Travel Comes Clean

As the coronavirus pandemic lingers, travel providers are spinning out new measures every day to counter the threat

- By Susan Mckee

Proximity and duration are the two factors that crop up in most discussions of the likely spread of COVID-19. The closer you are to someone infected with the coronavirus plus the longer the time you spend near them, the more likely you are to become infected yourself.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the greatest COVID-19 risk is being around breathing, laughing, coughing, sneezing, talking people. Unfortunately, airplane cabins are where people are seated in crowded spaces for long periods of time.

While leisure travelers think they can afford to discount the risk, business travel has come to a virtual standstill.

“Business travelers won’t return in force until their travel managers and senior management are confident that employees’ health safety can be protected,” says Henry H. Harteveldt, travel industry and consumer analyst, researcher and co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group. An employer has a responsibility to ensure that the employee is able to get to and from a destination safely. “That ‘duty of care’ extends to health safety with the coronavirus still very active,” Harteveldt notes.

AIR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION

All airlines and airports have instituted more rigorous cleaning methods. The Tampa International Airport (TPA) in Florida has launched “TPA Ready” addressing social distancing, mask usage, plastic shield barriers, surface disinfection and touchless transactions, all designed to slow or stop the spread of germs and viruses.