B1 · Intermediate
10 min
travelconflict zoneshumanitarian affairsaviationafrica
The Airport and the War: What a Flight Tells Us About the World
El Aeropuerto y la Guerra: Lo Que un Vuelo Nos Dice del Mundo
Khartoum's airport has just reopened to international traffic after a drone attack forced it closed on May 4th. Fletcher and Octavio use that fact to explore what an airport means to a city at war, what happens when the outside world stops arriving, and why traveling to the most difficult places on earth can be the most important act in journalism.
El aeropuerto de Jartum, capital de Sudán, acaba de reabrir al tráfico internacional después de un ataque con drones el 4 de mayo. Fletcher y Octavio usan ese hecho para explorar lo que significa un aeropuerto para una ciudad en guerra, qué pasa cuando el mundo deja de llegar, y por qué viajar a los lugares más difíciles del mundo puede ser el acto más importante del periodismo.
8 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| aterrizar | to land (an aircraft) | El avión aterrizó en el aeropuerto de Jartum después de un vuelo muy largo. |
| tierra | earth, ground, homeland | Esta es mi tierra, nací aquí y quiero volver aquí. |
| desplazado | displaced (person) | Millones de personas desplazadas por la guerra viven en campamentos al lado de la frontera. |
| humanitario | humanitarian | Las organizaciones humanitarias enviaron medicamentos por avión a la ciudad. |
| tráfico internacional | international traffic (aviation) | El aeropuerto abrió otra vez al tráfico internacional después de cuatro días cerrado. |
| conflicto | conflict | El conflicto en Sudán empezó en abril de 2023 entre dos grupos militares. |
| paramilitar | paramilitary | El grupo paramilitar RSF controla varias zonas del país. |
| reabrió | reopened (preterite of reabrir) | El aeropuerto reabrió ayer después de recibir el ataque con drones. |
You know what tells you more about a city's situation than almost anything else?
Whether its airport is open.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y el aeropuerto de Jartum, la capital de Sudán, cerró el cuatro de mayo después de un ataque con drones.
And the airport in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, closed on May 4th after a drone attack.
Ayer lo abrieron otra vez.
Yesterday they opened it again.
Four days.
Four days it was closed.
And in a country that's been at war for two years, those four days are not nothing.
No son nada pequeños, no.
They're not small at all.
Porque Jartum no es una ciudad normal.
Because Khartoum is not a normal city.
Es la ciudad más grande de Sudán, con más de seis millones de personas.
It's the largest city in Sudan, with more than six million people.
I was in Khartoum once, maybe 2004.
Before the worst of the Darfur crisis really hit the international press.
Even then, you could feel the tension in that city.
Jartum es una ciudad muy antigua, con mucha historia.
Khartoum is a very old city, with a lot of history.
Está en el lugar donde el Nilo Azul y el Nilo Blanco se unen.
It sits at the place where the Blue Nile and the White Nile meet.
Eso es muy importante, geográficamente y políticamente.
That's very significant, geographically and politically.
Two rivers, one city, and centuries of people fighting over both.
The British built the modern airport there precisely because of geography.
It was a refueling stop on the imperial air routes between London and East Africa.
Y ahora, en la guerra actual, el aeropuerto fue muy importante.
And now, in the current war, the airport was very important.
Cuando empezó el conflicto en abril de 2023, muchas personas usaron el aeropuerto para salir del país.
When the conflict began in April 2023, many people used the airport to leave the country.
Right.
The images from that evacuation were striking.
Diplomats, aid workers, foreign nationals, Sudanese families with whatever they could carry.
That airport was the only orderly exit from a city falling into chaos.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y eso es lo que pienso cuando escucho que el aeropuerto cerró otra vez: la gente que quería irse, la gente que necesitaba ayuda, no podía llegar.
And that's what I think when I hear the airport closed again: people who wanted to leave, people who needed help, couldn't get there.
Walk me through the war, because I want listeners to have a clear picture.
This is not a new conflict.
It's been going on for two years.
What actually started it?
Bien.
Okay.
En 2023, dos generales sudaneses que antes eran aliados empezaron a pelear.
