Table 7.
Literature on in-flight operations in the presence of COVID-19.
| Study | Major finding |
|---|---|
| (Ahmed et al., 2020) | An important source of information for onboard surveillance of passengers is wastewater epidemiology, based on data from several Australian-bound flights. |
| Albastaki et al. (2020) | It was found that wastewater samples are very cost-effective techniques, which can help decision makers to determine the level of precautionary measures an airport should take for arriving flights. |
| Bielecki et al. (2021) | In-flight infection probability is approx. 1 per 27 million passengers. In-flight protocols should include: highly-efficient filtering, rapid testing, sniffer dogs, regular disinfection, and traffic-light system. |
| Chen et al. (2020a) | Based on data for a flight from Singapore to Hangzhou with 335 passengers, the major driver for infections could not be attributed to in-flight transmission, but rather pre-flight exposure to the virus. |
| Chen et al. (2020d) | In-flight protocols should include: QR-code scanning, better diet preparation, eating peak time reduction, stricter enforcement of lavatory-seat assignment, avoidance of tissue/material sharing among passengers. |
| Choi et al. (2020) | Based on data for a flight from Boston to Hongkong, it is verified by virus sequencing that the infections spread from a married couple to two business class flight attendants during a flight. |
| Eldin et al. (2020) | Based on data for a flight from Bangui to Paris, it is argued that a transmission of a virus might have taken place, excluding other options based on interviews and investigations. |
| Freedman and Wilder-Smith (2020) | Strict use of masks appears to be protective. Lack of data availability prevents structured studies leading to scientific evidence of mask vs mask-free transmissions. |
| Harries et al. (2020) | Major risk factors include the proximity to index patients and being seated in the middle seat. Avoid queuing for wash-rooms and possibly change seats given on-flight events, such as, coughing passengers. |
| Khanh et al. (2020) | On a 10-h commercial flight from London to Hanoi, a single passenger caused an outbreak with 16 persons in the business class; seating proximity was strongly associated with infection risk. |
| Naboush and Alnimer (2020) | The legal implications of in-flight transmissions are discussed, leading to the question whether an in-flight infection could be considered an accident or not. |
| Nir-Paz et al. (2020) | On a repatriation flight from Japan to Israel with eleven passengers, two were infected upon arrival; despite close proximity and partially being unmasked during the flight. |
| Parker and Mahomed (2020) | The role of hypoxia and thrombosis is underestimated during COVID-19; regular oximetry scanning should be implemented. |
| Pavli et al. (2020) | Based on 18 international flights bound to Greece, revealed five cases of probable in-flight transmission among 2,224 passengers. |
| Schwartz et al. (2020) | Based on a lack of infection on a flight from Guangzhou to Toronto, it is concluded that in-flight transmissions are rare; especially in the presence of face masks and milder symptoms. |
| Zhang et al. (2020a) | Based on international flights to Beijing, with questionnaires covering a total of 4,492 passengers, 161 passengers were found to be infected; two of whom are likely to have been infected on the aircraft. |
| Zhang (2020) | It might be necessary for passengers to share their health information before and during flights. |