BOCA RATON — The largest Ebola outbreak in history is becoming a major dilemma for Global Air Travel.
The case of Patrick Sawyer, a passenger en route to the United States that died from the Ebola virus after becoming ill on a flight to Nigeria from Liberia, has sparked fears the disease can be spread by Commercial Airline flights to locations across the globe.
Since the incident, most major international airports are on the lookout for anyone showing symptoms and the CDC has issued a Commercial Airline Advisory warning of a ‘severe, often fatal disease’. In addition, talk of flight restrictions, cancellations, and possibly even pre-flight health screenings with quarantine protocols in some locations has sparked new fears among travelers, many of which are reported to be seeking safer alternatives such as private charter flights.
Francesca Termini, a charter coordinator at Airstream Jets Inc (ASJ), said “call volume for international charter flight quote requests has been off the charts this entire week”.
ASJ is an International On-Demand Private Jet Charter Company with offices in Australia, Canada and the United States. When asked why there has been such a spike in interest, Francesca said “I believe the increased interest in our service [private air travel] from customers who have never chartered aircraft before is a result of recent events such as the Ebola incident in Lagos and geopolitical instability in other regions.”
Ultimately the impact of this outbreak will be felt by every Commercial Airline Carrier in the world. How the Airlines deal with the dilemma will have much to do with the containment of the virus.
This should not and is not an air flight problem. This is an international health problem. This problem highlights and emphasizes the need for measures to protect the health of the people of the world as one people. Just because we are in another country does not mean that we can isolate ourselves from these health problems. The airlines can only do so much. It is only a matter of time before the Ebola virus comes to Dallas. Todays world is very “small” and airline efforts to stop Ebola will only work for a short time.