Airlines, airports seen needing costlier revamp for virus era

Airlines and airports must adopt even more measures against the spread of Covid-19, some of which would imply major new costs for an industry already suffering steep losses, a public health expert will tell lawmakers. Passengers should be screened for elevated temperatures and all employees should be required to wear masks and gloves, according to prepared testimony by Hilary Godwin, dean of the University of Washington’s School of Public Health. In-flight seating, she said, must be arranged so that people aren’t too close together, and airports have to be reshaped to promote social distancing. The air-travel industry and government agencies overseeing it must allow public health considerations to “play a far greater role than before this pandemic,” Godwin said in the remarks. She is among four witnesses scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee in a hearing on the state of the airline industry during the coronavirus pandemic. Godwin recommended dramatic changes to how airport terminals looked before the pandemic, when passengers clustered in boarding areas, restaurants and security lines. Now, there should be social distancing in all those areas, she said. “The probability that healthy individuals will interact with one or more individuals who are infected but may not know increases exponentially as the number of people passing through the airport increases,” she said in her written testimony.<br/>