Asian airlines fight to reassure passengers over virus response
After over half a year of managing ANA's ground operations at Haneda Airport amid a pandemic, heightened sanitation and social distancing have become so routine for Mariko Kumita and her team that, as she says, "I am starting to feel like I'm forgetting what used to be normal." The situation is a far cry from the scramble in January, when ANA sent a flight to repatriate Japanese citizens from Wuhan, the Chinese city that was the coronavirus epicenter. Back then, a terminal typically used for domestic flights had to be reconfigured with immigration and customs checkpoints in under 48 hours. Since then, the airline has increased the number of check-in counters to keep travelers adequately spaced. Plastic sheets hang between airport staff and passengers, and interactions between cabin crew and ground crew are kept to a minimum. At every stage of check-in, travelers are asked to disinfect their hands. "All the staff have completely altered their level of consciousness for disinfection and safety, so I hope the customers can be relaxed," said Masahiro Tsurukawa, the station manager for ANA's operations in Wuhan. Both Tsurukawa and Kumita said their airline's coronavirus measures make them feel safe at work every day. But the same is not true of passengers, who have yet to return to the air in large numbers. Much of that is due to country travel restrictions -- but resurgent virus cases throughout the region have also led people to question their desire to fly amid anxiety over infection. Airlines such as ANA have been consistently attempting to lure back travelers with their new health standards -- aware that their own financial well-being is at stake. ANA Holdings posted a net loss of 108b yen ($1.03b) for the three months from April through June -- the worst since it started unveiling its quarterly performance in fiscal 2003 -- and furloughed around 43,500 employees. But the question for carriers is whether the new health practices on the ground and in the air are sufficient to make passengers fly again with confidence. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-09-23/star/asian-airlines-fight-to-reassure-passengers-over-virus-response
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Asian airlines fight to reassure passengers over virus response
After over half a year of managing ANA's ground operations at Haneda Airport amid a pandemic, heightened sanitation and social distancing have become so routine for Mariko Kumita and her team that, as she says, "I am starting to feel like I'm forgetting what used to be normal." The situation is a far cry from the scramble in January, when ANA sent a flight to repatriate Japanese citizens from Wuhan, the Chinese city that was the coronavirus epicenter. Back then, a terminal typically used for domestic flights had to be reconfigured with immigration and customs checkpoints in under 48 hours. Since then, the airline has increased the number of check-in counters to keep travelers adequately spaced. Plastic sheets hang between airport staff and passengers, and interactions between cabin crew and ground crew are kept to a minimum. At every stage of check-in, travelers are asked to disinfect their hands. "All the staff have completely altered their level of consciousness for disinfection and safety, so I hope the customers can be relaxed," said Masahiro Tsurukawa, the station manager for ANA's operations in Wuhan. Both Tsurukawa and Kumita said their airline's coronavirus measures make them feel safe at work every day. But the same is not true of passengers, who have yet to return to the air in large numbers. Much of that is due to country travel restrictions -- but resurgent virus cases throughout the region have also led people to question their desire to fly amid anxiety over infection. Airlines such as ANA have been consistently attempting to lure back travelers with their new health standards -- aware that their own financial well-being is at stake. ANA Holdings posted a net loss of 108b yen ($1.03b) for the three months from April through June -- the worst since it started unveiling its quarterly performance in fiscal 2003 -- and furloughed around 43,500 employees. But the question for carriers is whether the new health practices on the ground and in the air are sufficient to make passengers fly again with confidence. Story has more.<br/>
