Well this is kind of cool from an avgeek perspective, though perhaps otherwise not terribly useful.
Continue reading: Cool: MIAT Mongolian Just Flew Direct To Seattle
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The flight returned to Mongolia yesterday, June 24 with passengers on board. It was a cool experience working at the airport that day.
When this plane was delivered from Boeing in Seattle, wouldn’t it have presumably also been a US to Mongolia nonstop? 😉
this was a repatriation flight for Mongolians stuck in the US due to the border closure since March. Mongolia closed its border due to covid-19 case by a french expat in March, cancelling all commercial flights (first country to do so, even before Kuwait). Yet the country refuses to take their nationals since then except via a few charter flights similar to the one from Seattle. Many mongolians are stuck with short term visit visas all over the world, and some who struggled financially committed suicide (in Poland, South Korea and Japan). The main reason that Mongolian government doesn't accept the repatriation of citizens is the lack of quarantine facilities in the country. There are 12000 mongolians wanting to go home but the country has only 2000 beds at a time (because the government sets the price at only 20USD for 4 star hotels a night with 3 meals and hotels are not willing to join their government quarantine program, yes the passenger pays this, not the government) and the country requires 21 days of quarantine for passengers who were on these flights. It is nearly impossible to get a ticket on one of these flights because it operates 6-7 times a month with 260 pax at a time. The main reason why the government implements such a strict measure is to win an election that happened today. Of course, the current populist prime minister won the supermajority tonight because he is the hero who prevented the virus from coming into the country. Such a sad background behind this charter flight...
Of course, here in Seattle we are used to seeing aircraft from all over the world. Because Boeing.
Two things: is this aircraft wet leased as you claim? Secondly, there are (pre-Covid) several one stop fifth freedom flights operating. SQ have several, QF, CI, AC, CX, EK do you, as do several others. I do not think these would have existed unless they were profitable - these carriers are all operated as professional businesses and not just vanity projects.
Miat is a great airline and I hope they do fly to USA soon....they need to get an interline agreement with UA or AA ....I go there many times ...great place