NEW DELHI: All aircraft need to have hand sanitizers and ensure that their crew are given personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks and gloves.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday directed all airlines to place hand sanitizers in "sufficient quantity and placed in common areas such as lavatories/ galleys. Hand sanitizers shall be kept away from the source of heat or ignition. Availability of soap in the lavatories shall also be ensured.""All crew members should be advised to keep the passenger interaction to the minimum. Airlines may issue guidelines to the crew and ground handling staff to minimise public interaction," the regulator has mandated."All aircraft shall be equipped with one or more Universal Precaution Kit(s). Such kit(s) should be used to protect crew members who are assisting potentially infectious cases of suspected COVID-19 and in cleaning up and correctly discarding any potentially infectious contents. All crew members shall be provided with suitable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in sufficient quantity for use during passenger interaction," the order says.The DGCA issued a circular titled "Prevention of the spread of Coronavirus Disease (COVID 19)" on Tuesday mandating more preventive measures to be complied by all the scheduled airlines, with immediate effect.This includes a renewed focus on disinfection of aircraft. "All aircraft shall be subjected to Deep-Cleaning and disinfection at least once in 24 hours. All aircraft shall be subjected to disinfection during transit halts when there are no passengers on board. In case transit passengers are on-board, at least the lavatories and the galleys shall be disinfected. All the aircraft operating international fiights shall be subjected to Deep-Cleaning and disinfection, upon arrival in India."