Until recently, this daily feature offered a regular snapshot of vibrant scenes, moments, launches and campaigns from the global aviation and travel retail sphere. As the COVID-19 crisis brings the worldwide travel industry to a near halt, the images we see are ones of emptiness, and eerie silence within airports as store and restaurants fall shut and workers often outnumber passengers.
These stark scenes from Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, usually a seething mass of humanity and a vibrant shopping scene led by the King Power International duty free offer, sum up what has happened in the aviation and travel retail sphere. Today is 1 April but these images are no April fool’s. They are the grim, and immensely sad, manifestation of a pandemic.
