Feith said the airline would be guided by its destination countries in terms of vaccine or other Covid requirements, but that Luxair would not install its own mandatory vaccination policy. Broadly, Feith is not convinced that it should be up to airlines to make these decisions, suggesting they should follow the guidance provided by governments in their destinations.
Masks are currently mandatory for all staff and passengers aboard Luxair flights, as required by the government as well as governing bodies within the industry. Feith noted that Luxair does not make any exceptions in this regards, and only passengers with a valid medical certificate are exempt from wearing a mask during flights. The airline has flown a few passengers with such a certificate, and to date it has not caused an issue.
Another common question from passengers is the procedure for eating and drinking on board given the mask requirement. Here Feith said that the airline recommends people take no longer than 15 minutes to eat, and ideally less.
As regards the future of masks on air planes, Feith thinks they will be required for some time, as the problem will not be solved until a majority of people are vaccinated or otherwise immune. The airline does not impose any passenger number limitations, nor does Feith foresee them doing so. They do however try to spread passengers out to the extent possible.
According to Feith, Luxair have had to deal with two cases of people refusing to wear masks to date. This falls under 'unruly passengers procedure', and can force the airline to make an emergency landing, which incurs significant costs, as it places other passengers in potential danger. In these instances, the airline issued offending passengers with a temporary ban. However, Feith noted that the vast majority of passengers take no issue with wearing a mask.
Feith did not have an exact figure for the additional costs to the airline stemming from the new sanitary measures, but said that for some destinations the handling of the plane alone saw a cost increase of 20-25%. That includes factors such as compulsory temperature checks of passengers, forms to be completed, and of course the mandatory disinfection of touch-points between each passenger load.
However, these additional costs are marginal when compared to that of grounding the fleet completely. In terms of ticket prices, Feith noted that the airline does not wish to deter customers by increasing prices. Consumer behaviour has had an impact here, in that they have noticed a trend in people booking their flights nearer the departure time than they traditionally would - and prices tend to go up closer to departure. As such they have revised their pricing structure, and Feith noted that some tickets over Christmas - a period during which he said Luxair operated some 60% of its fleet - were actually lower than other years.
As for the future, Feith said that the airline expects lower revenues over the next three years, which leaves the option of either taking losses or increasing prices. With a focus on social aspects of the business - such as employing pilots rather than working with them on a self-employed basis - the airline has fewer cost levers to pull, he stated. Given the importance the company places on social responsibility, Feith said that this is not something they would want to change, and that he hopes customers will value this as well.
