Vaccine key to airline recovery: United’s Munoz

United executive chairman Oscar Munoz says that a vaccine which will protect travellers against the coronavirus will be key to the industry’s recovery. Speaking Thursday, Munoz says that the industry will experience little business improvement until an immunization is deemed safe and is globally available. Absent that, a testing regime that delivers rapid, reliable results is the next best thing. “Nobody knows how long this will last,” he says. “Until a vaccine is brought forward and operationalized and distributed widely we will still see demand suffering.” But until that happens – expected to be in early-to-mid 2021 – coronavirus testing should be ramped up, Munoz says. Earlier today the Chicago-based carrier launched an initiative offering customers travelling from the carrier’s west-coast hub San Francisco International airport to Hawaii the opportunity to test out of the islands’ 14-day mandatory quarantine requirement beginning on 15 October. “You have to be creative and one of the things we have been pushing is the concept of the rapid test,” Munoz says. This type of testing will “ensure that the passengers are indeed covid-free and there is no need for quarantine.”<br/>