Health workers trying to tackle the Ebola virus outbreak that
has killed more than 1,400 people in West Africa are faced with
diminishing options to gain access to the region after Air France
on Wednesday said it would suspend flights to Freetown, Sierra
Leone.
Air France said it would halt flights from Aug. 28 on
instructions from the French government. France also told
nonessential personnel to leave Sierra Leone and Liberia. With the
endorsement of the French government, Air France will continue to
serve the capital cities of Guinea and Nigeria, which also have
been hit by Ebola.
Medical personnel are finding it increasingly difficult to
manage staffing. British Airways suspended service to Liberia and
Sierra Leone early this month over Ebola concerns and now has
extended the operational hiatus until year's end "due to concerns
about the health facilities in both countries." Emirates Airline,
the largest international carrier by traffic, stopped serving
Conakry, Guinea weeks ago.
The reduction in international air service is hurting efforts to
get medical teams and supplies to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea,
said Brice de le Vingne, director of operations for Médecins sans
Frontières, a not-for-profit group providing medical assistance in
conflict and disaster areas. MSF is the largest provider of
international medical staff in the current Ebola outbreak.
"Look at the de facto quarantine this is putting on these
countries," he said. "This is terrible." MSF staff are rotated
every four weeks, so "we need air transport," he said.
A World Health Organization worker infected with Ebola on
Wednesday was flown to Hamburg on a specially equipped private jet
for treatment. The U.K. over the weekend used a specially
configured Boeing C-17 military airlifter from the Royal Air Force
to repatriate a health-care worker who fell sick from Ebola in
Sierra Leone.
The ability to charter private planes, a more expensive way to
travel, also has been impacted. Many operators have pulled their
planes out of West Africa making it more difficult to arrange short
term rentals, an industry official said.
The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,420 people and
infected more than 2,600 as of Aug. 20. There is no vaccine for the
viral hemorrhagic fever that can puncture blood vessels to cause
internal bleeding. The World Health Organization has recorded the
most Ebola-linked deaths in Liberia, followed by Guinea, Sierra
Leone, and Nigeria. Two Ebola cases were recorded this week in the
Democratic Republic of Congo in an unrelated outbreak.
Brussels Airlines and Royal Air Maroc are among the airlines
still serving the region. A Brussels Airlines spokeswoman said the
carrier would continue serving Conakry, Freetown and the Liberian
capital, Monrovia, while monitoring the situation. Brussels
Airlines has some of most-extensive experience flying into
Ebola-affected regions and has been working with the Institute of
Tropical Medicine in Antwerp to assess the situation.
Delta Air Lines in July said it would stop flying to Monrovia at
the end of August citing weak demand, rather than the viral
outbreak. Its services to Lagos, Nigeria; Dakar, Senegal; and
Accra, Ghana, continue. United Continental Holdings also is
continuing its flights to Lagos.
Intra-African flights also have been restricted in the wake of
the outbreak. Ivory Coast has blocked flights from Ebola-stricken
countries and Nigeria's civil-aviation authority also has
restricted some flights.
The flight suspensions come even after the International Civil
Aviation Organization, the United Nations' aviation-safety arm,
said this month that the risk to passengers of becoming infected on
flights was low. Transmission requires direct contact and those
infected with Ebola are generally too ill to travel.
Air France said it suspended service on instructions from the
French government, rather than out of concern about procedures in
place in Sierra Leone. Regional authorities have begun screening
passengers to ensure those infected don't board flights.
Susan Carey and Drew Hinshaw contributed to this article.
Write to Robert Wall at robert.wall@wsj.com and Drew Hinshaw at
drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
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