Airline Procedures As A Result Of The Coronavirus
Travel will definitely change as the world combats the Coronavirus. On this page, I will share what each airline is doing to make travel safer.
Already there are many travel restrictions worldwide. So before you decide to buy a ticket, you have to check the restrictions of your own country as well as the country you are traveling to and that of the country through which you are connecting if that’s the case.
You will also have to give yourself more time to travel and make connecting flights.
Air Canada
Effective Monday, April 20, 2020, if you are flying Air Canada, you must wear a face mask or some other type of nose and mouth covering. You can find more details here. Here’s an excerpt:
For the safety and well-being of our customers and employees, Air Canada will require all customers to wear cloth coverings or masks over their mouth and nose while at check-in, during the boarding process and during flight on its aircraft. The new requirement, effective April 20, follows an interim order issued by the federal Minister of Transport requiring travellers to have a face covering in their possession to wear when physical distancing is not possible.
Customers must bring their own face coverings which will be verified prior to boarding all Air Canada flights and prior to security screening at Canadian airports. It is the customers’ responsibility to bring the proper face covering with them. Air Canada will not distribute masks to customers in order to ensure that critical medical masks are reserved for frontline workers. The coverings do not need to be medical masks – any face covering including a scarf or similar item is acceptable.
Emirates
Emirates is the first airline to conduct a rapid COVID-19 test for passengers traveling on its flights. This test will certify you for flight as it seems that some countries are requesting a certificate of health to enter their country. Take a look.
Etihad Airways
Etihad is testing kiosks in their hub in Abu Dhabi that will monitor passengers’ temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate and will suspend check-in if any anomalies are discovered.
Here’s an excerpt from the Etihad Web site:
“The Elenium system will automatically suspend the self-service check-in or bag drop process if a passenger’s vital signs indicate potential symptoms of illness. It will then divert to a teleconference or alert qualified staff on site, who can make further assessments and manage travellers as appropriate.
In partnership with Amazon Web Services, Elenium has also developed ‘hands free’ technologies that enable touchless use of self-service devices through voice recognition, further minimising the potential of any viral or bacterial transmission.
Etihad will initially trial the monitoring technology at its hub airport in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE, at the end of April and throughout May 2020, initially with a range of volunteers, and, as flights resume, outbound passengers.”
Lufthansa
From their Web site…
As of March 27, all adjacent seats in Economy Class and Premium Economy Class on all Lufthansa flights leaving from Germany will be blocked and kept free.
This does not apply to flights to Germany, as it is our highest priority to bring as many people home as possible.
In order to avoid bus transfers from apron positions for our passengers, Lufthansa flights will be receiving gate positions at all German airports wherever the existing airport infrastructure and official regulations allow for it. Whenever a gate position is not possible, we have already started to employ twice as many busses than usual in the past few days.
Lufthansa had already implemented numerous measures to help increase the distance between passengers during the entire chain of travel.
WestJet
Effective Monday, April 20, 2020, if you are flying WestJet, you must wear a face mask or some other type of nose and mouth covering. You can find more details here. Here’s an excerpt:
When travelling by air, you will be required to cover your mouth and nose:
- at Canadian airport screening checkpoints
- while boarding your flight
- at all times during the flight
- when instructed to by a crew member
Also, there is social distancing onboard (from the WestJet Web site):
Seat distancing
From now until May 4, 2020, the middle seat on our Boeing 737s and 787s, and every other seat on our Bombardier Q400 will be unavailable to book. This leaves you with a bit more space and a bit of distance as we work our way through the Covid-19 crisis.
What do you think?