As society yearns, sometimes aggressively, for an end to lockdowns and travel restrictions, governments and regulatory bodies search for way to make that happen as safely as possible. For example, in May, the European Commission is expected to present a set of guidelines for resuming air travel as safely as possible.
The measures that they’re considering include mandatory masks in flight and increased standards of hygienic disinfection aboard planes and in airports.
“All this should be part of those guidelines and probably by mid-May we can put forward this strategy we are working on,” tweeted Adina Valean, the EU Transport Commissioner, on April 22, 2020.
In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is researching whether it has the authority to mandate face coverings. The agency has unofficially announced a plan to update guidance for flight crews, but nothing so far has happened.
In contrast, several airlines, as businesses, have enacted many of their own new disease-prevention measures, including not selling middle seats (which will reduce plane capacity by a third or more), changing their boarding process to help passengers keep their distance from one another, and suspending seat upgrades to keep more control over spacing passengers out.
In Canada, regulators are now requiring passengers to wear a non-medical mask or face covering during the boarding process and while flying.
Ryanair, a budget airline based in Ireland, is planning to require mandatory temperature checks and masks for both passengers and crew when resuming air travel. Ryanair’s CEO Michael O’Leary describes reducing seat capacity as “mad” and unaffordable.
“When you ask people, what’s the most important thing to get them to start traveling again, it’s going to be confidence in their safety,” said Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines. Just this month, Delta reported its first quarterly loss since 2012.
The International Air Transport Association currently estimates that the COVID-19 crisis will cost airlines a total of $314 billion. Possibly much more, since no one has an accurate estimate for when the travel industry will recover, or what its new normal is going to be.
“We expect the crisis to stay with us and the virus to stay with is,” Valean said.
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