The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA-CWA) is urging airlines in the United States to implement pre-flight screening of passengers for hantavirus in response to a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight attendant's recent exposure. The attendant came in close contact with an infected 69-year-old female passenger from Ocean Expedition’s MV Hondius cruise ship.

The Dutch cruise guest had departed the vessel in St. Helena after her husband's death and boarded the KLM flight in Johannesburg, heading for Amsterdam. However, she was removed before takeoff for appearing visibly ill. The woman later passed away in a Johannesburg hospital.

Though the KLM flight attendant later tested negative for hantavirus, the AFA is still requesting that U.S. airlines ask all passengers if they have risk factors for contamination or are showing any symptoms of infection. The union group is also asking airlines to offer penalty-free rebooking options for passengers with significant risk factors.

The AFA-CWA is demanding that airlines operating in the U.S. pre-screen passengers for hantavirus risk factors and symptoms in response to the recent outbreak aboard the MV Hondius. The AFA-CWA is the largest union in the U.S. for flight attendants and represents workers from American Airlines, United Airlines, Frontier Airlines, and dozens of others.

Specifically, the union urges airlines to send pre-flight emails to all passengers, requesting that they avoid travel if they have any hantavirus risk factors, including having had contact with someone infected with or showing symptoms of hantavirus. The group also wants gate agents to question all passengers regarding symptoms or risk factors prior to boarding.

"Prior to travel, airlines should notify passengers that if they have had contact with either rodents or symptomatic people within the past 45 days, they must not fly but can rebook their travel for a later date without penalty," the AFA-CWA wrote in a statement.

An issue for airlines is that the union is asking passengers to rebook their travel without penalty. Airlines, already notorious for offering strict contracts of carriage that often don't offer cancellation or rebooking options, may be unlikely to extend this option when they're already dealing with the financial pressures of the Iran-war-related surge in jet fuel prices.

However, some of AFACWA's other recommendations, like the one urging airlines to provide N95 masks to staff and symptomatic passengers, may be easier for carriers to accommodate.

Hantavirus screening may become a point of contention between airlines and the union in a potential strike. While there is no strike currently among U.S. flight attendants, employees from several carriers have recently been vocally involved in labor disputes and have arranged strike authorization voting.

Flight attendants from Horizon Air were seen picketing at Sea-Tac International Airport as recently as last week. All of this hypervigilance among flight attendants and their unions is logical, given the KLM stewardess's hantavirus scare this past week.

Source: The Travel