An image of hell at 36,000 feet
When will we be able to travel safely and easily? The people are fed up, despairing of their loss of freedom. Elderly residents wonder if they will ever travel again. Bad news comes from one direction — Cathay Pacific is chopping routes in response to new crew quarantine requirements — while hopeful news comes from another. The International Air Transport Association is launching a Travel Pass for the Covid-19 era.
Cathay said the new requirement that crew must do 14 days hotel quarantine and seven days medical surveillance means crews can operate only one long-range flight a month. Thus from February 20 it is suspending the following destinations: Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, Vancouver, Saigon, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur, among others.
The IATA Travel Pass, already being used by Emirates and Etihad, is designed to simplify the myriad international requirements for tests and vaccine during travel. The industry body said the travel pass should be able to get people flying safely while giving governments confidence they will not import infections.
The Travel Pass works in four ways, by enabling:
- Passengers to find information on testing and vaccine requirements for their journey.
- Travellers to find testing centres and labs at departure and destination that can conduct covid-19 tests.
- Labs and test centres to securely send passengers test results and vaccine certificates.
- Passengers to create a “digital passport” and check their test results and vaccine certificates comply with journey requirements.
As you would expect from an industry representative body, IATA says air travel is relatively safe in the pandemic. Modern aircraft have high air-flow and replacement systems that work from ceiling to floor, and have filters removing 99.9% of viruses, bacteria and fungi. Cabin air is exchanged every two to three minutes.
Nevertheless, IATA says you should wear a mask throughout your journey.
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