Airbridge

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A provisional route established for transporting items or individuals between two separate locations
2. A method of transportation created to enable the movement of people or goods across distinct areas
3. A temporary connection set up to facilitate the transfer of people or cargo between two points

Etymology: The most striking fact here is that the word was partly a translation. It is formed from "air" and "bridge," and in some cases it was calqued directly from the German "Luftbrücke," meaning the same thing: a bridge made of aircraft rather than stone or steel. English speakers adopted the idea of transporting people and supplies by plane over a route that ground travel could not safely use. The sense is a plain compound. "Air" is the familiar English word for the atmosphere and for travel by aircraft, while "bridge" carries its basic meaning of a structure that spans a gap, here an obstacle or a distance. Put together, the pair describes a sustained line of flights that connects two places as a bridge connects two banks. Because the term was built from words already in English, its meaning is transparent: an airbridge is a route kept open by air transport, most often when a blockade, distance, or lack of roads would otherwise cut places off from one another.