Global airline body proposes measures to allow safe resumption of air travel

6th May 2020

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (Iata), has highlighted that, to date, the evidence suggested that the risk of passengers infected with Covid-19 passing the disease on to other passengers in an airliner was low. This was the case even without special biosecurity measures being in place.

Consequently, Iata opposed the idea that, when commercial flying resumed, ‘middle seats’ on airliners be left empty to enforce social or physical distancing. If this was done, it would reduce aircraft maximum load factor to just 62% – but the average airline breakeven load factor was 77%. Keeping middle seats empty would force up air ticket prices by between 43% and 54%, depending on the region. And that would just cover costs.

Rather, the association supported crew members using masks and passengers wearing face coverings when on board aircraft. This would be a key element in a multilayered biosecurity approach during the resumption of air travel.

“The safety of passengers and crew is paramount,” emphasised Iata director-general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac. “The aviation industry is working with governments to re-start flying when this can be done easily. Evidence suggests that the risk of transmission on board aircraft is low. And we will take measures – such as wearing of face coverings by passengers and masks by crew – to add extra layers of protection. We must arrive at a solution that gives passengers the confidence to fly and keeps the cost of flying affordable. One without the other will have no lasting benefit.”

Contact tracing for a person who was a symptomatic Covid-19 sufferer and who flew on an airliner from China to Canada showed that there had been no transmission of the disease during the flight. With another flight, this time between China and US, which carried 12 passengers with Covid-19 (and showing symptoms), contact tracing again showed that there had been no transmission of the disease during the flight. 

Iata surveys of its member airlines had revealed similar results. An informal survey of 18 major airlines showed, for the period January to March 2020, only three cases of suspected transmission of Covid-19 during flights, all from passengers to crew. There were another four possible cases, of transmission from pilot to pilot, but these could have been before, during, or after the flights or during layovers between flights. 

Over the same period, an Iata review of contact tracing for 1 100 passengers (confirmed to have Covid-19 after their flights) showed that there had been no disease transmission to any of the more than 100 000 other passengers on the same flights. There were only two possible instances of transmission from passengers to crew.

“The cabin environment naturally made transmission of viruses difficult for a variety of reasons,” he pointed out. These included the facts that airline passengers all faced forward and had limited face-to-face encounters, while the seats themselves acted as barriers to disease transmission forward or aft in the cabin. Furthermore, the air flow in the cabin was from ceiling to floor, also reducing the chances of transmission forward or aft; moreover, the flow rates of cabin air were high, which reduced droplet spread. And modern airliners were fitted with High Efficiency Particulate Air filters, which cleaned the cabin air to the quality found in hospital operating theatres.

Iata was also proposing that all passengers, travellers and airport workers be temperature screened. Regarding the actual aircraft, boarding and disembarking procedures should be adapted to minimise contact between the passengers and between them and the crew, while movement within the cabin, during flight, should be minimised and catering procedures should be simplified to reduce crew movement and interaction with passengers. And aircraft cabins should be more frequently and more deeply cleaned.

“In the immediate term, our aim is to make the cabin environment even safer with effective measures so that passengers and crew can return to travel with confidence,” stated De Juniac. “Screening, face coverings and masks are among the many layers of measures we are recommending. Leaving the middle seat empty, however, is not.”

 

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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