IATA says air travel is safe...but is that safe to travel?

According to the International Air Travel Association (IATA), only one in twenty seven million passengers reported of a confirmed, probable or potential transmission of the coronavirus that can be traced to a flight. Now that’s incredibly reassuring. Nevertheless, despite the very low risk of catching COVID-19 while on board a flight, is that safe enough for taking a flight from country A to Country B?

I guess not. What IATA is saying is that once you board a flight – any flight nowadays, i.e. when in ‘flight mode’ you can be assured that you are at near zero risk of catching COVID-19. That the air you breathe when inside the plane is near virus-free. Fair enough. But what about the air one breathes while at the airport when waiting to board the flight, when exiting the airport at one’s destination and when travelling about in the country visited?

Staying safe while flying 30,000 feet above the planet is one half of the’ safe-to-travel’ equation. The other half of this equation is when your feet land firmly on land after the flight. This is where the real worry awaits. No wonder many borders remain closed – because of the fear of the transport of the virus by the air around us, and not just the fear of ‘in-flight transmission’ of the virus.

Critics of IATA’s announcement, claim that it is a marketing ploy by IATA and airlines as being worried about safeguarding bottom-line and not the people that they fly may sound a bit harsh. Some even go so far as to say that before the pandemic, the public’s opinion of aerospace was shifting towards the negative because of the environmental impact. True, but that did not stop 4.5 billion passengers being boarded to fly by the global airline industry in 2019. So, let’s not go there for now.

Everyone has a role to play in making travel from one country to another safe. SimplyFlying recently published an 9-point Testing + plan which was designed to be a starting point towards the industry developing a robust blueprint. Given below are those nine-points:-

1. Pre travel authorizations and passenger screening
2. Testing on departure for all.
3. Shrink the test window to <24 hours prior to departure
4. Testing to be cheaper and faster, but also still accurate
5. Testing on arrival (possibly after 5 days) for a few, for example for those from very high risk countries.
6. Bio-safety measures
7. Track and trace until 14 days after arrival.
8. An industry approved registry of tests, where the results are validated.
9. Carry out a campaign reassuring the public that the industry is serious about stopping infected people from flying.

SimplyFlying goes on to add that a better graphic from IATA would read something like “Our commitment to COVID-safe travel” with a series of bullet points showing air travel can be re-opened in a responsible way.

My only quarrel here is that the airline is not the only stakeholder in the aviation business. The people who run the airports, the people who run visitors to the airports and others directly or indirectly involved in moving people from one country to another, need also do their part to ensure every international travelers safety from the pandemic.

Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Ex-Hotelier

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