Aviation and the Ebola epidemic in West-Africa

[airazurxtror]

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/fl ... faqid=5072

British Airways has temporarily suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until 31 August 2014 due to the deteriorating public health situation in both countries.
The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the routes under constant review in the coming weeks.

http://www.emirates.com/be/english/abou ... dates.aspx

Emirates has suspended its services to Conakry until further notice, due to the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers, however the safety of our passengers and crew is of the highest priority and will not be compromised.

[regi]

Oh, but SN staff get a repatriation contract.
That makes is safe, doesn't it?

yeah right. You bleed out of every hole , but hurray hurray, you get repatriated on the expense of the insurance company.

[OO-ITR]

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/fl ... faqid=5072

British Airways has temporarily suspended flights to and from Liberia and Sierra Leone until 31 August 2014 due to the deteriorating public health situation in both countries.
The safety of our customers, crew and ground teams is always our top priority and we will keep the routes under constant review in the coming weeks.

http://www.emirates.com/be/english/abou ... dates.aspx

Emirates has suspended its services to Conakry until further notice, due to the outbreak of the Ebola virus in Guinea. We apologise for any inconvenience caused to our customers, however the safety of our passengers and crew is of the highest priority and will not be compromised.

I think you forgot a line in your reply where you, as usual, bash SN

[airazurxtror]

http://www.lesoir.be/618816/article/act ... ue-l-ouest
extract :


La compagnie aérienne Brussels Airlines a décidé, sous la pression de son personnel, de revoir son schéma de vol vers les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest touchés par le virus Ebola, dévoilait mercredi soir la VRT. Un nouveau schéma de vol sera adopté dès jeudi.
Le personnel n’a pas de problèmes à décoller et à atterrir dans les régions touchées, mais ne souhaite plus y passer de nuitée, ce qui était pourtant nécessaire dans le schéma de vol actuel, explique le délégué SETCa, Olivier Van Camp.
Le porte-parole de Brussels Airlines, Geert Sciot, estime qu’on ne peut pas véritablement parler de panique au sein du personnel.
Jusqu’à présent, le crew de la compagnie passait la nuitée sur place dans les environs de Monrovia (Liberia). Désormais, les nuitées seront passées dans un autre pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest « le Sénégal, la Gambie ou la Côte d’Ivoire », a détaillé M. Sciot. Une escale technique sera donc nécessaire.

Following the demand of the personnel, the crews of Brussels Airlines won't spend the night in Monrovia (Liberia) any more, but will sleep in another country - Senegal, Gambia or Ivory Coast.
According to the spokesman, one can't truly speak of a panic amongst the personnel.

[FlightMate]

Good news!

Still flying there, but at least, they won't have to sleep in a bed where who knows who had been sleeping before.

[BAAV]

I am not in the aviation business but the following question pops up when I read the above: why does SN opt for a technical stop, which means an extra stop for passengers to let crews stay in for example Gambia after their shift? Is the option of taking the crews back home temporarily on the return flight not an alternative or doesn't that fit in the overall local flight schedule or does it cost even more? can someone knowledgeable explain dynamics? thanks!

[shockcooling]

Hey BAAV, crew going to/coming from duty and flying as a passenger is called positioning, which also counts as duty time. In this case it would probably cost them a lot of duty time and the airline loses 10 rev seats.

[convair]

The alternative solution being to re-arrange their triangular flights so that each one terminates at an "acceptable" destination' e.g. replace BRU-FNA-ROB by BRU-FNA-DKR and BRU-ROB-DKR, both replacing BRU-DKR-BJL.
SN has enough weekly flights to the region to be able to do that relatively easily.

[airazurxtror]

La Côte d’Ivoire a décidé dimanche d’interdire à toutes les compagnies aériennes de voler vers ou depuis les aéroports des pays touchés par l’épidémie du virus Ebola, en l’occurrence la Guinée, le Liberia et la Sierra Leone.

La compagnie Air Côte d’Ivoire est bien sûr la première touchée par l’interdiction des vols. Mais le ministre des transports a précisé que cette mesure s’applique aussi « aux autres compagnies de transporter des passagers en provenance des pays touchés par la maladie à virus Ebola à destination de la Côte d’Ivoire ».

http://www.air-journal.fr/2014-08-12-eb ... 12378.html

Ivory Coast has decided last sunday to ban all flights by any airline between Abidjan and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

[sn26567]

SN Alert message:

We continue to serve Liberia with connections to the world via Brussels. Due to operational reasons, the timing of our flight service between Monrovia and Brussels Airport will however change.

Starting from the 15th of August, Brussels Airlines flights will operate according to the following schedule:

SN 1241 Brussels-Monrovia, Departure time: 12h15, Arrival Monrovia: 16h50 (local time; non-stop direct flight)

SN1241 Monrovia-Brussels, Departure time:17h55, Arrival Brussels: 06h20 (local times; via Freetown (departure: 20h15) and with a technical stop in Dakar)

We thank our customers, travel agents & partners for their understanding and regret any inconvenience caused.

