Remote regions and COVID-19 restrictions caused transport impacts and responses

Abstract

This chapter summarizes changes and responses of public transport services caused by COVID-19 to and from remote regions, as well as within remote regions. These areas are connected in normal times often by air and sea transport services, which are operated under specific legal frameworks to cofinance commercially loss-making but vital services. With detailed legal situation, background, and the available traffic statistics from the different COVID-19 pandemic periods, we analyze three different areas as case studies: the Azores (Portugal), Adriatic islands (Croatia), and Okinawa (Japan). The result shows that the remote connections show less reduction of both supply and demand compared with routes within the mainland. Tourism-dependent routes saw more demand fall than others, while the fall of vehicle transport and freight demand was limited.