A Mask Will Reduce the Risk of transmission of Covid-19 on an Airplane to Leaving the Seats Empty
I travelled recently via airplane and then I realized that apart from the safety measures put in place including the sanitization of passengers and disinfection of the plane with antiviral agents, the only thing we had to do was wear a mask. I remembered, at the early stage of the pandemic, airlines decided to take away the middle seat. United airline made the announcement as at the time, the aim was to give passengers enough space while flying.
I boarded a flight (not United) and the middle seat was fully occupied, so I asked myself “How far can this virus travel especially in a plane, and what is the need of leaving the middle seat unoccupied?” First, droplets can travel really far and since a plane isn’t an open place, it puts a lot of people at risk when an infected person coughs. Also, people can carry the droplets with their hands from one surface to the other when moving around the plane, thereby causing a very easy method of transmission through arm rest, or head rest.
The truth is this, blocking middle seat doesn’t mean it would stop or prevent cough droplets from reaching the person on the next seat. Asides using a nose mask, I cannot say for sure that there is a proven method to prevent Covid-19 from spreading to other passengers in a plane if a person is infected.
If airlines mandate surgical mask, it is preferable compared to when the middle seat is left with no passengers. A Plane is not as big as a building, so precaution methods should be taken to keep people safe. The airline industry has a very thin margin and not all airline makes profit even when they sell their middle seat compared to when the middle seat is left empty.
