Full of it?
United airlines
What is a tech executive doing now when asked to fly for business?
Somehow working from home had certain security advantages, but there are currently indications that travel is slowly resuming. Some of them maybe even for business.
German executives, for example, fly back to China. Additionally, United Airlines announced that it will add 25,000 flights to its August schedule and resume its flights between San Francisco and Shanghai on July 8.
This is a route that Apple reportedly used to spend $ 150 million a year with United.
You can imagine, then, that United would ensure that every possible precaution is taken to ensure that these flights are also protected from COVID-19as possible.
You can also imagine that airlines will do everything possible to guarantee social distancing. You can also imagine, however, that they are interested in money.
Delta is blocking intermediate seats until the end of September.
However, American Airlines has just announced that it will fill all available seats, something for which the airline has been known for years. And now something that is terrible director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci and CDC director Robert Redfield, who believe that this endangers human security.
And then there is United.
He also doesn’t seem so keen on blocking the middle seats. However, their explanation may make one or two travelers pale.
As Business Insider reported, the airline’s director of communications, Josh Earnest, gave a press conference: “When it comes to blocking middle seats, that is a public relations strategy. That is not a security strategy.”
Earnest explained the geometry of everything. He said, “When you’re on board the plane, if you’re sitting in the aisle and the center seat is empty, the person across the aisle is less than six feet from you. The person at the window is inside six feet from you. The people in the row in front of you are six feet from you. The people in the row behind you are six feet from you. “
Yes, the airlines reduced the space between seats to something similar to the space between human teeth, in an attack of glorious theft of money. However, raising your hands and just saying “aw, tough” isn’t too far removed from the problem Texas and other states have had with people crowding into bars.
Also, forcing the use of masks, especially on longer flights, will not be easy. Especially when many hostesses may not want to take on too large a watch role.
However, Earnest expanded the airline and is not actively pro-coronavirus: “If you want to stay safe on the plane, we need to wear a mask. We need to have good air filtration. The plane needs to be thoroughly cleaned, and we need to make sure that every stage of your journey, where we can socially distance ourselves, let’s do it. Those are all the steps that scientists have recommended we take. “
Could it be the same scientists who just explained that they really don’t like the idea of filling the middle seats?
Earnest could be said to be accurate in describing the difficulties of keeping people six feet away. You may agree that social distancing on airplanes is impossible.
However, some pilots believe that more can be done. The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, believes the government should buy intermediate seats, and some other seats as well, to create more distance between passengers.
Union President Captain Eric Ferguson suggested: “The government would buy enough seats on each flight to eliminate the need for any passenger to sit next to a stranger.” So airlines get their money, while passengers feel more secure.
I could whisper that most tech executives, especially if they work for Apple, will fly business class, so why worry?
However, I have seen many types of technology in the back of the plane with me and that could one day start happening again. I wonder how it would feel to be squeezed by United and other similar airlines.
Please, I’m not a doctor, and I will never play one on television, not even at a government press conference. However, if I am given the option to choose between an airplane with half empty seats and one that is stinky, I will always choose the first one. It is not simply public relations. It’s that, in some strange container of the mind, I still believe that it will be marginally safer (and definitely more comfortable).
And right now, whether I have to fly to Austin or Shanghai, anything I can do to increase my safety margin in the slightest fraction, I will.
