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This article was published 07/07/2020 (1419 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Weeks before COVID-19 touched down in Manitoba, it was on the radar at Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport.
Darryl Dowd, the vice-president of operations for the Winnipeg Airports Authority, was watching with keen interest what was transpiring in early hotspots for the novel coronavirus. As someone who started his career during the SARS outbreak, Dowd understood even far-seeming threats were never so far off.
“When we first heard of COVID, we increased the frequency of our cleaning, focusing on high-touch areas of the office, elevator buttons, railings,” Dowd said this week near the check-in kiosks.
That was in early February, and the cleaning hasn’t stopped since at the nine-year-old airport, where reduced traffic hasn’t meant cleaning less, but it has meant cleaning smarter, Dowd said.
“Smaller, faster volume has helped us shift our cleaning to be coincidental with passenger movement throughout the building,” he said. With certain areas closed down, cleaning staff are deployed strategically to high-volume and high-touch areas, using traditional cleaning methods as well as electrostatic misting to sanitize the airport with products like Unitab and Oxy Q disinfectants.
Physical changes to the terminal include the closure of every second check-in kiosk, decals on seating to encourage physical distancing, and the famed Hug Rug beside the baggage claim has been removed.
Hand sanitizers are placed throughout the airport, along with plenty of signage urging distancing. Caddies with disinfectant and microfiber cloths are also at every gate for staff use to wipe down door-handles, handrails and keyboards.Face coverings are required when distance can’t be maintained in the terminal, and are mandatory on all flights.
Bigger airports have added expensive new technology to boost sanitization efforts: Toronto’s Pearson airport is using autonomous floor cleaners and sprays passengers in baggage claim with a “sanitizing mist”; Los Angeles International Airport is using thermal cameras to spot passengers with high temperatures.
Tyler MacAfee, a WAA spokesperson, said the airport is looking at high-tech options, including UV light sanitation for handrails, but wants to be certain any investments are made on proven items.
Projections for the air travel industry estimate it will take four to five years for passenger numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels, and the enforcement of health and safety measures will play a key role in the climb back to normalcy and consumer confidence. Other factors come into play, including measures implemented by major airlines.
“The focus on safety and security has always been there, and really this is no different. It’s a different problem, a different risk, but our approach and our commitment hasn’t changed.” – Vice-president of operations Darryl Dowd
Air Canada and WestJet announced last week they’d no longer require physical distancing on flights. Asked about the change, an Air Canada spokesperson said distancing was only intended as a temporary measure, and constant air filtration, mandatory masking and other measures play into the company’s multi-layered approach to protection.
“The reality is the blocked middle seat was introduced at the beginning of the pandemic before the myriad of safety measures were put in place and mandated on board,” a WestJet spokesperson said of that company’s change.
“Seat distancing was never intended to be in place permanently or throughout the pandemic,” they added. “What makes an airplane, and the entire journey, safe is the layers of enhanced cleaning, the wearing of masks and the hospital-grade HEPA filters that remove 99.999 per cent of all airborne particles.”
A Leger poll found 72 per cent of respondents were uncomfortable flying due to the decision to remove seat distancing requirements — an indication of high anxiety and increased scrutiny of airline policy. Transport Canada also recommends operators “develop guidance for spacing passengers aboard aircraft when possible to optimize physical distancing.”
In Winnipeg, customers have been paying more attention to policy, too: the WAA’s frequently asked questions page has been viewed three times as often as before the pandemic,MacAfee said.
Inside the airport Monday, most people immediately put on masks upon entering, and it wasn’t difficult to maintain distance: only 600 flights a month, compared to 2,600 pre-pandemic, are going through the airport.
Dowd said the WAA will have to adapt its cleaning strategy as time passes. In recent weeks, as certain provincial guidelines for quarantine were retracted, passenger traffic went up, though the airport is still expecting only 50 per cent of the annual traffic it was projected to handle in 2020.
Amongst passengers inside the airport, anxiety levels varied. One man walked in carrying only a set of golf clubs, and said he wasn’t nervous at all.
As they lined up at security, a married couple were asked what they expected as they travelled to another province for a medical procedure. The husband said he felt fine and wasn’t nervous. Through her mask, the wife disagreed, saying, “I am not looking forward to this.”
Dowd said the WAA is doing its part to keep the terminal safe during what can only be described as a turbulent time for the air-travel industry.
“This airport, and every airport in Canada is highly focused on safety and security,” he said. “The focus on safety and security has always been there, and really this is no different. It’s a different problem, a different risk, but our approach and our commitment hasn’t changed.”
ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca
Ben Waldman
Reporter
Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University’s (now Toronto Metropolitan University’s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben.
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History
Updated on Wednesday, July 8, 2020 8:49 PM CDT: fixes misspelled name.
