Airline staff wear masks to serve public
A flight attendant with Juneyao Airlines wears a mask as she serves a passenger.
Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines has asked all its flight attendants and ground crew to wear masks when serving passengers as part of its efforts to curb the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The carrier has stopped providing blankets to passengers and has begun serving bottled water rather than drinks in the air to avoid cross infection, the airline announced.
About 300 airline staff serve nearly 20,000 passengers at Shanghai's Pudong and Hongqiao airports every day.
Staff had dealt with many passengers with a fever on flights related to Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province, Juneyao said. The provincial capital has reported 444 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) cases.
Sufficient masks, portable thermal detectors and disinfection materials have been stored to ensure smooth operations during the Spring Festival holiday, the carrier said.
Juneyao canceled its flights between Wuhan and Osaka in Japan and between Wuhan and Huizhou in south Guangdong Province on Thursday after Wuhan closed its airport and railway stations to outgoing passengers from 10am.
The airline is allowing free refunds or changes before March 29 for all frontline medical personnel as well as coronavirus infectors and suspects. Passengers who booked flights to or from Wuhan, Xiangyang, Yichang and Shiyan in Hubei Province can also apply for a free refund.