This new timing is valid until further notice. Check-in at Roberts Airport closes, as usual, 90 minutes before the departure of the flight. However, in view of the additional health controls at the airport, we recommend our guests to presents themselves at check-in 2 to 3 hours before the flight departure.

To make your travels easier, please note the we offer our guests a city check-in facility at our sales office (Ecobank Plaza, Ashmun and Randall streets) where you can check-in your luggage; the city check-in is open on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 09h00 until 12h00

[RoMax]

After Kenya Airways announced it will stop flying to Sierra Leone and Liberia, IATA followed the WHO to ask airlines to stop the isolation of Ebola-hit countries.

The industry needs only to screen passengers at airports in infected areas, apply rigorous procedures including isolation when handling suspected cases, and fully disinfect planes afterwards, IATA, said, citing World Health Organization advice that aviation constitutes a “row risk” for Ebola transmission.

“They have been very clear that travel and trade bans are unnecessary,” Raphael Kuuchi, IATA’s vice president for Africa, told the body’s Africa Aviation Day conference in Johannesburg. “Unless this advice changes we hope that countries working hard to eradicate Ebola continue to benefit from air connectivity.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-1 ... tions.html

Air France (serving Sierra Leone and Guinea) and Brussels Airlines (serving all three: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, as the only non-African airline) are getting more and more important to avoid these countries to get isolated by air making it even more difficult for health workers and relief supplies to enter these countries.

[airazurxtror]

Air France (serving Sierra Leone and Guinea) and Brussels Airlines (serving all three: Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, as the only non-African airline) are getting more and more important to avoid these countries to get isolated by air making it even more difficult for health workers and relief supplies to enter these countries.

The only way to stop that epidemic is isolation - as Ebola is most easily transmissible and there is no known cure (see eg the interview of Pr Nathan Clumeck in "Le Soir" this morning).
If Air France and Brussels Airlines bring the virus in Europe, they'll have to answer for it. Especially if a member of their crews is contaminated.

http://www.frontpageafricaonline.com/in ... en-liberia
Extract :
Delta Airline’s final flight slated for August 31 would now leave SN Brussels and Royal Air Maroc as the only two airlines with service in Liberia. SN Brussels flies an Airbus A333 Brussels-Monrovia 4 times a week with connections to other European cities, the USA and Asia via the Star Alliance network.
Royal Air Maroc flies Casablanca-Monrovia 3 times a week. Connections are then available from Casablanca to a number of other locations.
Both RAM and Brussels appear unlikely to abandon Liberia in the wake of the Ebola crisis, but airfares are likely to heighten as demand intensifies.

[Flanker2]

It's very irresponsible of AF and SN to continue operating under these circumstances.
The affected countries should be isolated until the virus is contained and then removed.

Also all European airports should quarantine and test anyone trying to enter with a stamp on their passport from any of the affected countries, to avoid that people take long routes to slip under the radar.

Relief work can be carried out using chartered airlift (and SN and AF should cooperate with them on that basis, with an Ebola test kit waiting on arrival back in Europe and quarantine until results are known).
Why do those humanitarian organisations have to always do it the cheapest way?

One infected person can infect hundreds of people in a single day. Once the incubation period is over, those hundreds of people will in turn infect thousands of people.
In Africa, human contact is fairly limited. In high density cities like Brussels or Paris where there is public transportation and human contact, such an epidemic can propagate very very fast.

It's going to be great publicity when one of these airlines becomes the facilitator of an epidemic that could cost hundreds of peoples their lives. If they continue like this, it's going to happen, sooner or later.

What the f*ck is wrong with IATA, ICAO and these airlines?

What the f*ck is wrong with the crews who accept to fly those routes?
This isn't some kind of influenza. Is that peanut salary really worth dying for? It's so stupid.
I don't have any respect for selfish people who can only see as far as their hands can reach.

[Passenger]

In Africa, human contact is fairly limited. In high density cities like Brussels or Paris where there is public transportation and human contact, such an epidemic can propagate very very fast.

I've been in Africa about a zillion times, and I can assure you that "public transportation and human contact" there is about ten zillion times more intensive and more frequent then in an average European city.

But then, your so called knowledge about Africa only needs to support the following statement, isn't it?

It's very irresponsible of AF and SN to continue operating under these circumstances.

By the way, did you know that Brussels Airlines double checks the body temperature from each passenger, boarding in a risk area nowadays?

[Flanker2]

By the way, did you know that Brussels Airlines double checks the body temperature from each passenger, boarding in a risk area nowadays?

Is that enough in your opinion to stop the spread into Brussels, the rest of Belgium and Europe?

After all, SN can't control when the passenger becomes symptomatic. It can be before boarding in which case the fever sensor might pick it up (go figure with the hot local temperatures), it can be hours later in the flight, it can be during a connection in BRU, it can be 10 days later on the metro in Brussels.

I do business a bit everywhere and when a gentleman from Abidjan gave me his business card after coughing his lungs out and talking very close to me a few months ago, I didn't feel very comfortable I can tell you. I spent half an hour scrubbing my hands and washing my mouth in the bathroom
Perhaps you need to experience that first hand to feel that level of discomfort, it's just not worth it.

