Ask the Editors: The Aviation Week Network invites our readers to submit questions to our editors and analysts. We’ll answer them, and if we can’t we’ll reach out to our wide network of experts for advice. 

Assuming a COVID-19 immunization will not be achieved in less than 18 months and its worldwide distribution will take a year, how are we going to reduce the ability of viral transfer among the airline passengers while in flight? 

Air Transport World Editor-in-Chief Karen Walker responds: 

There are no clear answers and no new regulations yet for the conditions on which mass air transport can resume. What’s being discussed is how to separate people in airports—at check in, through immigration, in lounges, at the gates and through boarding—and avoid crowds while still holding to schedules. This will be easier while load factors are very low, but it will become more challenging if the rules stay in place as flights get more full.

Onboard, the discussion is around things like passenger separation. Keep middle seats free? Look at alternative cabin designs? Do crew and passengers need to wear masks and gloves all the time? How can contact be minimized between passengers and crew? Should food and beverages still be served and, if so, do they need to be individually sealed prior to takeoff? What sanitizers/disinfectants should be used and how often? How will this all affect turnaround times?  

For immigration processes, it’s even trickier. Do you screen passengers before they depart, on arrival or both? Will passports require an electronic proof of the passenger being COVID-19-tested and negative? 

What the airline industry hopes is that new rules will be harmonized globally so they are uniform and airlines and passengers know what to expect. Airlines also hope they will not have to bear the costs of any new regulations, as they are already in dire financial circumstances, so the cost of new hygiene and sanitization standards may be added to ticket prices in the form of a fee, rather like the security fees added to tickets after the 9/11 attacks. 

I suspect some clarification of new rules will emerge in May.