In 2023, two Sudanese generals who had previously been allies began fighting each other.
Uno era el general Burhan, del ejército regular.
One was General Burhan, from the regular army.
El otro era el general Dagalo, del grupo paramilitar RSF.
The other was General Dagalo, from the paramilitary group RSF.
The RSF, the Rapid Support Forces.
Which grew out of the Janjaweed militias from Darfur.
Which means this war has roots that go back twenty years.
Sí, eso es importante.
Yes, that's important.
Las RSF no son nuevas.
The RSF is not new.
Antes trabajaban con el gobierno.
They used to work with the government.
Pero después de 2019, cuando los ciudadanos sudaneses protestaron y quitaron al dictador Omar al-Bashir, los dos grupos militares no podían decidir quién mandaba.
But after 2019, when Sudanese citizens protested and removed the dictator Omar al-Bashir, the two military groups couldn't decide who was in charge.
The classic post-revolution problem.
You remove the strongman, and the people who enforced his power for him turn on each other.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y el resultado fue terrible para la gente normal.
And the result was terrible for ordinary people.
Jartum se convirtió en un lugar de combate.
Khartoum became a combat zone.
Las familias tuvieron que escapar de sus propias casas.
Families had to flee their own homes.
Twenty-eight million people displaced.
That's the UN figure.
The largest displacement crisis in the world right now.
Larger than Ukraine.
And it gets a fraction of the coverage.
Eso es verdad, y es muy triste.
That's true, and it's very sad.
En España, en Europa, Sudán casi no aparece en las noticias.
In Spain, in Europe, Sudan barely appears in the news.
Pero es una catástrofe enorme.
But it's an enormous catastrophe.
Part of why it doesn't get coverage is because journalists can't get in.
No airport access, no visas for journalists, active combat in the capital.
It's an almost impossible place to report from.
Y cuando el aeropuerto cerró otra vez el cuatro de mayo, después del ataque con drones, yo pensé: para las organizaciones humanitarias también es un problema muy serio.
And when the airport closed again on the fourth of May, after the drone attack, I thought: for humanitarian organizations it's also a very serious problem.
Let's talk about that.
Because here's something most people don't realize: a huge percentage of humanitarian aid moves by air.
Medicine that has to stay cold.
Surgical supplies.
Specialized personnel.
None of that travels overland through an active war zone.
Es que el aeropuerto no es solo para los turistas.
The airport isn't just for tourists.
Es la conexión entre un país y el resto del mundo.
It's the connection between a country and the rest of the world.
Cuando desaparece esa conexión, el país queda muy solo.
When that connection disappears, the country is left very alone.
I've covered situations where airports were the last thing standing.
Beirut in the civil war years.
Sarajevo.
The Sarajevo airlift was the longest humanitarian airlift in history, almost four years.
The airport was the only reason the city didn't completely starve.
Sarajevo es un ejemplo muy importante.
Sarajevo is a very important example.
Yo estudié ese conflicto en la universidad.
I studied that conflict at university.
Los aviones de la ONU aterrizaban con comida y medicamentos mientras los francotiradores tiraban desde las montañas.
UN planes were landing with food and medicine while snipers fired from the mountains.
Era increíble.
It was incredible.
I was there once, briefly, in 1994.
The pilots who flew those runs deserved medals.
You'd come in at a steep angle specifically to reduce the time you were exposed during the descent.
The pilots called it the Sarajevo spiral.
Y en Jartum, no tienen ese tipo de ayuda internacional.
And in Khartoum, they don't have that kind of international support.
El conflicto no recibe la misma atención que recibió Sarajevo.
The conflict doesn't get the same attention Sarajevo received.
Por eso el aeropuerto abierto o cerrado importa tanto.
That's why whether the airport is open or closed matters so much.
There's also something the NOTAM tells you.
A NOTAM is a Notice to Airmen, basically an official bulletin for pilots about conditions at an airfield.
When a civil aviation authority issues one saying an airport is reopened, it means something formal has happened.
It's not just a rumor that the shooting has stopped.
Eso me parece muy interesante.
I find that very interesting.
Es como un símbolo oficial: el gobierno dice que la situación es suficientemente estable para los aviones.
