Reaction to air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic

Travel has taken a major hit since the pandemic hit but some people still need to fly for essential services.

As such, flights are still taking place at most major airports in Canada.

Jeffery Straker, a musician from Regina, recently flew to Toronto for medical purposes. He took the time to share his experience.

The biggest takeaway was how safe he felt due to many changes made to combat COVID-19.

“I felt exponentially safer doing this travel than I do in many stores,” Straker said. “On the plane, every single person was wearing a mask, and because of that, I felt incredibly safe … It’s not mandatory (in Regina), but on the plane it is, and that alleviated some concerns.”

Masks were a big factor, but there were many other changes.

Food service was cancelled and passengers were handed safety kits instead.

“It has latex gloves, a paper mask, a bottle of water, hand sanitizer, wipes … they really have all those bases covered,” he said. “They really looked after all the angles I felt they possibly could.”

However, one surprise was that the flight was “quite full” with multiple people seated next to each other.

There was a solution for that as well.

“They contacted everyone the day before by email, let everyone know that the flight was going to be pretty full and they gave you the option of bouncing your seat to the next day to a flight with very few people on it … If the distancing was a big concern, they did offer up a solution,” he said.

James Bogusz, the president and CEO of the Regina Airport Authority, previously has said the passenger volume at the airport is at about five per cent of its pre-COVID levels due to the pandemic.

Unless that increases, the airport could be having severe financial problems by the fall.

As well, some flights that arrived at Saskatchewan’s two main airports have carried passengers who later tested positive for COVID-19.