The risk of COVID-19 spreading on flights appears “very low” but cannot be ruled out, despite studies showing only a small number of cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. “In-flight transmission is possible but the risk appears to be very low, given the volume of travellers and the small number of case reports. The fact that transmission is not widely documented in the published literature does not, however, mean it does not happen,” the WHO said in a statement to Reuters. The characterisation of the risk echoes the findings of a U.S. Defense Department study that last week described the probability of catching the disease on airliners as “very low”. Some airlines have however used more robust language to describe the risk of onboard transmission. Southwest Airl...
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Manufacturer studies provide insight into extremely few incidents of COVID-19 inflight infections The International Air Transport Association (IATA) demonstrated the low incidence of inflight COVID-19 transmission with an updated tally of published cases. Since the start of 2020 there have been 44 cases of COVID-19 reported in which transmission is thought to have been associated with a flight journey (inclusive of confirmed, probable and potential cases). Over the same period some 1.2 billion passengers have traveled. “The risk of a passenger contracting COVID-19 while onboard appears very low. With only 44 identified potential cases of flight-related transmission among 1.2 billion travelers, that’s one case for every 27 million travelers. We recognize that this may be an underesti...
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