Fever checks may become new pre-boarding norm
Most airlines want TSA, CDC to do screenings
Air travelers are likely to see yet another change when they start flying again: a pre-boarding temperature check.
Such screenings could become standard as a tool to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, along with face masks, hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
And no, it won’t be like visiting a doctor who sticks a thermometer in your mouth. Instead, the screener likely won’t touch you at all, using either a thermal camera or a infrared thermometer held a few inches from your forehead.
The airlines are in favor of temperature checks. At least two North American carriers (Frontier and Air Canada) and one airport (Paine Field in Washington State) have already taken the initiative. However, most want the federal government – specifically, the Transportation Security Administration or U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – to be responsible for carrying them out.
“We’re urging the TSA to begin temperature scans as part of the screening process at the checkpoints,” Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest domestic carrier, told
CBS News. He believes that is the most logical place to check temperatures because all passengers must pass through that area.
In an interview with CNBC, he added: “We’ll need to work with the federal government in terms of screening customers to make sure, for example, that you don’t have someone getting on the airplane that has a fever. I think that that’s going to be very important.”
The trade organization for U.S. and Canadian airports wants the federal government to conduct the screenings.
On Tuesday, the Airports Council International-North America said any health screening should be “performed by federal government officials, and minimize the impact on airport operations.”
The Airports Council also asked the federal government to adopt guidelines for passengers to wear face coverings in airports. (Right now, the decision on whether to require masks is up to the individual carriers, although once the first did, others followed suit almost immediately.)
Neither the TSA nor the CDC has indicated any plans to take on that responsibility or when it might start. Even if they do, there is debate about whether checking for fevers has much effect on keeping sick people from boarding planes or from entering the country. Temperature scans done on travelers entering the country from China and Europe seemingly did little to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Last week, after learning the White House was weighing re-implementing temperature checks at U.S. airports, the CDC’s director of global mitigation and quarantine urged TSA’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, to reconsider the idea, saying it was ineffective the first time it was tried before the travel bans on China and Europe.
Accordingly, Cetron asked that the CDC not be assigned temperature screening duty again.
In a report released Monday, the CDC concluded that the screenings were not effective because people can have the coronavirus and show no symptoms. Furthermore, a study published in the journal Nature also found that carriers may be most contagious a day or two before becoming symptomatic.
Regardless of who ends up holding the thermometer, it seems that temperature checks will become a routine part of checking in for a flight.
In some cases, it already is. Air Canada will require temperature checks starting Friday. On June 1,Frontier Airlines will become the first U.S. carrier to require them. Anyone who registers a temperature of 100.4 degrees or above two times on the same day will not be allowed to board, including passengers and employees.
“Temperature screenings add an additional layer of protection for everyone onboard,” Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle said in a statement.