Santa Barbara Airport to require face coverings, other safety precautions in place

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Santa Barbara Airport will require travelers and airport staff to wear face coverings beginning Friday.

It's part of a new initiative launched by the airport and their airline partners called ‘Be a SBA Healthy Traveler.’

Santa Barbara Airport said that the amount of travelers is slowly increasing as more parts of the country open up. So these new initiatives are in preparation as things begin to look more normal again.

These traveler and visitor expectations include:

•  Wear a face covering in the terminal – a face covering will be required to enter the terminal and fly with any one of SBA’s airlines. All Airport visitors and airline employees also are required to wear a face covering. If you forget a face covering, the Airport and airlines will be providing disposable face masks beginning on May 15.
•  Maintain a safe distance from others – look for helpful signs and decals in the terminal. Airlines also will follow new boarding procedures to increase distance. Follow all Airline employee directions.
• Travel with hand sanitizer to use on hands and hard surfaces – the TSA now allows 12 oz. containers onboard. Use it to disinfect your hands or anything you touch. If you don’t have hand sanitizer, it will be available at multiple locations in the Airport.
•  And most importantly, do not travel if you have any symptoms of illness – all of SBA’s airlines waive booking fees if you need to delay your flight.

These guidelines are in place for all employees, travelers and people picking up or dropping off travelers.

Santa Barbara Airport is also taking additional steps to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

These additional steps include nightly mist disinfectant cleaning in the terminal, increased disinfecting of high-touch surfaces, screens at ticketing and gate counters and increased spacing in lines, restaurants and high-traffic areas.

Full service restaurant remain closed and some in-flight food service may be limited but the airport's newsstand and gift shop is available for some necessities.

SBA says these new protocols should make the likelihood of contracting COVID-19 or any illness "very low."