NEW YORK – If you can afford the airfare, there are hundreds of flights every month that will take you from Roberts International Airport in Monrovia, Liberia, to just about anywhere in the United States.
The first case of Ebola diagnosed in the U.S., reported Tuesday, was a Liberian national who had traveled to Dallas from Monrovia Sept. 20 via Brussels, Belgium. The White House said Wednesday, however, it will not impose travel restrictions or introduce new airport screenings to prevent additional cases of Ebola from entering the U.S. The unprecedented outbreak in West Africa has claimed more than 3,300 lives.
In Monrovia, passengers are checked on departure for fever. If they show no symptoms, they are allowed on board. But Ebola has an incubation period of about 21 days, meaning infected passengers who are asymptomatic would be allowed to fly. Further, connecting airlines in Europe or the U.S. generally have less stringent checks for illness than at West African airports.
If you are willing to travel anytime in the next week, and you want to fly from Monrovia, Liberia, to Atlanta, Georgia, perhaps to visit the Centers for Disease Control, there are nine flights. All originate with Royal Air Maroc and connect with either Air France, Delta, British Airways or U.S. Airways.
The cheapest of the nine available flights between Monrovia and Atlanta costs $2,340 for a one-way ticket, with a two-stop itinerary that connects through Casablanca and New York. The journey takes approximately 20 hours to complete.
Or, let’s say you want to go from Monrovia to New York City’s JFK International Airport, perhaps to observe in person the United Nations Security Council debate of the international response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
If you want to travel next Thursday, you can fly a combination of Royal Air Maroc from Monrovia to Casablanca, where you would connect with an Iberia flight to Madrid. Then, there’s an American Airlines flight to JFK, all for the economy ticket price of $3,255, tax included.
Or, perhaps, instead, you decide to fly from Monrovia, Liberia, to Dallas, Texas, to see what you can find out about how well public health authorities are coping with the first diagnosed case of Ebola in the U.S.
On Oct. 11, there are six flights from which to choose.
You can take Royal Air Maroc flight AT0597 to Casablanca, connecting with Air France flight AF1897 to Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. From there, it’s Air France flight AF8984 to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, connecting with Delta flight DL1711 to Dallas.
The price from Monrovia to DFW is $3,876, tax included.
WND found that Royal Air Maroc is the best way to fly out of Liberia, connecting in Casablanca to a European city with flights to the U.S.
To prove show how easy it is to connect from Monrovia to anywhere in the USA, WND searched for flights arriving at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport in Missouri.
If you want to travel from Monrovia to Cape Girardeau on Oct. 7, there are 11 scheduled flights that can take you to St. Louis. The cheapest is a flight originating with Royal Air Maroc in Monrovia and connecting via United through JFK in New York and Washington Dulles International, for a total price of $2,480, including tax.
Once you arrive in St. Louis, Cape Air has five flights daily, meaning you might have to stay over one night in St. Louis to connect.
