parking lots.”

The two industries that took a serious hit because of the coronavirus restrictions are aviation and maritime as flights were grounded and ships suspended operations. Amid the pandemic, busy airports became parking lots, while ports were filled with anchored ships.

Images taken by the ESA's Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite in May showed the airports in Victorville, California, Teruel, Spain, Lourdes, France and Alice Springs in Australia transformed into airplane parking lots.

According to the ESA, aviation industry researcher, Cirium noted the number of passenger jets in service was at its lowest in 26 years. For instance, European operators flew nearly 20,000 passenger jet flights on Feb. 23. However, by April 19, there were only about 1,200 scheduled passenger flights.

Manila Bay in the Philippines was transformed into a parking lot for ships. In an animation that contained a sequence of satellite images taken by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 from April and May, about 20 ships can be seen docked in the bay, among them the famed Diamond Princess and Ruby Princess.

Many cruise ships currently docked in Manila Bay were turned away by other countries because of the potential threat of passengers being coronavirus carriers, The Guardian recently reported. However, the Philippines allowed them to dock since many of the ships’ maritime workers were the country’s citizens. They had to remain in isolation in their cabins for up to weeks while waiting for their coronavirus test results.

These images are just some examples of how the coronavirus lockdowns have affected different industries across the world. While there will be no quick fix to the massive effects, new screening measures and precautions can help these industries recover, albeit slowly.