Anonymous
Santa Barbara Airport (Photo by from )
Santa Barbara Airport and its airline partners are preparing for a new normal for those who travel by air. After a number of weeks of nearly empty skies nationwide, both airlines and major airports are reporting increasing demand for flights. Even at SBA, the number of travelers is slowly beginning to increase.
In preparation, SBA is launching its ‘Be a SBA Healthy Traveler’ initiative that includes a number of common sense expectations for those who travel, as well as anyone who visits the Airport to drop off or pick up a friend or family member.
These include:
- Wear a face covering in the terminal – a face covering will be required to enter the terminal and fly with any one of SBA’s airlines. All Airport visitors and airline employees also are required to wear a face covering. If you forget a face covering, the Airport and airlines will be providing disposable face masks beginning on May 15th
- Maintain a safe distance from others – look for helpful signs and decals in the terminal. Airlines also will follow new boarding procedures to increase distance. Follow all Airline employee directions.
- Travel with hand sanitizer to use on hands and hard surfaces – the TSA now allows 12 oz. containers onboard. Use it to disinfect your hands or anything you touch. If you don’t have hand sanitizer, it will be available at multiple locations in the Airport.
- And most importantly, do not travel if you have any symptoms of illness – all of SBA’s airlines waive booking fees if you need to delay your flight.
In addition, SBA is making a number of significant changes in the terminal to make a visit to the Airport as safer – or safer – than a visit to the grocery store. Some of the changes are:
- Nightly mist disinfectant cleaning in the terminal
- Increased disinfecting of high-touch surfaces such as escalator handrails and elevator buttons
- “Counter Guards” to shield interactions at ticketing and gate counters (anticipated in early June)
- Increased queuing area where available, stanchions to space travelers
- Increased seat spacing and/or seating removal in hold rooms
- Increased table seating space in restaurant, more grab n’ go food (anticipated early June)
These efforts by the Airport and cooperation by passengers and employees, in combination with the airlines’ new protocols make the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 or any illness very low. The Airport’s newsstand/gift shop is open for passengers’ convenience and can offer water, soft drinks and a variety of snacks for flights as in-flight food service may be limited onboard. The full-service restaurant remains temporarily closed.
Who would need 12 oz of hand sanitizer on board a flight? Even if you were flying from LAX to Australia, you wouldn’t go through that much.
Chip – just how are your civil liberties being violated? I hear this all the time and I’d really like it explained. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects five basic freedoms: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom to petition the government. How does a mask interfere with this?
For the mask, no not a violation. But the stay at home, the your business can open yours can not, you bet your @ss that’s a violation of our civil liberties.
Chip – How is it your civil liberty to endanger the rest of the us? If you don’t want to wear a mask, stay inside.
Films: Chips comment was pretty straightforward, so I don’t think anything he said is going to put you, or anyone else for that matter, in danger. If you are concerned, please stay as far away from everyone as possible, wear a mask inside your own home as you say (a bit overboard, but whatever), and don’t be going all over the place in public just because you “feel like it.” Bottom line is that Chips isn’t for less freedom….he’s for more freedom.
Chip! You’re going off the deep end here, fella. Where did you read these changes are “forever?” Take a breath. Oh, Pro Tip: You better not fly anywhere in the near future otherwise you might be denied boarding or worse if you behave as you claim you feel.
I never thought it would be a point of controversy in this country to suggest that people be allowed to choose how they dress themselves. What’s next? Will travel permits be required to venture out of your home? Will permits be required to buy goods and procure services? Rationing? Can the governor suspend the election? Is there any limit to the government’s power?
Anyone upset about losing “freedom” if you have to wear a mask at the airport, try going to the airport without pants.
I think everyone should be required to put on handcuffs before entering the secured portion of the airport terminal and for the duration of all flights. That would ensure the safety of all passengers and help reduce the risk of incidents during flights. If you are opposed to that, you are violating my right to travel safely. How am I wrong and why do you think you have a right to travel by air without being forced to wear handcuffs?
