MONTREAL, Que. — Air Canada and WestJet announced this week new measures they are putting in place to give customers greater peace of mind when travelling.
Air Canada announced Air Canada CleanCare+ today, its new program for personal safety and enhanced aircraft cleaning to give customers greater peace of mind when travelling.
Image Courtesy of Air Canada
According to Air Canada, the program was designed to reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19, through measures like mandatory pre-flight customer temperature checks, health questionnaires, and seat assignment policies on all flights until June 30, 2020. In addition, Air Canada will be providing all customers with care kits for hand cleaning and hygiene, and will introduce electrostatic spraying of cabin interiors.
“While we are eager to see the reopening of economies and the restart of commercial aviation, the safety of our customers and employees is Air Canada’s core value and we aim to establish the highest standards of hygiene, cleanliness and attention to public health guidelines. We have been a leader in progressively introducing new measures in response to COVID-19, such as introducing Personal Protective Equipment for our employees and being the first North American carrier to require face coverings for customers. We are now the first airline in the Americas to administer pre-flight temperature checks system-wide. With Air Canada CleanCare+, we are introducing a comprehensive new program to give each customer added assurance for their well-being throughout all stages of their journey – and we intend to continue enhancing Air Canada CleanCare+ where we can with best practices from around the world, including increased use of screening tools, such as blood oxygen level testing, as they become available,” said Calin Rovinescu, president and CEO of Air Canada. “Air Canada CleanCare+ will not only provide protections at the personal level, by better monitoring our customers’ fitness to fly and providing for more personal space in Economy Class, but it also sets new standards for cabin cleanliness and ensures our employees have the best tools to maintain it. Coupled with other new safety practices we implemented earlier in response to COVID-19, Air Canada CleanCare+ will provide travellers with the confidence that they can book and fly safely with Air Canada as they consider their travel plans in the current environment.”
By May 15, through the Air Canada CleanCare+ program, Air Canada will:
- Implement mandatory infra-red temperature checks for all its customers at all airports, as well, all customers will have to take a mandated health questionnaire. Customers deemed not fit to fly will be rebooked at no cost.
- Automatically block the sale of adjacent seats and cap the number of seats sold for each flight to promote more personal space in Economy class until at least June 30, 2020.
- Distribute care kits including hand sanitizers and other health items to all customers.
WestJet also put in a number of safety measures to ensure crew and guests will be safe on future flights. WestJet has said it is implementing the following:
- All cabin crew members are required to wear a company-approved face mask when within two metres of guests.
- Two additional disinfecting products were added to its arsenal — hospital-grade Clorox wipes and spray.
- Upon boarding, each guest will be provided with sanitization wipes.
- A new cleaning procedure that involves fogging the entire aircraft to provide complete disinfection.
- Seat distancing — the middle seats of their aircrafts, and/or every other seat on smaller aircrafts will not be available to book.
You can learn more about WestJet’s new policies by clicking here and more about the Air Canada CleanCare+ program by clicking here.
Leave a Reply