Six Flags is back at work.
On Friday, the Texas-based theme park operator announced plans to reopen the 26 locations for the 2021 season, including five locations that remained closed in 2020 due to continued coronavirus restrictions.
The company further confirmed its intention to hire “thousands of team members” for next season exclusively through online recruitment events.
“Our guests and team members are ready for the return of the fun and excitement of Six Flags in 2021,” Bonnie Weber, senior vice president of Park Operations, said in a press release. “Last year we set the standard for operating our parks safely and entertained millions of guests according to government and CDC health guidelines at 21 of our 26 parks.”
Weber added that the company is currently working to “set firm reopening dates” for its parks in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mexico City and Canada.
Six Flags warned that its reopening dates, while scheduled for 2021, were also subject to change under local, state or federal guidelines.
Six Flags had initially closed its theme park operations in mid-March 2020 and only reopened its first location, Frontier City, in Oklahoma on June 5th. hygiene and social distancing protocol in place.
Other policy changes included face coverage and temperature controls for guests and employees; a new online booking system that customers will use before booking a visit; capacity limited to all parks; and switch to credit card or mobile payments only, to minimize contact between guests and vendors.
On its website, Six Flags still warns customers to “assess their own risk” before deciding whether to attend their parks.
“People who do not show symptoms can spread the coronavirus if they are infected, any interaction with the general public carries a high risk of coronavirus exposure,” the site says. “By coming to the park, you recognize and agree to take on these inherent risks associated with attendance.”
However, Six Flags CEO Mike Spanos had said the parks were ready to adopt a “new normalcy” following the reopening of its Frontier City location in June 2020.
“This‘ new normalcy ’will be very different, but we believe these additional measures are appropriate in the current environment,” Spanos said.
You can find information on all of Six Flags ’upcoming additions and announcements, including their hiring initiatives, here.