Temperature checks, face masks and sneeze guards: The new normal in airports?
As travelers begin to return to the country’s airports, they’ll notice the changes meant to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Wearing face masks will be customary, and even required by some airlines. More airports may use machines to check passengers for fever. Security checkpoints may have plexiglass shields between passengers and screeners.
Only 119,629 travelers passed through airport security checkpoints on Wednesday, still a fraction of the 2.25 million who did this time last year. But airports, airlines and federal agencies are taking steps to make it possible for air travel to return to normal levels.
Beginning Monday, JetBlue will require all passengers to wear face coverings, during their flight and also at check-in, boarding and deplaning. All JetBlue crewmembers must wear face masks as well.
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“Wearing a face covering isn’t about protecting yourself it’s about protecting those around you,” said Joanna Geraghty, the airline’s president and operating chief, in a statement. “This is the new flying etiquette.”
Starting May 8, Frontier Airlines will require its passengers to wear face masks that cover their nose and mouth “throughout their journey,” the airline said in a statement, adding that its flight crews and airport workers are already doing so. “This will include all ticket counters, gate areas, and onboard our aircraft.”
United is requiring all crewmembers to wear face masks, and will soon provide them to passengers. American will begin requiring flight attendants to wear masks on Friday and soon will begin distributing masks, sanitizing gel and disinfectant wipes to passengers.
Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines didn’t immediately clarify what their face mask policies are for crew and passengers.
Leading lawmakers and union leaders want all airlines to require passengers and crew members to wear face masks. On Wednesday, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure, asked the Federal Aviation Administration to require them for both groups.
Last week, Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, asked the federal government to provide passengers with disposable paper or cloths masks.
“These should be provided free to all members of the public entering airport buildings with the stipulation that they be worn at all times on airport property and on airplanes,” she said in a letter to Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration is installing plexiglass shields at airport security checkpoints to protect its officers. More than 500 TSA employees have tested positive for the coronavirus, and five have died.
The TSA has also begun installing sneeze guards at the entrance to security checkpoints where officers check travelers’ documents. They’re already in place at airports like New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and Boston’s Logan International.
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More airports may require temperature checks. Paine Field, a small commercial airport in Everett, Washington, north of Seattle, said Wednesday that all passengers would be screened for fever by a thermal camera. Passengers whose temperature registers above 99.5℉ will undergo a secondary screening and may be prevented from traveling.
