The International Air Transport Association (Iata), the global representative of around 290 airlines, on Tuesday said air travel is safe because the risk of coronavirus transmission is low, and also opposed removing middle seats in the aircraft as part of social distance rules.
While giving a briefing, the global aviation body said no passenger-to-passenger transmission of coronavirus has been reported so far during flights.
"The neutralisation of middle seat brings no additional guarantee of safety onboard from the virus. It is not something tangible. Most of global airlines would not have been able to make money last year if a third of the seats had been removed," said Brian Pearce, chief economist of Iata.
Alexandre de Juniac, director-general of Iata, had said last month that leaving the middle seat empty was among the likely conditions for a resumption of air travel to be discussed with governments around the world.
Limiting movement within the cabin
Dr. David Powerll, medical advisor for Iata, stressed that the risk of onboard transmission of the virus is low because there is no stagnant air, the air flow rate is high and air supply is also highly-filtered, therefore minimising the spread of droplets within the cabin.
He said normal seat allocation can be maintained but recommended certain in-flight measures including limiting movement within cabin during the flight, mandatory wearing of masks or face coverings onboard and simplified catering procedures to limit movement and interaction.
He noted that face-to-face interaction is limited, seat backs provide physical barrier between rows and there is a little mixing when passengers are sitting still, which helps containing the virus.
An analysis of 18 airlines conducted by Iata showed that there were three instances of passenger to crew infections, four instances of pilot-to-pilot but there was none passenger-to-passenger transmission of coronavirus during the flights.
"The risk of onboard virus transmission is low because people are generally avoiding travelling when they're unwell. They also avoid touching each other and surfaces and cover their faces when coughing or sneezing. Nobody has demonstrated that having an empty middle seat reduces chances of Covid-19 from one person to another," he added.
Dr. Powell noted that all the modern Western jets are safer because recycling air supply is not an issue in these aircraft. But the only exception are some old generation planes and some certain categories of turbo type aircraft that circulate air without filtration.
"So the air circulation is not issue, but droplets from one passenger to another is," he added.
Overall profitability unlikely in 2021
Iata chief economist Pearce said the industry is seeing consolidation because of unprecedented size of shocks delivered to airlines from the virus.
"We pointed out earlier that airlines have little liquidity and some airlines are raising funds wherever they can but a lot of them will not be able to do this. We've started to see some bankruptcies and consolidation process has already started," he added.
Replying to a query, Pearce projected that overall industry unlikely to return to profitability eve in 2021.
"In the early stages of 2021, the airlines will be trying to stimulate demand and there will be a lot of capacity and airfares will be relatively low. It is unlikely airlines to be making profits as a whole industry. Our previous forecast of $314 billion revenue loss still looks right," he added.
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