Exsqueeze me?
The U.S. just experienced the highest one-day totals of new reported Covid-19 coronavirus cases since April. What then will United Airlines and American Airlines be doing starting in July? How about going back to fully booking their flights and in turn squeezing people closer together?
Yep, that’s apparently what both airlines have chosen to do.
Not 80%. Not 90%, But 100%. If you can’t quite read the section of the June 26 American Airlines statement accompanying the tweet above without a magnifying glass, here are the first couple sentences: “As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are booked to capacity starting July 1. American will continue to notify customers and allow them to move to more open flights when available, all without incurring any cost.”
Uh, “book to capacity” on an airplane is not exactly social distancing. In fact, it can be quite the opposite, more like social nearing or social squeezing or social “your-elbow-is-on-my-elbow”-ing.
When it comes to the Covid-19 coronavirus, proper social distancing means staying at least one Ryan Gosling (who is six feet tall) away from all others. Keep in mind that this would be a lying Gosling, meaning a Gosling lying on the ground rather than standing or sitting. Unless United Airlines and American Airlines have somehow drastically changed the design of their planes, you can’t fit one Gosling between each of the seats. Heck you may not even be able to fit a regular gosling (the feathered kind) in those spaces.
Whatever happened to maintaining social distancing on flights? After all, back in May, back in May, (roughly one and a half missed haircuts ago) I wrote for Forbes about how United Airlines came under fire for not adhering to own social distancing promises. United Airlines had stated in an email to customers that they were “automatically middle seats to give you enough space on board.” When a doctor on board a United Airlines flight from Newark to San Francisco tweeted a photo of the cabin, it looked as if the airline had blocked those middle seats with, drum roll please, other passengers.
It didn’t seem like you could fit too many Goslings between people on that flight. Seeing this on social media left numerous people wondering whether they should even trust any future assurances from the airline that the middle seats would remain empty. Well, apparently starting next week there won’t be need to wonder anymore. Expect those middle seats to be filled if the airline can fill them.
Would this really be a good thing to do right now? A number of states are experiencing surges in Covid-19 coronavirus cases, including big states that may have quite a few air travelers such as Texas, California, and Florida. Will this policy change be “plane” risky? After all, isn’t there a decent chance that some people who are contagious will make it on to United and American Airlines planes?
It didn’t seem like you could fit too many Goslings between people on that flight. Seeing this on social media left numerous people wondering whether they should even trust any future assurances from the airline that the middle seats would remain empty. Well, apparently starting next week there won’t be need to wonder anymore. Expect those middle seats to be filled if the airline can fill them.
Would this really be a good thing to do right now? A number of states are experiencing surges in Covid-19 coronavirus cases, including big states that may have quite a few air travelers such as Texas, California, and Florida. Will this policy change be “plane” risky? After all, isn’t there a decent chance that some people who are contagious will make it on to United and American Airlines planes?
Additionally, according to the announcement, the airline will “limit flight privileges for customers who refuse to wear a face covering without a medical reason.” It’s not completely clear what “limit flight privileges” will mean. This could offer a fair amount of wiggle room, just like “limiting bathroom privileges” typically doesn’t mean that you can’t go to the bathroom at all. Regardless, the announcement claimed that “wearing a face covering continues to be one of the most important ways travelers can protect themselves and others while flying.” This sounds reasonable, except that wearing a face covering is more to protect others from you than you from others.
These are all good infection prevention measures to have in place. It’s certainly better to hear that the planes will be cleaned more thoroughly than a bachelor’s pad. But will all of these measures really be enough to protect you from the Covid-19 coronavirus? Getting dressed doesn’t mean just wear a scarf, a beret, and boots. That could leave you quite exposed. Similarly, protecting you from the Covid-19 coronavirus doesn’t mean employing a bunch of infection control measures without doing the most important thing of them all: social distancing. Even with all of those other measures in place, what happens if you end up sitting very close to one or two people who are contagious for one, two, three, or more hours in a crowded indoor environment?
Say they were to wear face coverings quite diligently. That could help for brief periods of time. But the longer you remain in closer contact, the greater the chance that something will end up leaking out through their face coverings. Plus it can be challenging to wear a face covering for such a lengthy period of time without occasionally adjusting and maybe even taking off the covering. Heck there are people who complain about wearing a face covering for even 10 minutes during a visit to a coffee shop.
The American Airlines announcement mentioned another new policy as well. Starting June 30, they will require passengers to certify during the check-in process that they “have been free of COVID-19 symptoms for the past 14 days.” But how many people will this process really catch? How many people will be at the check-in stage and say, “oh, thanks for the reminder. That’s right I do have Covid-19 symptoms. What was I thinking? I had better not fly right now.” Plus, a sizable proportion (somewhere between 30% and 60%) of people who are contagious don’t even have symptoms. They may never have symptoms or be on their way to developing symptoms.
All of these other measures won’t fully compensate for the one thing that you shouldn’t be doing these days, staying very close to others for an extended period time in an enclosed location. In fact, many of these other measures would work a whole lot better when combined with social distancing.
It’s unlikely that public health experts approached the airlines and said, “hey, people are not squeezed together tightly enough on airplanes. You know what would be great? Start packing your airplanes to full capacity.” Instead, financial considerations are likely driving these booking policy changes. After all, mo people, mo money. As long as government bodies such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) don’t guide or even regulate booking policies, each airline may make decisions based largely on management and shareholder business interests.
Yeah, packing airplanes doesn’t seem to be airing on the side of caution. We’ve already seen how hastily re-opening businesses may have led to surges in Covid-19 coronavirus cases in various states. As a result, many businesses have had to close back down. Could something similar happen with hastily re-opening airplane seats?
With the first wave of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic still continuing in the U.S., try to avoid air travel if you can. If you must travel by air, try to take a flight that will allow you stay at least one Gosling away from everyone else for at least most of the flight. Just because you are up in the air, doesn’t mean that your chances of maintaining proper social distancing should be as well.
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