During the last couple of weeks, we have been progressively faced with the requirement of in-room confinement at some destinations.
These restrictions were introduced by local authorities with the aim to reduce the risk of “importing” the virus into their countries and by no means take into account the nature of the business of the airlines, their location nor their internal protocols – should there be any – to protect their own staff from getting an infection.
There is no doubt that those do not only constitute a significant cutback of personal rights, but also can have a detrimental effect on pilot’s health. While at the beginning it could be assumed that these conditions would only be in place occasionally and time limited, with again increasing coronavirus cases worldwide, there is a real risk that we as pilots could be faced with these restrictions literally for an entire trip for many more months to come, as more authorities could introduce similar restrictions.
In the regular COVID-19 meetings with senior management these and other concerns have been brought up repeatedly since the onset of the pandemic, in order to ultimately find solutions to improve the current situation. Unfortunately, this involves authorities of different countries, who are the main stake holders and decision makers here.
Rest assured, that we as your representatives are not simply accepting the in-room confinement of our members.
Please click here to read the last letter concerning in-room confinement that was sent to the CEO on 17 August 2020. Previously sent letters and replies received regarding the same subject can be found here.
