Face masks required. No food or drink when the catering cart is being dismantled. And if you need to pee, raise your hand to get the cabin crew's attention.
The airline industry – and passengers – are now adapting to a new reality.
More and more countries are now opening their borders and more and more airlines are trying to restart their operations in the shadow of the corona pandemic. Recently, Finnair, among others, has announced that it will soon resume its extremely important Asian operations with flights to both China and Japan.
Low-cost airline Ryanair has promised that from July 1, 1,000 flights per day will be operated, up to half of the traffic before Covid-19 broke out.
But one problem for airlines and passengers is that rules and recommendations vary in different parts of the world. What applies on a domestic flight in the US may be completely out of the question on a flight to a country in Asia or within Europe.
Travelers who previously found air travel to be complicated and associated with restrictions are now getting further confirmation.
For example, Ryanair has banned all forms of queuing on board aircraft. If someone needs to go to the toilet, the person must inform the flight attendant. Air France is carrying out mandatory temperature measurements on passengers, and those with a body temperature above 38 degrees must stay on the ground. Although food and drinks are served on board many flights, it is completely different in Thailand. Authorities there have banned all forms of food and drinks on board; water can only be offered in emergencies. The Wall Street Journal reports that some airlines are considering introducing requirements for a kind of certificate that passengers have had an infection and recovered.
Several companies and countries have set a requirement to leave the middle seat free, for example. However, this means that companies that have lost almost all income in recent months are now having an even harder time making up for lost revenue. The American airline Frontier Airlines claimed that from an infection perspective it made little difference. However, anxious passengers would be guaranteed a seat next to an empty seat through a ticket surcharge of $39. However, the idea did not receive any attention and Frontier Airlines had to cancel its plans.
But as more and more companies and passengers return, the challenges are also growing. For example, how do you maintain social distancing at an airport where, for natural reasons, lots of people will involuntarily meet?
Source: TT
