From Arlene Fleming,
Your Guide to Air Travel.
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Perhaps being a glutton for punishment, Toronto was my connection city of choice. Some people bungee, yours truly traveled through the SARS-maligned cities.

May brought travel to Madrid and Air Canada offers a daily flight to Madrid with convenient connections for most cities in North America. Outside of stands that posted the warning signs and symptoms of SARS, and a few questions at check in, you'd have never known that SARS had become synonymous with travel to Toronto. If someone appeared to be ill then travel could simply be barred until said traveler got better. But if you were healthy the intrusion stopped after a few simple questions. Did you pack your own luggage? Have you experienced any flu-like symptoms recently? A have a nice trip and you were on your way.

Arriving in Madrid, Spain was a rather different experience. SARS meant a dramatic production of surgical garb and questionnaires. Upon arrival in Madrid, because the aircraft had come from a SARS-affected area, it was quickly ushered to one of the most remote parts of the airport. There had been no one on the flight exhibiting SARS-like symptoms. This was simply how things were being done in a SARS-scared world.

Ironically enough, one of the gents donning his gown and face mask didn't secure his face mask properly until he was well past row 12. We were to write down our address and phone number for our time in Spain. And if we could produce neither then we could write down our home address and number (to contact an empty house in case we should develop SARS?). The plane stood at a standstill at the edge of the airport until our forms were handed in.

And that was it. No questions at customs, no further indications that connections had been made through Toronto. Not even a temperature taken. SARS seemed to equal a few extra questions and more forms as an air traveler. For all of the fuss surrounding our initial arrival in Madrid, we weren't really treated any differently than pre-SARS times. And from those I talked to at the airport in Toronto, they were finally feeling like SARS was on the wane, an even more remote threat.

In the aftermath of SARS some things have changed in the airline industry. The airlines transported many of those first affected by SARS to different parts of the world. More attention is paid to the health of passengers. After SARS, a cough is not simply a cough anymore. And too much sneezing bears investigation.