Gov't says stakeholders consulted before decision to scrap social distancing on flights

CORONAVIRUS | The government is insisting stakeholder discussions were held prior to the decision to scrap social distancing measures to be carried out by airlines during the recovery movement control period (MCO).

According to Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong (photo), the stakeholders comprised airport operators, airlines, the Immigration Department, and Royal Malaysian Customs.

“In response to feedback by certain parties against the government’s decision to relax social distancing rules on all scheduled and unscheduled passenger flights, the Transport Ministry wishes to reassure that the decision was not made unilaterally.

“Consultations with stakeholders, both from the private and public sectors on the matter, had taken the safety and health of passengers and crew as paramount considerations prior to the decision,” Wee said in a Facebook posting late last night.

He reiterated his statement last Thursday that the decision was guided by recommendations by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Health Ministry, which were “based on scientific evidence and a robust fact-based risk assessment”.

That followed the announcement by minister in charge of the security cluster Ismail Sabri Yaakob on the same day, that all public transport modes will now be allowed to operate at full capacity, including flights, during this period.

The minister’s posting came following criticism by The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (Nufam) which cited alarm after it claimed it was not consulted on the matter.

It said the new directive placed flight crew at risk.

In a statement sent earlier today, Union Network International-Malaysia Labour Centre (UNI-MLC) echoed Nufam’s concerns and called on Wee’s ministry to review the directive.

However, Wee said a set of standard operating procedures (SOP) were drawn up during discussions with the stakeholders.

This was agreed to by his ministry, the National Security Council (NSC), the Health Ministry and the International Trade and Industry Ministry on June 7.

The SOP includes:

1. Mandatory use of facemasks on passenger aircraft;

2. Body temperature checks and symptoms screening with thermal scanners or handheld scanners prior to boarding;

3. Contact tracing through passenger manifests;

4. Using hand sanitisers;

5. Health Ministry’s infection prevention and hygiene awareness guidelines to be fully communicated to airlines’ ground and cabin crew;

6. Aircraft cabins to be fully sanitised after each flight;

7. Avoiding contact during inflight services such as meal handling;

Wee also previously posted that he had met with the representatives of Malaysia’s major airline companies to discuss the revival of the country’s aviation industry.

These included Malaysia Airlines CEO Izham Ismail, AirAsia Malaysia CEO Riad Asmat and Malindo Air CEO Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri.

Malaysia was placed under a near lockdown with the MCO beginning on March 18 in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.

However, as the number of infection began to decline, the government began to gradually ease regulations and lift restrictions as the country shifted to the conditional MCO and now, recovery MCO.

While Malaysia has yet to open its borders to international travels, domestic flights have slowly begun to resume as domestic travel is permitted and the ban on interstate travel is lifted.

The recovery MCO is slated to end on Aug 31. - Mkini