A set of strict health protocols has been implemented at airports and on Brazilian planes so that people can travel safely. The rules were debated for five weeks by groups of doctors and health technicians from Brazil and abroad and ratified by the national agencies of Sanitary Surveillance (Anvisa) and Civil Aviation (Anac). The information was provided by the president of the Brazilian Association of Airline Companies (Abear), Eduardo Sanovicz.
The discussion also included the participation of the president of the Brazilian Association of the Industry of Hotels in São Paulo (ABIH-SP), Ricardo Roman Júnior, the president of the São Paulo Convention & Visitors Bureau (SPCVB), Toni Sando, and the publisher of Tourism from A Tribuna, Carla Zomignani. The mediation was carried out by the chief editor of A Tribuna, Arminda Augusto.
According to Sanovicz, the orientation is that only people who are going to travel are staying at airports, avoiding family and friends to say goodbye, and always wearing masks. Passenger temperature measurements are being made at the locations, distance in rows, and rugs with products for cleaning shoes.
“Leaving an empty row inside the plane doesn’t make any sense. Safety onboard is the Hepa filter (purifies the air and retains particles). It filters the air onboard every three minutes. It is stronger than in an operating room. The onboard service is suspended on short routes, and the hygiene of the aircraft is radical”, explains the president of Abear.
Crisis and recovery
Sanovicz points out that aviation was one of the sectors most impacted by the pandemic in the world. In Brazil, the service fell by 93%. There were approximately 2,700 daily flights, a number that dropped to 180 after the spread of the coronavirus. With the slow recovery, he expects July to close with 670 flights a day. By the end of the year, it foresees 50 to 60% of the operating capacity.
On the experience of other countries, of creating a flight corridor between destinations where the epidemic is more controlled, he considers it unfeasible in Brazil. “It has no applicability at all. We are experiencing a terrible process of management and control (of the pandemic). We have dozens of Brazils; there is no centralizing pole that commands a policy to combat the crisis”.
Hotels & Events
Ricardo Roman Júnior, who is from Guarujá, criticizes the mayors of the region for preventing the hotels from functioning and suggests an immediate reopening because he believes in the security offered in the establishments. “We have 35 thousand beds in the region; the hotel industry has 30 thousand direct jobs and 100 to 150 thousand indirect jobs. The governor did not close the hotels; there is a security protocol”.
For the president of ABIH-SP, there is no point in closing hotels and tourist places, such as the beach, if the inspection is not the same in all neighborhoods in the cities. “We need to resolve it urgently; the sector is no longer holding up. The economy respects science, but we will collapse”.
For Toni Sando, everything will pass, but the question is how long and how many companies will be able to survive. “For this reason, the participation of businessmen and entities is increasingly important, leading claims to governments. Tourism is comprehensive, each with its characteristics, hotels, airlines, etc. But it is necessary to make the Government understand how important the sector is in the economy”, details President SPCVB).
