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Are the skies of India safe?

Coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecedented situation for the airline industry. During this time, each and everybody is reassessing how to continue the work safely.

Biji EapenOct 01, 2020, 11.41 AM IST

The people of India appreciate the national carrier Air India and other Indian carriers for the incredible determination and the venerable struggles in reimagining the new normal in India’s Air Transport industry.

Coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecedented situation for the airline industry. During this time, each and everybody is reassessing how to continue the work safely.

India has a long history of evacuations during wars and natural disasters. Unlike the previous missions, the rescue operation, “Vande Bharat Mission” followed by “air bubble agreements” between India and select countries, is not a free cost operation and is on commercial terms and conditions. Moreover, it almost sets up to take to the skies on full scale by mid of October as part of resuming international flight operations.

At the same time, the recent incidents are terrifying that Indian carriers operating under air bubble agreements frequently carried “infected” passengers on board their flights. Despite MHA Covid protocols, health and safety of passengers are at risk when travelling to and from or within India. Many times, “infected” passengers were flown.

Air India carried seven passengers from Delhi to Auckland and they tested positive. Fortunately, considering the human factors, New Zealand’s Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said that “These people have “travelled from a country that has a high incidence of Covid-19, so it is highly likely that they have been undetected before they got on the plane.”

Fourteen passengers travelled from Delhi to Hong Kong on an Air India flight on August 14 have tested positive for Covid-19. Hong Kong Government accordingly suspended Air India operations to Hong Kong for two weeks from August 18 to 31, 2020.

Recently, Air India Express carried infected passengers ‘twice” to Dubai, one from Jaipur and another from Delhi on August 28, and the second on September 4, 2020. The Dubai Civil Aviation Department suspended Air India express operations for 15-days, and later the carrier managed to revoke the suspension within 24 hours. However, the carrier is asked to meet all the quarantine expenses of the infected passengers as well as the first and second contacts who all sat near to them.

In an incident, Kuwait has suspended operation of flights to and from India in the wake of mounting coronavirus cases. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia also followed the same tune and banned flights to and from India.

IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI), in a statement, requested the government authorities, MoCA, MHA and DGCA to conduct a detailed investigation and take appropriate action against those whom all are involved in the fraud certifications, which resulted in the suspension of Indian carriers operations by foreign countries. Since these are regulatory lapses and have profoundly impacted passengers’ concern and sense of health and safety, a return to “normalcy” will not happen quickly and any opaque approach or promises may lead to loss of trust.

As lockdowns ease and travelling resumes around the world, the primary concern is how to ensure everyone’s health and safety. Wondering how healthy is flying from Indian ports, both domestic and international? Carrying infected passengers and flying in India safe amid a surge in coronavirus cases?

In the latest notification, the Ministry of Home Affairs has issued Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) to be followed for international travel on non-scheduled commercial flights. Since the SOP is the part of MHA guidelines and MHA can keep a track on the movement of international passengers in a calibrated manner. All travelers are required to provide an undertaking that they are travelling at their own risk along with a Covid-19 negative certificate. Airlines have to confirm the tickets only after ensuring that the destination country is allowing entry of people with a valid visa.

Airlines could have minimized the risk by leaving open the middle seat. When filling middle seats, the health risk of passengers towards Covid-19 is on a high ratio. Along with making face masks as obligatory onboard, airlines must take other precautions to assure travelers that they can once again take to the skies. The new initiatives of PCR test and COVID-free “negative certification’ are to make the air passenger confident and reassure health and safety.

The suspension incidents happened within the last couple of weeks, creating chaos in the industry and International Air Transport Association (IATA) has recently projected that global passenger traffic will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels until 2024, a year later than previously estimated.

As the IAAI national president, I feel, the Indian travel, tourism and aviation sectors have higher hills to climb toward recovery. The lessons we learned is that our promises must be transparent, reliable and trustworthy. In this context, the regulators and other government agencies have to be vigilant and cautious to ensure passengers safety.

It appears that individual passengers tested positive or without being tested for neither positive nor negative, produce false-negative reports – which is challenging for non-infectious travelers. Carrying ‘infected” passengers, knowingly or unknowingly, will risk the health and safety of all those on board the flight and also the ground handling staff involved in passenger handling at departure and arrival.

It is advisable to make the pre-departure RT-PCR test report mandatory for passenger’s eligibility to travel within or from or to India. Authenticity and reliability of the RT-PCR test also must be taken into account.

Ground handling staff and the in-flight crew directed to prevent transmission of virus between passengers, or between crew and passengers. Airline or ground staff responsibility is to check the documentation and ensure regulatory compliance.

The airline industry is facing several challenges when it comes to restoring passenger confidence. First and foremost, passengers need to feel that they can trust the airlines, airports and government Authorities concerning their health and safety.

I feel that many countries mandated that passengers travelling from India are required to bring an original COVID- negative certificate of an RT-PCR test done within 96 hours before the journey. The need of the hour is that we need a Regulatory shift in our procedures. All COVID-free certificates that are being presented by the passenger at the time of check-in or onboard should be endorsed by the health department attached to airports to ensure its authenticity, accuracy or legitimacy.

IATA has warned its members and member countries that, when airlines resume passenger services during the ongoing Covid-19 Crisis, there are likely to be multiple public health, regulatory, training, and operational and crew and consumer confidence challenges. Passengers must have sufficient certainty that they can travel safely and achieve what they wish to do on their journey.

While condemning on, IAAI Air Passenger Rights Forum, legal advisor, Adv. Ajith Marath said, “Many passengers are anxious to return to “normal life,” post-COVID-19, physical interaction will likely depend on their ability to trust that they will be safe from infection during flying. Distrust, on the other hand, can have the opposite effect. Hence, the passengers must know the truth, how the airline carried infected passengers repeatedly, and it is the responsibility of the authorities to prove the trustworthiness in health and safety of the travelling public.”

Though few countries are steadily opening their air space and lifting lockdown restrictions with distinct quarantine rules and guidelines, the second wave of Covid-19 infections seems to have affected the sentiment of flyers. Hence, it is imperative to see that these lapses never be repeated any more, enable our carriers, ground handling staff or the health or medical teams should collectively make India a Covid free country.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETTravelWorld.com does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETTravelWorld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.

Article Link: Travel World