Public Unconvinced Air Travel is Safe during Coronavirus Pandemic

Similarly, big European carriers including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways may be too important to let fail.

It's too late for UK-based Flybe; it shut down in March. Latin America’s two biggest airlines, Avianca and Latam, filed for bankruptcy protection.

So did Aeromexico. Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, both part of British mogul Richard Branson’s galaxy of companies, are using the courts to reset debts.

In the US, Trans States and Compass, which flew smaller planes for the major airlines, and Alaska-based Ravn Air shut down, but the big airlines have survived with billions in government aid and billions more in private borrowing.

US airlines have scrambled to reassure travelers that planes are safe. They require passengers to wear face masks and are cleaning cabins more thoroughly, even spraying seats with anti-microbial mist.

“You can smell the cleaning fog that’s been done, and everything is wiped down basically top to bottom — chairs, window shades, even the light switches and overhead bins,” said Jason Bounds, a veteran flight attendant at Delta Air Lines.

The airlines split in one regard. Delta, Southwest, JetBlue and Alaska leave some seats empty to create room between passengers. United, American and Spirit do not, arguing that social distancing is impossible on a plane.

Most flights have plenty of empty seats, but scenes of full planes alarm travelers.

Carol Braddick, a business coach and consultant who splits her time between Phoenix and England, was so worried about the American Airlines leg of her journey to the UK that she sought out a Covid-19 test after arriving.

“The person I was sitting next to was drinking nonstop, shouting to his friend a row behind him; they were shouting back and forth,” Carol Braddick said.

“The combination of alcohol, shouting and no mask is unacceptable, and the flight attendant did nothing,” stated Carol.

Braddick put off plans for a couple of short holiday trips within Europe this summer.

“The new reality for us is fewer trips, longer stays, and being much more selective about which airline we’ll fly,” she said.

Even frequent flyers like Seth Miller, who writes about travel at his PaxEx.aero website, are grounding themselves.

“Much as I love and miss travel, it just doesn’t seem worth the risk to me,” he said. 

(Writers: David Koenig, David McHugh)

Source: https://apnews.com/084ff2b09e52d751f57e52b78564d226