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American Airlines pilots want all passengers to wear masks


American Airlines pilots want strict laws that they say will protect crew and passengers as the COVID-19 outbreak persists.

The Allied Pilots Association, the union that represents American Airlines Group Inc. (Nasdaq: AAL) pilots, said it's collaborating with other unions, such as the Association of Professional Flight Attendants which represents American's flight attendants, to lobby Congress to take legislative action.

The APA wants mandatory personal protection equipment and priority testing for crew members, as well as a mandate that all passengers wear face masks when traveling. The APA also wants mandatory deep cleaning of aircraft and airports included, among other things.

"Your APA Government Affairs Committee is aggressively pursuing these initiatives on your behalf in Washington, D.C.," the union said in a note to members this week.

Even though passenger volume is down 95 percent at TSA checkpoints year over year, airlines are still flying hundreds of flights a day with load factors in the teens and below.

Airlines are deemed an essential business, and a condition of carriers receiving payroll grants from the U.S. government is they continue to serve all destinations they usually serve. American, like other carriers, is applying for some exemptions to that rule.

American spokesperson Matt Miller said the airline is following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, and purchasing masks for all frontline employees who want to wear them. American is currently in the process of distributing the masks and is encouraging employees to bring their own, too, Miller said.

"Many of American's team members have transformed our temporarily closed Admirals Club lounges into sewing groups to create masks for colleagues," Miller said.

An APA spokesperson said even though American is supplying masks, the union thinks it should be an industry-wide practice that's based in law.

Philippine Airlines Incorporates PPE Into New Cabin Crew Uniform Philippine Airlines has rolled out a new cabin crew uniform this week. It is a PPE gown accessorized with disposable latex gloves, and a face shield like your dentist might wear. The new-look is part of the airline's re-energized health and safety procedures and has been a more frequent occurrence on repatriation flights over the past fortnight. This isn't common PPE gear, it's couture New Zealand's NewsHub reported on the cabin crew's new PPE kit after Philippine Airlines operated a repatriation flight from Manila to Auckland. The uniform isn't just your basic off the shelf PPE gear most people wear; it's couture. Apparently. "The detail is a subtle branding for PAL. We didn't have time to print or embroider the logo, so we came up with the idea of mimicking or reworking the 'flag' logo of PAL," said Filipino couturier Edwin Tan who is behind the new outfits. Wow - Philippine Airlines launch 'The New Normal' uniforms for cabin crew, who will now wear custom-designed PPE amid #COVID19 pandemic "We used a non-porous material for the PPEs. A material with substantial weight to give it a better fall than generic PPEs, with our branding" News Hub reckons the Auckland flight earlier this week was the debut of these new uniforms. We're not entirely sure about that. That's because they popped up on Twitter on 17 April in the vicinity of Doha. Furthermore, there are reports the look was also sported on a repatriation flight to Canada last week. Uniform is a work in progress And while some media outlets are saying passengers will be stuck with cabin crew getting around in this for some time, that may not be the case. Cielo Villaluna, Philippine Airlines head of corporate communications, has said that these new uniforms are a work in progress. Philippine Airlines is still finalizing "the look." The airline had come under criticism on previous repatriation flights with crew wearing a wide assortment of PPE clothing. Edwin Tan's line of PPE clothing is an attempt by Philippine Airlines to create a uniform look. Edwin Tan admits this was a short notice gig. He says the bodysuit is based on an operating theatre gown. It is a smock with ties around the waist, long sleeves, gartered cuffs, and a high neckline. The idea, of course, is to minimize infection risk. A theatre gown with "subtle branding" But the designer acknowledged there were differences between an airplane cabin and a hospital theatre. Unlike hospital theatres, the risk of infection in aircraft cabins has thus far been quite low. Further, on long flights, the crew may be in their uniforms for a longer time and moving around more than theatre staff. This results in the new Philippine Airlines PPE uniforms being roomier and allowing for more movement than traditional theatre gowns. Philippine Airlines cabin crew wear full PPE - suit/mask/face shield/gloves - as part of the airlines health and safety measures, plus social distancing for passengers onboard To the untrained eye, the primary thing that distinguishes these PPE outfits from any other PPE outfits is the stripes of the Philippine flag on the right shoulder. Mr Tan calls it subtle branding. The airline has been pointing out that these uniforms will only be worn on Philippine Airlines' repatriation flights. Given that the airline has canceled all of its international and domestic services, repatriation flights are the only flights that Philippine Airlines is operating. This morning, Friday, 24 April, the airline is flying a planeload of British nationals home on behalf of the British Government. That long flight will give passengers the chance to appreciate Mr Tan's latest creations of crisis couture.

