With the easing of border restrictions across the world, and as countries begin to re-open for international travel, Chapman Freeborn is seeing a sharp increase in demand for passenger aircraft charters.
Along with this demand, we’re also receiving a growing number of requests relating to the various safety precautions that we’ve put in place to limit the risk of COVID-19 transmission during air travel.
The health and wellbeing of our passengers has always been the most important factor for us – this has been true since we started chartering aircraft in 1973. COVID-19 has forced us all as an industry to increase our diligence even further and to employ a host of additional measures to ensure the safety of everyone involved.
The most common request that we see relates to air quality during flight. The reality is, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the air on board passenger aircraft is extremely clean. The environment on board modern airliners is carefully regulated to control temperature, humidity and cabin pressure. Often people assume that the air on board an aircraft is ‘sealed in’ when, in reality, the air is fed from the outside and completely refreshed every few minutes. When you breathe on board a modern aircraft, roughly 50% of that is recirculated, filtered air (often having passed through on board HEPA filters as part of this process) and 50% ‘fresh air’ fed via the engine compressors before being cooled via ducting in the wings. The resulting mixture is clean, breathable air, free from contaminants, impurities and the majority of airborne bacteria. In fact, the filters are so effective that the air is really only refreshed to control the temperature and humidity.
However, air travel does raise valid concerns relating to COVID-19 such as shared surfaces and social distancing. Fortunately, if you choose charter as opposed to scheduled services, we can completely limit these concerns – from social distancing on board the aircraft and at the terminal, to full crew and passenger testing.
We have created a simple infographic (shown below) which details some of the measures we’ve taken since the pandemic began.
(Click on image to enlarge)
Despite the global lockdown, Chapman Freeborn has been operating vital repatriation and evacuation flights for the past six months. This experience, coupled with our global network and group companies, has allowed us to refine our charter service in line with COVID-19 precautions.
We don’t sell a “COVID-19 charter product”. This is what we offer as standard.
For more information on how we can help you with group travel requirements, contact our 24/7 broker team via [email protected]
