Sometime last week a shipment of 500,000 face masks were on their way to Delta Air Line's command center. However, not all of the face masks made it to Delta because a portion of them were stolen off of the supplier's truck. It's a strange sign of the times as the coronavirus pandemic situation continues to unfold around the world. One result is the public's growing panic to secure sufficient supplies of hand sanitizer, face masks, and toilet paper.

Medical supplies becoming scarce

According to the Washington Post, the news came from Delta supply chain manager Scott Boyd, who was informed by the vendor. “By the end of the week, Minneapolis will have more masks in their warehouse,” he reassured his colleagues during an operational meeting. “The truck was broken into, but they assured me 250,000 are still coming.”

Moving on to the topic of hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes, Boyd said “We’re trying to buy as much as we can, and I know the domestic needs are going to continue [to] ramp up, but if you can do anything to help us to forecast our needs on these, please forward that to me,”.

With regards to the remaining flights that Delta is still able to operate, staff in charge of in-flight services have decided to "pull blankets and pillows from all domestic flights". During the meeting, an executive explained that this was being done to ensure cleaning staff are focused on treating surfaces that customers are directly in contact with.

Changes to inflight service

Airlines have been adapting their inflight service to the reality of this viral outbreak. Earlier on in the situation, we saw many airlines suspend their hot meal service. Some airlines also suspended their hot towel service and exclusively used disposable cups.

Back in January, Cathay Pacific staff had requested permission to wear face masks while undertaking their roles on long-haul flights. After some deliberation, the airline conceded to the request saying:

Due to the evolving information from health authorities, we will allow crew members and frontline airport employees to wear surgical face masks when on duty at their discretion.

We contacted Delta to ask about its policy with regards to flight attendants and wearing masks. However, the airline has yet to respond to our inquiry.

Up to this point, Delta has been putting select bedding and headphones through a separate washing and sanitizing process from other bedding to minimize the risk of cross-contamination. However, as the virus takes hold on American soil, its likely now that 100% of bedding and headphones will go through these special cleaning procedures.

 

Delta's team experienced with crisis management

Delta has used the same command center room to manage other crises. Events such as hurricanes, northeastern snowstorms, and past infectious outbreaks (such as H1N1) have been managed by the airline's experienced team. Of course, the airline also had to handle the intense aviation chaos on and after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.

However, while intense storms offer more clarity on when conditions will improve, the scope of this outbreak and its impact on commercial air travel is unprecedented. At this time, there is no clear timeline on when this too shall pass.