Chip, when was the last time you actually flew? When was the last time you were in an airport? I don’t think you fly much as you have no rights in an airport. Once you step onto the property you forgo your so-called “civil liberties”. Have for decades now. Mostly thanks to the Neo-Cons along with Bush and Cheney and the “Patriot Act”. You know the one that ripped the constitution into pieces and that the Senate is renewing as we speak? The bill where McConnell has slipped in the ability for any law enforcement agency to have access to yours and everyone else’s web browsing history without a warrant. Remember the post 9/11 days when the right was chanting “If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about?” pfffff – of course not….. This “movement” is simply more hypocrisy from the right. Guess what though: Your person, your possessions and your past are all out of your control when you step onto an airport, train depot, bus station, port and any number of other federally controlled locations. The Police said it a long time ago… Every breath you take, every word you make, they’ll (sic) be watching you… If you’re mad about losing your rights (white man rights that is) than you’re about 20 years too late.
TJ, I think he’s referencing the “original” constitution or something of the sorts. You know the one where white men are considered people while women and slaves considered a fraction of a person… You cant blame Chip though. He went to Fox U where he was taught constitutional law by professor Hannity and anger management by Tucker Carlson…
Right on, CHIP. Can we now be allowed to carry handguns now at the airport so we can protect ourselves, our loved ones, and others along with the masks and 12 ounces of hand sanitizers? Interesting that Delta, United, and American Airlines all came out yesterday saying they encourage masks on flights but will not enforce it. Where did the SBA authorities come up with this BS? And what about other passengers coming in from other airports that don’t have this order? Will they be accosted and handcuffed by the COVID Cops as they disembark into our cute little airport that’s obviously riddled with COVID cooties.
Chip, we are often required to wear shoes. You also can’t go many places with your butt uncovered. So now we have to cover our noses and mouths. And they didn’t say it will be forever.
CHIP – there is PLENTY limit to the government’s power. I’m surprised you ask, since you act like you “know” so much about the Constitution. Why do you think we aren’t doing what the did (effectively I might add) in South Korea? Tracking works, but our Constitutional rights are at odds with that to a degree. We’re losing friends and family members because our Constitutional rights are preventing the government from carrying out certain protocols being used in other countries. Stop your crying and be thankful we are protected!
The handcuffs analogy doesn’t work. We know there are people infected with coronavirus who have no symptoms but can spread the virus. We don’t know who they are, so we ask everyone to reduce their mouth spew for now, by wearing a mask. If a passenger starts beating up others on a flight he will be stopped. But if an asymptomatic person spreads the virus on a plane, no one knows until it is too late.
We love flying in & out of SBA and these new requirements sound solid. Thanks, SBA.
What is conspicuously missing from this and all similar “new normal” measures is an endpoint. It’s as if we are going to live this way forever. This is ridiculous! It is not appropriate to require people to wear muzzles in public. I will not accept this as a new normal that I must live with for the rest of my life and that I must teach my children to live with. It’s time to restore civil liberties and put measures in place to make sure that our civil liberties can never be violated like this again. Anyone who wants to shelter from the risk of the virus is welcome to do so, and I will gladly volunteer my time to help them do so. However, it is not fair to prevent the rest of us from living our lives.
Ah, well. Many of us were really enjoying the quiet skies.
It took them this long because it’s purely a symbolic gesture due to the mass hysteria the media and politicians caused. If a fart can get through my underwear, jeans and into your nose do you really think a flimsy mask is going to stop a virus? (and before anyone jumps on the media right wing talking point BS, the media is a for-profit businesses, the more eyes and clicks they get the more MONEY THEY MAKE. What gets more eyes, boring fact-based news about everyday events or OH MY GOD MILLIONS WILL DIE IT WILL BE THE DARKEST WINTER IN MODERN HISTORY because of Trump due to climate change.) bring on the thumbs down!