The WHO are being ridiculous with their appeal to keep the borders open and airlines flying. When a very contagious and deadly disease is spreading, the first thing you do is containment.
You don't kill millions in an attempt to save thousands.
The disease has spread into Nigeria through air travel. An Ebola-infected person from Liberia collapsed at LOS.

I hope that the cash-hunger of these airlines isn't going to lead to an outbreak in Europe. They are both already on my personal blacklist and I'm not even sure I still want to travel through BRU or CDG at all.
The aircraft are regularily shuffled between different routes.
All those seats, seatback pockets, trays and armrests become infected with sweat and saliva. Virusses can survive several hours outside of their host.

The virus is spreading in rural area's of Africa close to relatively small cities with limited public transportation. Hence, their impact is still of small scale.
I don't want to imagine the scale it can take if symptomatic victims start walking around in Paris or London.
Even talking face to face mostly results in exchange of saliva, so...

[RoMax]

OMG Flanker, you don't know that much about Ebola, do you?! With some basic (thoug essential) measures, the chances of infected people boarding an aircraft and leaving it without someone noticing he might be ill is EXTREMELY small, if you say it isn't, you don't know anything about Ebola. And even when someone who is infected leaves the aircraft and enters e.g. Belgium, the chances that he will infect other people is very small and certainly not hundreds of people in one day. Not even an extremely contagious disease will do that and Ebola might be very deadly, it's not that contagious as many here seem to think. The reason Ebola succeeds in spreading in Africa is because of the way they live overthere. If you say body contact in Africa is "fairly limited", especially compared to cities like Brussels or Paris, you seriously don't know anything about Africa.

The WHO are being ridiculous with their appeal to keep the borders open and airlines flying. When a very contagious and deadly disease is spreading, the first thing you do is containment.
You don't kill millions in an attempt to save thousands.
The disease has spread into Nigeria through air travel. An Ebola-infected person from Liberia collapsed at LOS.

Someone who collapses from Ebola is sick for some time, fever is one of the first and most important symptoms and can already be detected in an early stage when the chances of infecting other people is extremely small. When the airline or airport did a very simple monitoring of the temperature of the departing passengers, that person would have never reached Nigeria. Besides, the spreading in Nigeria has many more sources of contamination and air transport is certainly not the most important one.

And once again, Ebola is not 'very contagious' when you take some basic measurements into account. But even these most basic things are a problem in Africa, that's why they experience an epidemic. An Ebola epidemic in Europe, even with some infected people getting in, is extremely extremely small.

Ebola might be a deadly disease, it would never get the chance to spread like this in/via Europe, North America, Australia etc. We are not talking about bird ful or SARS here (in which case air transport is a major threat).

[airazurxtror]

One wonders why all airlines other than Brussels Airlines and RAM (but including British Airways), have ceased flying to Liberia.

[b-west]

One wonders why all airlines other than Brussels Airlines and RAM (but including British Airways), have ceased flying to Liberia.

Precaution, public pressure, not enough passengers anymore? Probably a combination of multiple reasons.

[RoMax]

One wonders why all airlines other than Brussels Airlines and RAM (but including British Airways), have ceased flying to Liberia.

BA is relative small player and in their case it's very simple, financially not viable anymore to operate these routes. The same for Emirates. In case of all those African airlines, because they are following the advise of (or sometimes forced by) their local governments. Also they often lack the resources to take the suitable measures against the spreading of the disease and their governments are afraid as hell (with a good reason, because as I said in Africa it's relative easy for Ebola to spread because of the way of living and the mentality overthere). In addition, they mainly serve the local African population which is much more afraid to travel, contrary to SN and AF which is mainly serving international health workers who know travelling by air is probably one of the safest ways (and certainly the fastest) to reach their destination.

AF and SN have the biggest (intercontinental) market share in these markets and have good relations with the WHO and worldwide health organisations because of their big presence in 'black Africa'. This made it easier for them to continue flying to these countries even with decreasing demand (which is currently rising again of course, because everyone else stops flying). AF and SN also both have experience in serving Ebola-hit nations in the past decades and due to close relations with Western institutions they have access to knowledge that most African companies lack (in case of SN, they are in constant contact with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, that's one of the world's leading institutes in training and research regarding tropical diseases).

[RoMax]

Peter Piot, who discovered Ebola, also commented that you have to get in really close contact with an infected person to get infected yourself, just taking a bus is not enough. Simple hygienic measures are enough to avoid spreading the disease. He also said that fear for Ebola and lack of confidence in the local governments is as dangerous as the disease itself. Even now, the disease is not known well enough and/or people are hiding sick people because they are afraid of the government and health system.

He and other virologists also say that the spreading on an aircraft is extremely small because there is basicly no direct contact which is severe enough to infect another person. Besides that the disease is so obvious (when you know how to detect it) that the chance of an infected person getting on board is very small. And even when someone enters Belgium or another European country, the chances of secondary infections are even smaller because of the well developed quarantine techniques overhere (and once again, the disease is so obvious that it's even easy for airline staff to detect possible cases with e.g. temperature checks.