Airlines, airports seen needing costly revamp for virus era

Airlines and airports must adopt even more measures against the spread of Covid-19, some of which would imply major new costs for an industry already suffering steep losses, a public health expert will tell lawmakers.

Passengers should be screened for elevated temperatures and all employees should be required to wear masks and gloves, according to testimony prepared for a Senate hearing by Hilary Godwin, dean of the University of Washington’s School of Public Health. In-flight seating, she said, must be arranged so that people aren’t too close together, and airports have to be reshaped to promote social distancing.

The air-travel industry and government agencies overseeing it must allow public health considerations to “play a far greater role than before this pandemic,” Godwin said in the remarks. She is among four witnesses scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee in a hearing on the state of the airline industry during the coronavirus pandemic.

While the hearing will be held in person despite the virus, Godwin thanked the committee for allowing her to testify remotely. Her testimony was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Industry officials echoed some of Godwin’s concerns, according to their testimony, in some cases calling on the federal government to create new guidelines and standards to protect passengers and to help restore public confidence in the reeling air-transportation sector.

She recommended dramatic changes to how airport terminals looked before the pandemic, when passengers clustered in boarding areas, restaurants and security lines. Now, there should be social distancing in all those areas, she said.

“The probability that healthy individuals will interact with one or more individuals who are infected but may not know increases exponentially as the number of people passing through the airport increases,” she said in her written testimony.

Other measures that should be considered include requiring passengers or aviation employees to attest they are healthy before being allowed to travel or report to work. It may also be possible soon to test each person for infection before entering airports, she said.

“While each of the strategies discussed here comes with inherent limitations and poses its own logistical challenges, combining them together creates a ‘net’ that will help to reduce overall risk to the millions of individuals who work in, travel using, and benefit from the aviation industry each day,” she said.

While all large U.S. airlines now or will soon require flight attendants and passengers to wear face coverings, standards for other employees vary. Transportation Security Administration screeners, for example, have the option to work without masks.

Similarly, some airlines have said they are taking measures to keep passengers spaced apart, but policies vary and some flights have been packed in spite of the steep drop in people willing to fly.

Airlines have been burning through $10 billion a month as passenger totals have tumbled more than 90% during the past month, according to Airlines for America.

There is no doubt “that the U.S. airline industry will emerge from this crisis a mere shadow of what it was just three short months ago,” Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America, said in prepared testimony for the hearing. “There is simply no way around the detrimental and lasting economic impact this pandemic will have on our industry.”

The industry embraces additional actions, such as widespread temperature checks and increased tracing of those who come in contact with infected people aboard planes, Calio added.

The TSA is considering using its airport screeners to conduct health checks of passengers, Bloomberg reported Friday. No decisions have been made and it creates numerous tricky logistical issues.

Addressing an issue that has drawn criticism, Calio said airlines cannot afford to reimburse every passenger who canceled a flight because of the virus without going into bankruptcy. Airlines have followed U.S. law requiring refunds when the carrier itself cancels a flight, he said.

Eric Fanning, president of the Aerospace Industries Association trade group, plans to tell senators on the Commerce Committee that companies of all sizes in the sector are weighing job cuts and furloughs, citing one company that had to lay off half of its engine manufacturing staff, according to a copy of his prepared remarks.

Fanning also plans to raise questions about whether the rules governing $17 billion in aid offered by the Treasury Department for national security-critical companies under the bill is too restrictive.

Thousands of airports across the U.S. are also suffering dire financial consequences from the virus outbreak, said Todd Hauptli, president of the American Association of Airport Executives, in testimony prepared for the hearing.

Revenues from a ticket tax assessed on some airline passengers and parking fees have plummeted since early March, Hauptli said. While the $10 billion in emergency airport grants approved by Congress have helped, it is less than half of the projected financial losses, he said.

Airports and other related businesses will need additional help or they’ll risk defaulting on bond payments, he said.

While airports are taking numerous steps to improve cleaning and allow social distancing, Hauptli also called on Congress and federal agencies for help.

“We will need clear and consistent federal guidelines and standards—especially on the matter of health screenings—to ensure that passengers know what to expect when they arrive at the airport regardless of which airport it is or what airline they may be flying,” he said.

No labor leaders were scheduled to testify, but the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA union issued a press release denouncing airlines for taking steps to cut worker pay even though the intent of a federal aid package was to preserve jobs.

“If left unchecked by Congress, the Treasury Department and other oversight bodies, the result will be a race to the bottom, penalizing companies that do right by their workers in disbursing payroll grants to workers as Congress intended,” the union said in a letter to senators.