Selling fewer seats on planes is not feasible

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Limiting or selling fewer seats on planes as a measure of social distancing is not feasible, as reported THERE IT IS in a new statement.

Given the panorama that is coming for the airline industry, where the economic factors that will affect the whole world and the need to regain the confidence of travelers, airlines and airports propose new protection measures and health care.

What we review here, airlines already implement strict measures such as the mandatory use of masks during all stages and duration of the flight, differentiated boarding, deep disinfection and other new protocols.

In this way, One of the possibilities that has generated the most debate, is not to sell the middle seats on airliners 3 and 4 seats and even, reduce to 50% aircraft capacity 2 seating.

Selling fewer seats is not the solution

IATA no recomienda restringir el uso del «asiento central» para crear distanciamiento social a bordo de un avión.
The evidence, although limited, suggests that the risk of virus transmission on board an aircraft is low, even without special measures.

It must be remembered that aircraft maintain a constant circulation of air at least every 3 minutes and this is renewed and passes through the HEPA filters that retain the 99% the virus, making aircraft a fairly clean environment.

Restricting or limiting the sale of seats on airplanes could generate an increase in ticket values, that will directly affect the user and the recovery of the industry, debido a que las aerolíneas deberán «traspasar» el valor que habrían pagado «los pasajeros del medio» al resto de usuarios.

We need to remember, that when government restrictions are lifted, distancing on board planes will be organic, due to the low demand that will initially exist.

Measures to reduce the already low risk of transmission on board

The general measures that have been proven to work to reduce the risk of contagion are the following recommended by IATA:

• IATA recommends mandatory face coverings for passengers and masks for crew as one of several actions to reduce the already low risk of contracting COVID-19 on board aircraft..
• In addition to face coverings, These layers of temporary biosecurity measures that are proposed include:
• Passenger temperature control, airport workers and travelers,
• Embarkation and disembarkation processes that reduce contact with other passengers or crew,
• Limit movement inside the cabin during flight,
• More frequent and deep cabin cleaning; and
• Streamlined catering procedures that reduce crew movement and interaction with passengers.
• When tested and available at scale, COVID-19 tests or immunity passports could also be included as temporary biosecurity measures.

Is COVID-19 transmitted on a flight?

• Contact tracing of a flight from China to Canada with a COVID-19 symptomatic passenger revealed no transmission on board.
• Contact tracing of a flight between China and the United States with 12 COVID-19 symptomatic passengers did not reveal any transmission on board.

An informal IATA survey of 18 major airlines identified, during January-March 2020, only three episodes of suspected in-flight transmission of COVID-19, all from passengers to crew. Four other episodes were reports of apparent pilot-to-pilot transmission, that could have been in flight or before/after (including scale).

There were no cases of suspected passenger-to-passenger transmission..

Further examination by IATA of contact tracing of 1,100 passengers (also during the period from January to March 2020) who were confirmed for COVID-19 after air travel did not reveal any secondary transmission among the more than 100,000 passengers on the same flights. Only two possible cases were found among the crew members.

There are several plausible reasons why COVID-19, transmitted primarily by respiratory droplets, has not resulted in increased transmission on board, and why air travel is different from other modes of public transport:

• Forward-facing passengers with limited face-to-face interactions.
• Seats provide a barrier to transmission forward or into the cabin.
• Airflow from the ceiling to the floor further reduces the potential for transmission forwards or backwards in the cabin, what's more, airflow rates are high and do not lead to droplet spread in the same way as in other indoor environments.
• High efficiency particulate air filters (HEPA) in modern aircraft they clean the cabin air to the quality of the hospital operating room, with the help of high levels of fresh air circulation

What's more, even if it's mandatory, mantener abierto el «asiento central» no logrará la separación recomendada para que el distanciamiento social sea efectivo. Most authorities recommend 1 metro a 2 meters, while the average width of the seat is less than 50 cm and back from 35 centimeters.

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