The care program won't do much to protect crews or passengers. It doesn't address the bigger issue which is the source of the infection: People.
The airline can clean more, but that only addresses a small amount of the risk. It's all about viral load and the vitality of the virus. Yes, we have all heard that SARS Cov-2 can survive on some surfaces, but outside of places where there are repeated exposures (e.g. care facilities, subway grab bars, etc.), it is a relatively low risk because the virus will start to degrade in a few hours as it dries out. AC additional cleaning will occur too late to protect pax during the flight where the risk of infection is at its peak.
The greatest risk will be the infected pax who leave a mess in the lavs, and who circulate about the cabin. The requirement of pax to wear masks is a good start, but what about Tanya the Toucher, or Gary the Gripper? The lavatory door handles will need to be regularly cleaned in flight and there will need to be cleaning spray in the bathroom with the instruction that pax must keep the lav clean. Anyone believe that will happen? No mention of it in the media release. Asymptomatic people are going to be getting on the aircraft and sharing their infections. This includes crew. I haven't seen any reference to regular checking of personnel. Having FAs wear a plastic sheet isn't going to protect pax. One need only look at what has happened in the long term care facilities and hospitals. Despite all the PPE and precautions, some staff were sloppy, and others moved from home to home spreading the infection. There needs to be a regular testing of employees and even the public. The union and employees would support this. Most Canadians would too if they had the opportunity to access screening tests, particularly antigen (which identifies virus associated proteins.)
In the short term, until the provincial governments (Quebec and Ontario especially) help businesses in Canada roll out a frequent affordable antigen testing program, companies like Air Canada won't really be able to operate safely and passengers won't have the confidence to fly. AC can spray all the chemicals it wants, people can wear their masks, but the key piece is to identify the people who have the virus in their bodies and to isolate them until they clear the infection.
Last edited by Transpacificflyer; May 12, 2020 at 9:00 pm