Social Distancing To Increase Airfares Unnecessarily: IATA

Web Stories

Airport regulators and airlines all around the world are working on mapping out the perfect way to resume flights once the flight restrictions are removed. Social distancing is the critical element of every discussion and decision that is being taken. But the International Air Transport Association (IATA) is not happy with one of the social distancing rules that most of the airlines and authorities seem to be taking. It is to leave the middle seats of the aircraft empty so that the distance between the passengers can be maintained. However, IATA argues that there is no point in leaving the middle seats empty as it doesn’t create a significant difference in people not contracting the virus from someone else.

social-distancing-to-increase-airfares-unnecessarily
Image Credits - USA Today

Leaving Middle Seats Unoccupied to Increase Travel Costs

One thing that would follow up with the decision of leaving the middle seats unoccupied is that the travel cost would increase dramatically. Since the airlines would be flying lesser people, they will be at a loss, so they will increase the base fares of the flight to cover it up. IATA believes that this would be a waste of money since there is a very less chance of people contracting the virus from someone on-board. Once the flights resume, every person who will enter the aircraft will be checked for the infection and thus if, given a clean chit, it automatically means that the person is safe to travel with. This would apply to everyone on-board making it safe for the people to travel.

Not Enough Distance Left Between the Passengers Even After Leaving the Middle Seats Unoccupied

One thing that is interesting to note is that a recommended distance between two people is between 1 meter to 2 meters. So even when the middle seats of the flights would be left unoccupied, it won’t make a considerable distance as the goal of a minimum 1-meter distance won’t be achieved anyway. This is the reason airlines should not leave the middle seats unoccupied. Higher base fares would mean less demand automatically, and the aviation industry globally has suffered a lot many losses already, so there is no point in making it hurt anymore.

Reported By

Editor-in-Chief

Tanay hails from Bilaspur, Chattisgarh and is a sports and fitness enthusiast. Reading and writing is something which comes to him out of love for the web of magic that words can create.

Recent Comments

  • No Most discussed posts - 1 week ago....!