Yemisi Izuora
Airlines planning social distancing on-board their airplanes as a measure to bring back passengers’ confidence have been told to jettison the idea as the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said it does not support mandating social distancing measures that would leave ‘middle seats’ empty.
Calls for social distancing measures on aircraft, according to the group would fundamentally shift the economics of aviation by slashing the maximum load factor to 62 per cent.
Sticking with the decision to leave middle seats empty would amount to well below the average industry break-even load factor of 77 per cent. With fewer seats to sell, unit costs would rise sharply.
Compared to 2019, IATA said air fares would need to go up dramatically between 43 per cent and 54 per cent depending on the region just to cover costs.
The clearing house for over 290 global airlines however backed the wearing of face coverings for passengers and masks for crew while on board aircraft as a critical part of a layered approach to biosecurity to be implemented temporarily when people return to traveling by air.
IATA disclosed that evidence suggests that the risk of transmission on board aircraft is low, stressing that mask-wearing by passengers and crew will reduce the already low risk, while avoiding the dramatic cost increases to air travel that onboard social distancing measures would bring.
IATA’s Director-General, Alexandre de Juniac at an online media press briefing from Geneva, Switzerland, said the safety of passengers and crew is paramount, stressing that the aviation industry is working with governments to re-start flying when this can be done safely.
His words, “Evidence suggests that the risk of transmission on board aircraft is low. And we will take measures—such as the 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.”
Listing the guidelines to reduce the spread of the disease via air travel, the IATA chief recommended 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.
He also recommended temperature screening of passengers, airport workers and travelers, boarding and deplaning processes that reduce contact with other passengers or crew, limiting movement within the cabin during flight,
Other measures include More frequent and deeper cabin cleaning; and simplified catering procedures that lower crew movement and interaction with passengers.
“When proven and available at scale, testing for COVID-19 or immunity passports could also be included as temporary biosecurity measures”.
He re-emphasized that IATA does not recommend restricting the use of the ‘middle seat’ to create social distancing while onboard aircraft., hinting that evidence, although limited, suggests that, the risk of virus transmission on board aircraft is low even without special measures.
Moreover, even if mandated, he reiterated that keeping the ‘middle seat’ open will not achieve the recommended separation for social distancing to be effective.
According to him, most authorities recommend 1m-2m while the average seat width is less than 50 cm.
“The cabin environment naturally makes transmission of viruses difficult for a variety of reasons. That helps to explain why we have seen little occurrence of onboard transmission. 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. Screening, face coverings and masks are among the many layers of measures that we are recommending. Leaving the middle seat empty, however, is not,” said de Juniac.
He further stated that the long-term solutions for COVID-19 depend on medical science.
“We need a vaccine, an immunity passport or an effective COVID-19 test that can be administered at scale. Work on all of these is promising. But none will be realized before we will need to re-start the industry. That’s why we must be ready with a series measures, the combination of which will reduce the already low risk of inflight transmission. And we must be careful not to hard-wire any solution so we can be quick in adopting more efficient measures as they will undoubtedly become available,” said de Juniac.