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Air France To Check Passengers’ Temperatures, Enforce Use of Masks

Air France will check passengers' temperatures and could bar anyone from boarding its flights if it is deemed too high when France's lockdown measures are eased on Monday.


A member of the French civil protection (protection civile) holds a thermometer and a document with pictograms to ask to migrants and homeless people to verify if they have symptoms of COVID-19 coronavirus in a accommodation center in Nantes, western France, on May 08, 2020, on the 53rd day of a strict lockdown in France to attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19).
A member of the French civil protection (protection civile) holds a thermometer and a document with pictograms to ask to migrants and homeless people to verify if they have symptoms of COVID-19 in an accommodation center in Nantes, western France, on May 08, 2020, on the 53rd day of a strict lockdown in France to attempt to stop the spread of the new coronavirus (COVID-19). Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP

 

Air France will check passengers’ temperatures and could bar anyone from boarding its flights if it is deemed too high when France’s lockdown measures are eased on Monday.

Passengers, crew and staff dealing with customers must also wear masks from Monday, in line with requirements for all public transport, the airline said in statement Saturday.

“Air France will progressively implement temperature checks on departure from all its flights,” starting May 11, the company said.

“These systematic checks will be carried out with contactless infrared thermometers.”

Customers with temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit) “may be denied boarding and their reservation will be changed at no extra charge on a flight at a later date.”

Masks will be required of all passengers, all crew and agents who deal with customers.

The company said it will also try to space passengers as far apart as possible, which is easier given the drop in demand for air travel.

It will also thoroughly disinfect planes, including using a product deemed to be effective against viruses for ten days.

There will be no drinks or food served onboard domestic flights or short trips within Europe.

Air France said its planes are equipped with HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filters identical to those used in hospital operating theatres.

The filters extract virtually all small viruses, including those no larger than 0.01 micrometres, it said. The coronavirus ranges between 0.08 and 0.16 micrometres.

France is due on Monday to start easing a lockdown that began in mid-March as the number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths show signs of slowing.

A list of scheduled Air France flights starting Monday was not immediately available.