It's like an official symbol: the government is saying the situation is stable enough for planes.
Pero en un país en guerra, ese tipo de garantía es muy frágil.
But in a country at war, that kind of guarantee is very fragile.
Very fragile.
And airlines know it.
When a conflict zone airport reopens, carriers don't rush back.
The insurance costs alone are prohibitive.
Flying into Khartoum right now requires a special war-risk premium that most commercial airlines won't pay.
Entonces, ¿quiénes vuelan allí ahora?
So who flies there now?
Probablemente organizaciones humanitarias, algunos gobiernos, y quizás empresas privadas con contratos especiales.
Probably humanitarian organizations, some governments, and maybe private companies with special contracts.
Exactly.
The gray-zone operators.
Some of them are genuinely heroic.
Some of them are, let's say, motivated by more complicated things than humanitarian concern.
Conflict airports attract interesting traffic.
Sí, eso es verdad en muchos conflictos.
Yes, that's true in many conflicts.
Yo escribí sobre eso en Libia hace algunos años.
I wrote about that in Libya a few years ago.
Cuando el aeropuerto de Trípoli tenía problemas, llegaban aviones de lugares muy extraños con cargas misteriosas.
When Tripoli's airport had problems, planes arrived from very strange places with mysterious cargoes.
There's a whole economy that only exists because of airport closures and openings in war zones.
And for regular Sudanese people trying to visit family abroad, or come home, or receive medicine, that economy has nothing to offer them.
Y aquí hay algo que quiero decir sobre el turismo y los viajes en general.
And here's something I want to say about tourism and travel in general.
Mucha gente piensa que viajar es un lujo, algo para las vacaciones.
Many people think traveling is a luxury, something for holidays.
Pero para millones de personas, viajar es una necesidad.
But for millions of people, traveling is a necessity.
Viajar es sobrevivir.
Traveling is survival.
That's well put.
When I hear people talking about travel as self-discovery, as a lifestyle thing, I think about the families in Khartoum who had four days where the only door out of the country was shut.
For them, an open airport isn't Instagram content.
It's a lifeline.
Y también para los periodistas, como tú.
And also for journalists, like you.
Cuando un aeropuerto cierra, el mundo deja de ver lo que pasa dentro.
When an airport closes, the world stops seeing what's happening inside.
Las noticias desaparecen.
The news disappears.
Y sin noticias, la presión internacional desaparece también.
And without news, international pressure disappears too.
That's the part that gets me every time.
Closing an airport isn't just a logistical event.
It's an information event.
You close the airport, you close the story.
Mira, yo usé antes la palabra «aterrizar», y me di cuenta de que es una palabra bonita en español.
Look, I used the word 'aterrizar' earlier, and I realized it's a beautiful word in Spanish.
«Aterrizar» significa literalmente tocar la tierra, ¿no?
'Aterrizar' literally means to touch the ground, right?
«Tierra» es «earth» o «ground».
'Tierra' means 'earth' or 'ground.'
Huh, I hadn't thought about that.
To land, to aterrizar, to come back to earth.
We say 'land' in English for the same reason, I suppose.
An aircraft touching land.
Sí, pero en español «tierra» tiene más significados.
Yes, but in Spanish 'tierra' has more meanings.
«Tierra» es el suelo, pero también es el planeta, y también puede ser tu región, tu lugar de origen.
'Tierra' is the ground, but it's also the planet, and it can also be your region, your place of origin.
«Esta es mi tierra» significa «this is my homeland».
'Esta es mi tierra' means 'this is my homeland.'
So when a Sudanese family lands back in Khartoum after months abroad, they're not just touching a runway.
They're touching their tierra.
That's a lot of weight in a single word.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y por eso me gusta el español.
And that's why I love Spanish.
Una sola palabra puede tener toda esa historia dentro.
A single word can carry all that history inside it.
«Aterrizar» es volver, es llegar, es sobrevivir.
'Aterrizar' is to return, to arrive, to survive.
Aunque tú todavía necesitas practicar, Fletcher.
Although you still need to practice, Fletcher.
I'm going to remember that one.
And I'm going to try not to tell anyone I'm very pregnant while I do it.