Hawaiian Airlines brings in 1.6 million face masks A Hawaiian Airlines passenger plane, whose 3,920-cubic-foot belly was filled with protective masks for Hawaii's people, has landed. The plane arrived in Honolulu on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. A Hawaiian Airlines passenger plane whose 3,920-cubic-foot belly was filled with protective masks for Hawaii's people has landed. Credit goes to the vision of a young man and the nonprofit he co-founded, the help and generosity of nearly 100 partner organizations, and the airline. The Airbus 330 arrived Tuesday afternoon at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport with 1.6 million masks - the bulk of the 2 million ordered by the nonprofit Every1ne Hawaii. Not a single mask will be sold. Instead they will be distributed across the state free to vulnerable groups, including the homeless, the jobless and low-income families with kids, said Every1ne co-founder Robert Kurisu. Partner groups, which already work with communities on Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Hawaii island and Kauai, will distribute them starting Saturday in Maili. The Waianae Coast Comprehensive Center, which is engaged in food distribution, will have 50,000 masks to give out, Kurisu said. The 2 million-mask mission wasn't always Every­1ne's mission. Kurisu said the nonprofit, made up of 25 or so millennial friends, initially formed to get their peers to vote in the presidential election, but then the coronavirus pandemic struck. "We pivoted to help out our community," he said. The goal became getting personal protective equipment for Hawaii's health care professionals. But when the nonprofit's members learned that was outside the realm of possibility since they were competing with states and local governments, they switched gears again. Darragh O'Carroll, an emergency room physician who attended Punahou School with many in the group, was their point person. "There are so many asymptomatic carriers, so masks are definitely needed," he said, adding that initially he didn't recommend them for the general public. The group members learned they could obtain nonmedical-grade, 12-hour disposable masks for the general public to use at a greatly reduced cost if they bought in bulk. "We had to order masks by the million," said Kurisu, adding that they soon learned that they had to jump through a number of hoops. Kurisu had turned to Danny Kim of Koha Foods, which imports food and other products from Asia, for help. In mid-March "we pulled the trigger as early as we could," Kurisu said. Kim encountered obstacles he never had before in all the importing he has done from China. "My agent was dealing in this category, but I just never bought this stuff before," he said. Getting the best price "depends on how many points of contact you have," so going straight to the manufacturer was ideal. They found a manufacturer in Shenzhen, "the Silicon Valley of China," but negotiating with the manufacturer, trying to get it here as soon as possible and wiring money to people they don't know well were some challenges, Kim said. But it was not typical to have to provide letters from the state of Hawaii, from the U.S. Embassy in Guangzhou, which Kim had to talk to in order to get approval, and "Chinese customs in order for them to release the product because it was such a large quantity," Kim said. He said if it hadn't been for Hawaiian Airlines and its cargo people like Brad Matheny, it could have taken much longer. They began talks with the airline because the group didn't want to ship by boat, which would mean the masks wouldn't arrive until May 1 or 2. The group paid for operational costs, including fuel and landing fees, but the rest, including the crew and the plane, was on Hawaiian. The money came from family foundations, corporations and others. Kurisu declined to say how much they paid for the masks or the airline costs. Hawaiian President and CEO Peter Ingram said, "We flew this flight specifically to pick up this cargo to support Every1ne." It required a rest stop in South Korea, then to Shenzhen, then back to South Korea before a flight home. The passenger plane's cargo hold was filled to capacity with 1.6 million masks in 800 cases, weighing 19,800 pounds - light for a plane that often carries 50,000 pounds of cargo from the West Coast. Another 400,000 will be sent by a third-party carrier in two weeks. Southwest CEO: Airline will be 'drastically smaller' if business doesn't improve soon Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, like his counterparts at other companies pummeled by the coronavirus crisis, has been fielding questions about the impact from anxious employees for nearly two months. The questions, which Kelly answers in videos sent to its 60,000 workers, have taken a sobering turn at perennially profitable and always upbeat Southwest, underscoring the industry's uncertain future. "Most of my co-workers are not processing the dark and dangerous reality,'' one employee said in an email, according to excerpts Kelly shared in this week's "Ask Gary'' video. "Our messages of strength have created a false sense of security. My co-workers talk about the losses at JetBlue and Delta yet somehow don't apply those numbers to Southwest.'' The email goes on, Kelly said, but the worker's question was essentially this: "Just how bad are things" at Southwest? Kelly didn't get into financial specifics since Southwest won't report first quarter earnings and its second quarter outlook until April 28, but he did detail the industry's dire straits and the drastic steps Southwest will have to take if things don't improve soon. He braced employees for the possibility of benefit and pay cuts and the first involuntary furloughs in the company's 50-year history but said the airline is doing everything it can to avoid that, raising billions of dollars in cash, slashing flights by more than half and parking hundreds of planes. "Obviously, this can't go on forever,'' he said. "We can't raise that much cash (again.)'' Bottom line: Southwest and other airlines need people to start flying again as soon as possible to avoid a deeper, more painful round of cost cutting. That prospect is uncertain given stay-at-home orders still in place around the country. "If things don't improve dramatically over the May, June, July time period, we'll have to prepare ourselves for a drastically smaller airline,'' he said. "I am not predicting that. I am not predicting that. But life can be very humbling.'' "I have great faith that this too shall pass,'' Kelly added. "I just don't know when.'' Kelly said the first cuts Southwest will make, if necessary and in conjunction with its many unions, will be benefit and pay cuts. He said he favors pay cuts for all employees as a first step to avoid the need for involuntary furloughs. Airline bailout by the numbers: Air travel recovery 'could take 4 or 5 years' Here's what else Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told employees about the coronavirus impact At 13 1/2 minutes, it was Kelly's longest video since the outbreak began, with most significantly shorter. He was at turns candid CEO, calming Dad and preacher. On Southwest's future: So what's going to happen to us? The honest answer is I don't know. No one knows. That's the only honest answer anyone can provide. We've never experienced anything like this in our lifetimes.'' ' So what is Southwest going to do? "Do we give up? Well, of course not. We fight. ... And we fight like we've never fought before. We fight to defeat this virus. And we fight for our customers, every single one. They're precious and we need them. And don't ever be rude.'' On the economic carnage all around: "Many companies will not survive this and it may be through no fault of their own. A lot of jobs will be destroyed. Institutions will be lost that took years or decades to build. ... But Southwest is too precious to lose. All of us, we are the stewards and the protectors of what's been built over 50 years and must guard this treasure that has been entrusted to us with all our might.''