International flights across the world and across the continents will eventually resume back to their full potential,

橫跨世界各大洲的國際航班最終將恢復其常態，

but whenever they do, there will probably still be a critical missing link.

儘管如此，國際航班似乎仍存在缺口。

Normally, there are transcontinental flights every single day that connect North America, Europe, Africa and Australia to every other inhabited continent in the world.

通常，每天都會有航班橫貫各大陸，串連北美、歐洲、非洲、澳州和世界上每個有人居住的地方。

But there still isn't a single direct commercial flight being offered from Asia to South America,

但目前仍沒有從亞洲到南美的直飛商業航班，

and there never has been either.

從來沒有。

Even after the covid crisis is over,

即使新冠疫情危機解除，

the only way from one continent to the other is through a series of convoluted connecting flights that will take you to another continent first

從一個大陸到另一個的唯一途徑是經過一系列複雜轉機，這些航班首先會帶你到另一個大陸，

and likely take you over 24 hours to complete.

而且總航程可能超過 24 小時。

So what gives?

這是為什麼呢？

South America is home to 424 million people, or about 5% of the human species,

南美洲有 4.24 億人，約佔總人口百分之 5。

while Asia is home to 4.56 billion people or about 58% of the human population.

而亞洲擁有 45.6 億人口，約佔總人口百分之 58。

Asia's population is over 10 times greater than South America's,

亞洲人口數是南美洲的 10 倍以上，

and it's rapidly becoming the world's center of trade and business.

正迅成長為世界貿易和商業中心。

China is already the largest single aviation market in the world,

中國已經是全球最大的單一航空市場。

with Japan, Indonesia, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea all in the top 10 as well.

日本、印尼、印度、俄羅斯、沙烏地阿拉伯和韓國也都位列前十。

The Asia Pacific region is already the busiest airspace in the world.

亞太地區已是世界上最繁忙的空域。

And based on a report from the IATA,

而根據國際航空運輸協會報告顯示，

the top 10 largest airline markets among emerging economies will feature eight in the Asia Pacific and two in the Latin American regions.

新興經濟體前十大航空市場中，有八個在亞太地區，其餘兩個則位於拉丁美洲。

It should almost be a no brainer than to have flights connecting these two rapidly emerging global regions together.

設立航班連接這兩個迅速崛起的國際區域，似乎是理所當然的事。

But so far, very little progress has actually been made.

但到目前為止，實際進展甚微。

Pre covid, only four Latin American countries maintain flights to the Asia Pacific region,

疫情前，只有四個拉美國家有飛往亞太地區的航班，

Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Brazil.

古巴、墨西哥、巴拿馬和巴西。

These four countries collectively maintained 22 weekly flights to either China, Japan or South Korea, and most of them had layovers.

這四個國家共維持每週 22 班飛往中國、日本或韓國的航班，其中大部分都有中途停留。

Hainan Airlines has a route from Beijing to Mexico City with a layover in Tijuana,

海南航空有北京途經蒂華納，至墨西哥城的航班。

China Southern has a similar route with a layover in Vancouver that's set to be discontinued,

中國南方航空有一條類似的航線，中途停留溫哥華，即將停飛。

while Air China has flights to Cuba with a layover in Montreal,

中國國際航空有飛往古巴，在蒙特婁中轉的，

another one to Panama with a layover in Houston

往巴拿馬，於休士頓中轉的，

and another one to Sao Paulo with a layover in Madrid.

還有另一條在馬德里停留，飛往聖保羅的航班。

While Aeromexico has direct flights from Mexico City to Tokyo and Seoul, that's pretty much it.

雖然墨西哥國際航空有從墨西哥城直飛東京和首爾的班機，但也僅此而已。

And the only direct flights go into or out of Mexico, not South America.

而且只有直達班機進入或離開墨西哥，而非南美洲。

The two primary reasons for why that's the case are geography and technology.

造成這種情況的原因主要有兩個，地理位置和技術層面。

Geographically speaking, Latin America in general is the furthest global region away from Asia.

從地理上講，拉丁美洲是全球距離亞洲最遠的地區。

And South America, specifically, is quite literally the furthest place away from Asia that you could get to on Earth.

具體來說，南美洲是地球上離亞洲最遠的地方。

South America and Asia are essentially antipodes, meaning that they exist on opposite sides of the planet.

南美洲和亞洲基本上是反極點，也就是說兩者存在於地球兩邊。

Based on this map, you can see that Argentina and Chile are roughly opposite of Mongolia and China.

