As cancellations mount, airlines seek to reassure travelers: Come fly with us
Despite reassurances from airlines that air travel remains safer than going shopping, the toll of the coronavirus on the industry continues to mount.
On Tuesday, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines announced they would be reducing some domestic flights nationwide. The news came nearly one week after United Airlines made a similar announcement.
American, Miami’s largest carrier, is still running almost all of its current flights from Miami International. Only service to Milan, Italy, has been suspended, through April; flights to Montevideo, Uruguay, will end in May and resume in December. A spokesman for Miami International Airport said details about Delta’s and United’s cuts were not yet available, but that the airport was expecting some impact, as the cuts are expected system-wide.
Despite a nationwide quarantine in Italy, flights from MIA to Rome aboard national carrier Alitalia are still slated for this month, though a few of those flights have been canceled, the MIA spokesman said. However, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that travelers avoid all nonessential travel to Italy.
A spokesman for Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport said Emirates Airlines had suspended service to Dubai effective March 14 through 31.
The route cuts come as jittery fliers confront an ongoing epidemic. Just as airlines are offering discounts and working to reassure passengers, the CDC has sought to advise elderly and physically fragile Americans against commercial flight — a move that was rebuffed by the White House.
American Airlines says it is seeing fewer passengers per flight, spokeswoman Crystal Byrd told a McClatchy reporter, but added: “But we’re still seeing a demand for air travel.”
South Florida-based Spirit Airlines, meanwhile, said it was not planning any service cuts, though it was expecting slightly slower growth as a result of the epidemic.
Still safe to fly
According to medical experts and airlines, it is still safe for most Americans to fly. While some travelers appear to have carried the virus internationally, the number of cases linked specifically to airplanes or airplane workers remains small.
In a statement on its website, the CDC says the odds of catching something on a flight is “low.” It does not have specific language about elderly fliers.
“Because of how air circulates and is filtered on airplanes, most viruses and other germs do not spread easily on airplanes,” the CDC says. “Although the risk of infection on an airplane is low, travelers should try to avoid contact with sick passengers and wash their hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use hand sanitizer that contain 60% to 95% alcohol.”
Arnold Monto, professor of epidemiology and global public health at the University of Michigan, says the risk of catching the coronavirus on a flight on which no passenger is infected is negligible — even if a passenger on a previous flight may have carried it. The virus is primarily transmitted through person-to-person contact, he said, and one must be within three to six feet to be at risk of catching it.
And when it comes to surfaces, Monto said, there is little risk from an inanimate object unless it has been freshly contaminated with the novel coronavirus.
“The likelihood of it surviving on surfaces is very low,” he said. “So while I believe hand hygiene is important ... things like wiping down seat belts is a bit oversold.”
On its website, the International Air Transport Association, a group that represents airlines, writes that flying is safer than going shopping.
“A modern aircraft has its cabin air changed many times more frequently than offices or shops,” it writes, noting planes’ air filters are as effective as those used in surgical operating rooms.
“As in a shopping center or an office, the biggest risk is if someone remains in the environment while unwell with a viral infection,” it says.
Emily Landon, an epidemiologist at the University of Chicago, said in a statement posted on her website that there is little reason to panic even if someone is coughing on a plane.
“In the unlikely chance someone on your flight did have COVID-19, the local health department in your community will find you. If they don’t, then you probably weren’t exposed.”
Despite these low odds, airlines say they are taking no risks.
Passenger screening
Many airlines are already screening out passengers exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Still, the carriers say they are taking every precaution to disinfect planes.
In a statement, American Airlines said that when it comes to cleaning its aircraft, its procedures “continue to meet or exceed” recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control.
“We have a strong, structured cleaning regimen and our aircraft are cleaned each day at key touchpoints on their journeys with an EPA-approved disinfectant,” it said. International flights and aircraft with additional time on the ground are also receiving “a detailed 30-point cleaning package each day.”
American also notes that most of its aircraft are equipped with High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters that provide a complete air change approximately 15 to 30 times per hour, or once every two to four minutes — similar to hospitals.
Hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes for crew members are already on board all international flights across the Pacific Ocean and to Italy. American said it is working to expand this measure to all flights in the near future.
Meanwhile, United specified that it is using a “high-grade, EPA registered broad-spectrum disinfectant and multi-purpose cleaner on all flights,” one that it introduced after the 2014 Ebola outbreak. “The cleaner meets all CDC guidelines and is known to kill many bacteria that cause communicable diseases,” the company said via a statement.
In the case of a positive coronavirus diagnosis, it said, any impacted aircraft will immediately undergo a deep cleaning, which includes washing ceilings and overhead bins and scrubbing the interior.
And Delta wrote it has “doubled down on its regular cleaning program.” It also highlighted a fogging process that is often used by the food industry to disinfect trans-oceanic aircraft interiors.
“As trans-oceanic flights come in, fogging takes place after an initial cleaning, this time with tray tables lowered and overhead bins and lavatory doors open,” Delta wrote.
Airport scrub
At Miami International Airport, staff members have placed hand sanitizers at all key employee operating areas, including break rooms and information counters
It also has deployed proper hand-washing hygiene posters in employee break rooms and at airport ticket counters and increased the routine replenishment of hand-sanitizing solutions available to passengers. Airport employees in MIA’s Federal Inspection Services areas are wearing gloves, which are available to other airport employees upon request.
At Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 100 new portable hand sanitizers and products have been added throughout the airport, according to a statement. Deep cleanings are also being performed each night throughout the terminals, as well as the rental car center, with ongoing cleaning throughout the day, the airport said.
What gives the University of Michigan’s Monto pause is the ongoing unknowns of infection rates in a specific area, something that may make traveling to or from that region riskier.
“We do need more testing,” he said.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "As cancellations mount, airlines seek to reassure travelers: Come fly with us."
