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SINGAPORE: Airlines around the world face a long and painful path to recovery.
Border closures and air restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with persistent considerations of overcrowded and confined spaces, will make it difficult to increase demand, at least in the near future.
So what can airlines do to ensure their survival beyond government support, access to credit services, and even mergers?
The experts’ response lies in restoring public trust through airlines by making travel as safe as possible.
This means, however, that travelers will have to get used to strict fitness checks, minimal in-flight entertainment and even food served on board.
Here are five tactics, the flight will be another once other people can return when countries start lifting their restrictions.
1. INTERMEDIATE SEATS CAN BE LOCKED
Several airlines, adding Garuda Indonesia, plan to keep the middle seats empty.
This, Garuda CEO Irfan Setiaputra said, will keep its aircraft’s cargo “significantly reduced,” even if Indonesia raises its existing regulatory limits on flight capacity.
For example, on Garuda’s Boeing 737 aircraft with a configuration of 3 plus 3 seats in economy class, the middle seats will be emptied “so that there is a distance between passengers in the same row,” he said. (See the episode here).
In the United States, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways have blocked seats in the call for social estrangement.
Recent studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology estimate that blocking the middle seat on planes can halve the threat of inflamed coronavirus, assuming all passengers wear masks.
But if airlines are forced to stay in the seat of the vacant environment, “they probably couldn’t make money,” said Matthew Driskill, editor-in-chief of Asian Aviation.
Compared to the times before COVID-19, air fares will be more expensive “safely,” Irfan said. “We’re in talks with the regulator to make sure it’s worth accumulating appropriate levels.”
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that social estrangement measures on aircraft would “move the aviation economy” by reducing the load to 62%, “well below” the industry’s average equilibrium point to 77%.
“Compared to 2019, airfares would need to go up dramatically — between 43 and 54 per cent, depending on the region — just to break even,” the IATA stated on its website.
2. WAIT FOR MINIMIZED INTERACTION
There will only be fewer passengers, but also less interaction on board.
On Garuda flights, the team applies a distance “from the moment passengers board the plane” to the moment they sit down and when the plane lands, said high-level flight attendant Thamy Karamina.
“We want to make sure that the interaction on the plane spreads the virus,” Irfan said. This includes the interaction between cabin equipment and passengers.
“In business class, we kneel before the intelligent touch of our eyes when we interact with passengers,” Thamy said. “The purpose was to make passengers feel more comfortable. We’re not doing that right now.”
United Airlines has also reduced contact between flight attendants and customers, such as snack and beverage service. And their passengers would be invited to disembark in teams of five rows at once.
Thamy believes travelers will see the new measures.
“This is a new form of care we pay to our passengers. In the past, passengers were pleased to gain attentive service benefits, but now social distance is a component of the service,” he said. “This will make passengers more comfortable.”
3. INFLIGHT SERVICES WILL BE PARED
Passengers will be served “correctly,” Irfan promised. But with the new realities, this service will also be another in the aspects.
IATA (Asia-Pacific) Regional Vice President Conrad Clifford said the onboard recovery could be “very simple.”
“It’ll be delivered to you probably as you board, and then it’s up to you to sort of serve yourself,” he added. “There won’t be the elegant, big meals that you’ve seen in the past, unfortunately.”
Singapore Airlines, for example, has suspended meal services for flights within Southeast Asia and to China; upon boarding, passengers are given a snack bag with water and refreshments instead.
Some airlines have even disposed of pillows.
4. THE USE OF MASKS WILL BE MANDATORY
What the IATA has emphatically recommended is that crew members and passengers wear masks, “to make that risk of infection very minimal”, said Clifford.
“(But) we don’t want to see too much movement around the cabin in order to reduce any risk of movement of air from possibly infected people to other people,” he added.
THE SIA cabin team will wear a mask in your flight, as well as goggles or visors when interacting with customers and gloves to serve meals.
Since last month, all airlines in the SIA organization also have passengers with a “care kit” containing a surgical mask, antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer.
American Airlines and United Airlines have even taken steps to ban passengers who refuse to wear a mask.
5. COVID-19 TESTS CAN BE A STANDARD
As global travel resumes, COVID-19 testing could become the new normal.
The IATA said last month that this should, ideally, take place prior to travel or at departure. A positive result would mean the passenger cannot travel as planned.
If testing is required on arrival and a passenger tests positive, then the passenger should be treated according to the requirements of the receiving country, said the association.
Hong Kong International Airport was one of the first airports in the world to introduce the mandatory COVID-19 check-up in April, where incoming travelers are sent to an offsite control center. They will also have to wait for the result of their check at a designated location.
In South Korea, the government established COVID-19 “tour” control stations in March at Incheon International Airport, where a medical member takes samples of arriving passengers.
Newcomers will also have to download a government smartphone app that tracks their location and asks them to report any symptoms, Reuters reported.
With such measures proposed or already implemented, adding a safe distance, Singaporeans “can expect inconvenience and delays” when air is regained, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan said at a Facebook post in May.
“But the protection of public fitness will not be compromised if we need passengers to fly again,” he added.
Watch this episode here. Insight airs on Thursdays at nine p.m.
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