根據這張地圖可以看到，阿根廷和智利與蒙古和中國位置大致相反。

Taiwan is opposite of Paraguay.

臺灣在巴拉圭對面。

The Philippines are on the other side of Brazil, while Indonesia is opposite of Colombia and Venezuela.

菲律賓在巴西另一邊，而印尼的對面是哥倫比亞和委內瑞拉。

You can also see that Mexico is the closest Latin American country to Asia,

還可以看到，墨西哥是距離亞洲最近的拉美國家，

which helps to explain why it's the gateway to Latin America from Asia.

這也解釋了為什麼墨西哥是亞洲通往拉丁美洲的門戶。

To put it into even greater perspective,

放眼來看，

Beijing is the busiest airport in Asia, while Sao Paulo is the busiest airport in South America.

北京是亞洲最繁忙的機場，而聖保羅是南美洲最繁忙的機場。

Connecting these two hugely busy hubs with one another through a direct flight would make perfect sense,

通過直航將這兩個繁忙的樞紐連接起來是非常有意義的，

except for when you begin to consider how expensive and difficult it would actually be.

如果不考慮這實際上有多花錢，施行有多困難的話。

For starters, the distance between the two airports is 10,934 miles, which is a lot.

首先，兩個機場之間的距離是 10,934 英里，實在很遠。

Currently, the longest commercial flight is the one between Singapore and Newark

目前，最長的商業航班是新加坡和紐瓦克之間的班機，

that takes 18 hours and 25 minutes to complete and covers a distance of only 8285 miles.

航程長 18 小時 25 分，且飛行距離僅有 8285 英里。

A flight from Beijing to Sao Paulo would below that one out of the water,

這跟北京到聖保羅的飛航比根本不算什麼。

and it's not even really clear if it would be technically feasible right now, anyway.

而我們甚至還不清楚這在現在的技術上是否可行。

The plane that Singapore Airlines uses to fly the current longest route to Newark is an Airbus A350-900 ultra long range,

新加坡航空用來執飛目前最長航線，往紐瓦克的班機是空中巴士 A350-900 超遠程飛機，

which only has a maximum range of 9700 miles.

其最遠航程只有 9700 英里。

That means that if a carrier were to use this plane for a Beijing to Sao Paulo route,

這意味著如果航空公司用這架飛機執飛北京到聖保羅的航線，

they would need to stop somewhere to refuel, which adds more cost.

他們將需要在某個地方停下來加油，這會增加更多成本。

The shortest route would also take the plane over a significant chunk of Russia,

最短的路線還會飛越俄羅斯一大部分的地區，

who is well known to charge exorbitant fees for the privilege.

眾所周知，俄羅斯會為此收取高昂費用。

All of these factors combined dramatically increase the price of a hypothetical flight between these two big cities,

這些因素結合起來，大大地提高了這兩個城市之間航班的費用，

which is pretty much why no such flight presently exists, but there is some progress being made.

這也就是為什麼目前不存在這樣的航班，但其實這方面已有一些進展。

Last year in 2019, Qantas achieved the world record for the longest flight ever taken by a commercial jet aircraft.

去年 2019 年，澳洲航空破了民航飛機最長飛行時間世界紀錄。

They flew a Boeing 787-9 from New York City to Sydney nonstop over 19 hours and a distance of 10,066 miles.

他們駕駛波音 787-9 從紐約市直飛雪梨，歷時 19 小時，航程 1066 英里。

But Qantas did a lot to this flight to make it more possible.

但為了讓這趟航班成真，澳航做了很多準備。

Passenger and baggage loads were both restricted in order to control weight.

為了控制重量，乘客和行李裝載量都受到限制。

So there were only 49 people on board that flight, including all of the passengers and crew.

所以那架飛機上只有 49 人，包括所有乘客和機組人員。

And it still wasn't enough to cover a reasonable flight between two major airports in Asia and South America.

這仍不足以承受亞洲和南美洲兩個主要機場間的合理飛航需求。

So that's effectively why no direct flights exist between the two continents,

這就是為什麼兩大洲之間沒有直飛航班的原因。

they are too far away, the technology to fly that far without refueling isn't there yet, and the infrastructure in a lot of places is simply lacking.

兩者距離太遠，無需加油就能飛那麼遠的技術還不存在，且很多地方的基礎設施仍很缺乏。

Maybe one day a flight like this will exist.

也許有天，會有這樣的航班。

But until then, just like with any other goal, it's helpful to identify the problems you'll face and learn how to work towards the solution.

但在那之前，就像面對其他目標一樣，認清即將面臨的問題並學習如何解決才是解法。