By George Stone, TRAVEL Executive Editor, Tuesday, August 18, 2020
PHOTOGRAPH BY PRABIN RANABHAT, SOPA IMAGES/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY IMAGES
Robot cleaners. Nano needles. Facial recognition. Your future flights just got more futuristic. As air travel adapts to make flying safer in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (above), planes and airports are deploying new technology on the ground and in the air. What might this mean for you?
Medical screenings, most likely. Take your pick: Walk-through thermal-screening cameras (which operate by detecting heat emanating from a person’s body); gateways that measure temperature, blood-oxygen levels, heart rate, and respiration rates; negative pressure pods that disinfect passengers upon arrival (via “nano needles,” photocatalyst technology, and a sanitizing spray). One way or another, you will be detected!
“A tech revolution in the aviation industry was already in motion before the pandemic. But the medical and material demands of COVID-19 have brought urgency and velocity to the race to make passenger air travel safer,” reports Jackie Snow. She covers such topics as disinfecting robots that clean airports with ultraviolet C light (pictured below in Pittsburgh’s airport); touchless tech to speed up the boarding process; and the futuristic flair of new PPE uniforms for flight attendants.
PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF SWENSEN, GETTY IMAGES
The goal remains to protect both passengers and flight attendants, who are at heightened risk for COVID-19 exposure on the job. New safety measures should not add time to your journey and your pre-flight safety videos will probably not feature cameos by Dr. Fauci. But there is concern that new protocols could be making airplane passengers more unruly. Flights have returned to the gate because passengers refused to wear masks.
“Technologies can indeed make us safer,” says Kacey Ernst, an epidemiologist and a professor at the University of Arizona. “But if our behaviors become riskier in response, it could cancel out the benefit of the technology.”
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