Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika has said it is almost impossible to achieve physical distancing on flights without affecting the revenue of airlines.
He stated this during a webinar which focused on the status of the industry restart and was attended by stakeholders in the aviation sector.
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Sirika’s statement was a response to a question from the Managing Director of Aero Contractors, Capt. Ado Sanusi, who wondered whether social distancing would affect the prices of airfares.
The minister said total social distancing is impossible to attain in the airplanes, stressing that;
The person sitting beside or behind you is not two meters away from you. When people say they would block one seat between passengers, what of the guy behind you and the one in front of you? The guy in front of you is in danger, should you sneeze or cough, you are actually coughing over his head.
It is very difficult to achieve because it means you have to take a sit on my left, right in front and behind to achieve at least 0.5 meters.
He stressed that achieving social distancing on flights would mean that airlines stick with 40 per cent of their carrying capacity.
Sirika argued;
To achieve that you are saying 30 or 40 per cent capacity should be allowed. I think we should research more between today and over the weekend to come up with something that we can announce soon. I cannot see us achieving physical distancing within the airplane and make money.
He challenged stakeholders to come up with some ingenious way of achieving safety within the cabin rather than physical distancing.
