GENEVA, 26 August 2020: The International Air Transport Association is appealing to all travellers to wear face-covering during the travel journey for the safety of all passengers and crew during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wearing face coverings is a crucial recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) guidance for safe operations during the pandemic, as developed jointly with the World Health Organisation and governments.
IATA is emphasizing the need for passengers to comply with the recommendation following recent reports of travellers refusing to wear a face-covering during a flight. While this is confined to a very small number of individuals, some onboard incidents have become violent, resulting in costly and extremely inconvenient diversions to offload these passengers.
“This is a call for common sense and taking responsibility. The vast majority of travellers understand the importance of face-covering both for themselves as well as for their fellow passengers, and airlines appreciate this collective effort. But a small minority create problems. Safety is at the core of aviation, and compliance with crew safety instructions is the law. Failure to comply can jeopardize a flight’s safety, disrupt the travel experience of other passengers and impact the work environment for the crew,” said IATA’s director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.
Obligations under Conditions of Carriage
IATA points out that a plane ticket is a contract under which the passenger agrees to the terms and Conditions of Carriage. Those conditions can include the airline’s right to refuse carriage to a person whose behaviour interferes with a flight, violates government regulations or causes other passengers to feel unsafe.
Airlines highlight the need to wear a face-covering during the booking process, at check-in, at the gate and in onboard announcements. Failure to comply means a passenger could face the risk of being offloaded from a flight or fined under national laws.
According to tests at the University of Edinburgh, face covering, when properly worn, can cut the forward spread of potential Covid-19 droplets from the mouth by 90%.
Face covering forms part of a multi-layered approach in the ICAO Take-off guidance to cut the risk of transmission of Covid-19 during the travel journey. Other measures to protect the safety of passengers during the pandemic include contactless check-in and immigration formalities at both the departure and arrival airports, social distancing where possible, increased cleaning and sanitization at airports and on aircraft, and contact tracing.
“The research we have seen to date, and our own investigations with the world’s airlines, tell us that the risk of catching Covid-19 on a flight remains very low. There appears to be a number of factors supporting that. The high flow rate of cabin air from top to bottom, constant filtering of air through state-of-the-art HEPA filters, the fact that all seats face the same direction and of course wearing a face covering and sanitization of the aircraft all play a part,” said IATA’s medical advisor, Dr David Powell.
“This is not just about protecting yourself. It’s about protecting everyone else on the flight,” Powell said.
