Months into the coronavirus pandemic, many people are still a bit apprehensive to travel. Others are ready to get back to business as usual. If you’re anxious to get back on the road, rest assured, the travel industry has increased their health and cleanliness standards in an effort to keep everyone healthy and safe.
Wondering what it’s actually like to fly right now? You’ve come to the right place.
Here’s what flying looks like during COVID-19 restrictions.
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In the Airport
Upon arriving at the airport, I could immediately see that it was far less crowded than normal, and all the travelers and airport employees were wearing proper face coverings. Each of the check-in kiosks had plexiglass partitions at the counter, and there were signs throughout the airport encouraging everyone to social distance and wear a mask. A bit of a surprise, TSA is also now allowing travelers to bring a small personal hand sanitizer along with them to use throughout their trip.
Recently, United and American Airlines have started requiring passengers to wear face masks inside airports. United passengers who don’t wear masks at the customer service counters, kiosks, lounges, gates, and baggage claim areas could be refused and banned from flights as long as the mask rule is in effect. American Airlines’ mask rule was implemented on July 27th and requires passengers to wear masks the entire time they are in both their departure and arrival airports. Customers who don’t comply with the mask rule will be banned from flying with the airline in the future.
On the Plane
I flew with Delta, where they are boarding back to front to promote social distancing and all passengers and flight crew are required to wear masks. Upon boarding, masks were available upon request.
Most major US airlines have implemented new cleaning procedures and are using industrial-grade HEPA filters that extract more than 99% of particles, including viruses, and electrostatic sprayers with high-grade disinfectant before every flight. Additionally, while the planes are thoroughly sanitized and cleaned between every trip, the flight crew gave every passenger their own sanitizing wipe to wipe down their own area for peace of mind.
Delta is blocking middle seats on all aircraft and capping the flight capacity in the main cabin at 50% through September 30, 2020, so I had a whole row to myself on both flights.
Southwest is also blocking middle seats on all aircraft through September 30, 2020. Other major carriers are taking similar measures.
Instead of the normal snack and beverage service planes typically have, Delta gave every passenger a prepackaged baggie with a few different snacks, a bottled water, napkin, and hand sanitizer.
Most airlines have switched over to this type of service for the meantime or have discontinued their food and beverage service entirely. You can read more about how each individual airline is taking measures to help keep passengers healthy and safe in our blog here.
Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the extra precautions that both the airline and airport took to promote social distancing and help keep travelers healthy and safe. The trip went so smoothly that I’ve already booked another flight this month. The travel industry has gone to great lengths to enhance their cleaning protocol and sanitization procedures. Travel is still travel, it just looks a lot different than it did before the coronavirus pandemic.
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Airlines and airports aren’t the only ones who have made modifications to their cleaning protocol recently. Hotels, rental cars, and public transportation are actively making changes for the health and safety of passengers as well.
You can read more about what rental cars and public transportation companies are doing to help prevent the spread of COVID in our blog here.
To find out more about what different hotels are doing to enhance their cleaning procedures and promote social distancing, check out our blog here.
For regular travel, airline, and hotel updates, be sure to follow along on our blog page to stay up to date!
