Exclusive: Frontier Airlines president addresses passenger with Ebola

Exclusive: Frontier Airlines president on nurse with Ebola

Barry Biffle on how the airline is taking action

This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," October 16, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Here now with his first public response tonight, Barry Biffle, president of Frontier Airlines. Sir, very glad to have you on the program. Sorry for what you've gone through no fault of your own. Let's start with what people really want to know, is it safe to fly on Frontier?

BARRY BIFFLE, PRESIDENT OF FRONTIER AIRLINES: Thanks for having us on, Megyn. Of course it's safe to fly on Frontier. We take safety very seriously. It's our number one priority, and safety of our passengers and crew and all employees and all customers. And the public in general is our number one concern. So, it is safe to fly on Frontier tonight.

KELLY: And, you know, you were notified of this, I guess, late Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning, 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday that this passenger had been on your plane. What do you think so far of how the CDC has handled this?

BIFFLE: Well, in my career I've had a lot of crises to deal with. Obviously this is a little different. I've never dealt with the CDC. So I can't really speak to how they normally practice and so forth. But obviously as you've been pointing out on the show, we have a lot of questions about the situation. And we've learned a lot since the first notification 42 hours ago.

KELLY: Have they been hands-on with you? Have they been instructing you specifically what you need to do?

BIFFLE: We have been in constant contact with the CDC since we were notified. There was some information that did change, some as recently as in the last hour or so.

KELLY: Like what?

BIFFLE: For example, the fact that she may have had symptoms as early as Friday. That is new information from what we were told yesterday.

KELLY: Uh-huh. And so now that opens up a new can of worms for you because that's a different plane and a different flight she was on on Friday versus the one that was on Monday.

BIFFLE: That is correct. So we have traced back that aircraft. It has been cleaned nine times. You know, fortunately for the traveling public and for airline industry, this is not the first incident like this. There's been H1N1. There's been swine flu. There's been -- you know, we continue to have hepatitis risks and so forth. So, the sanitation process of cleaning the aircraft that we do not only kills Ebola but a number of infectious diseases. So, fortunately the cleaning process we do take meets the CDC standards for the containment.

KELLY: Without getting too detailed, forgive me. But we know that Ebola passes through bodily fluids in an infected person. And, you know, if you use the restroom on an airline, it's a contained facility. And somebody's going to have to clean up the restroom after every flight. And we're at the point now where people don't even want to handle the ashes of a dead Ebola patient, the man who died in Dallas, Texas. Are you assuring people that that issue has been taken care of and you believe your own employees have been safe in the process?

BIFFLE: That is correct. And we have no evidence that there was any bodily fluids, fecal matter, vomit, anything like that. There's no evidence of that. And we were also informed that she did not use the lavatory on board the aircraft.

KELLY: Good to know. And now, what about the CDC reportedly telling her that she could fly? She called them on Monday morning to say I don't know if I should get on this plane. And they told her to do it. Your reaction to that.

BIFFLE: I don't know that much information about what they told her or what she told them. I just know that the CDC has been in contact with us and has released our aircraft. They have released our crew, but we've taken extra precautions just to take the crew offline on paid leave. And at this moment we've removed the aircraft from the 13th and we've cleaned the other aircraft nine times.

KELLY: And you're contacting the passengers who were on board both of those flights now?

BIFFLE: That information has been handed over -- the manifest has been handed over to the CDC and I know that they are contacting them.

KELLY: Mr. Biffle, good luck to you. Thank you so much for being here, sir. I mean, I will tell the audience, I would fly on a Frontier Airline without qualms tonight. Thank you for being here.

BIFFLE: Thank you, Megyn.

KELLY: And I'm afraid of flying, so that really is something. I mean, even without Ebola.

Content and Programming Copyright 2014 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2014 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.