Photo- Showing a packed British Airways aircraft during the lockdown. Credit- The Sun.

As the aviation industry prepares for a return to pre-Coronavirus flight schedules, what changes, rules and restrictions will there be to protect passengers and crew on board aircraft? In short - absolutely NONE.

Many rules and restrictions have been applied to ease us out of lockdown. Social distancing of 1m - 2m throughout Europe is required and adaptations have to be implemented in restaurants and other businesses in order for them to re-open to the public. In Paris and elsewhere, restaurants can only use outside seating initially and tables at least 1m apart.

There are no rules, changes, restrictions or mandatory regulations for the aviation industry for Coronavirus.

EASA Guidelines issued on May 21st are based on recommendations that “should be implemented”:
https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/EASA-ECDC_COVID-19_Operational%20guidelines%20for%20management%20of%20passengers_final.pdf
There is no strategy for social distancing onboard aircraft and claims of the air onboard aircraft being ‘fresh’ or ‘sterile’ because of the use of HEPA filtration are very misleading:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=HdvprC-knhY


‘Those with air delivery systems should take care not to recirculate indoor air which "could potentially increase the transmission potential." Boosting airflow rates could meanwhile risk sending germs into the air from surfaces and "increase the potential for contamination throughout the building by distributing indoor air more quickly, at higher velocities and volumes, potentially resuspending more ultrafine particles."’
https://www.newsweek.com/air-conditioners-spread-coronavirus-1497933



The air onboard aircraft is neither ‘fresh’ nor ‘sterile’. It is drawn through the aircraft engines (a process called bleed-air) and brings with it toxic chemical fumes from engine oil, hydraulic fluids and also during taxiing the exhaust fumes from other aircraft - all of it: UNFILTERED.
 You can see in this video how the air conditioning ducts become contaminated with harmful deposits - these are NOT removed or destroyed by HEPA filtration which is used to recycle the air onboard:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jHGu83gC6V4 



Passengers and crew are forced to breathe the contaminated, unfiltered air supplied to the aircraft cabin on every flight (except the B787 ); hundreds of thousands have suffered life changing illnesses because of it, but the aviation industry still hasn’t addressed this decades-old problem - so why would they do anything effective about Coronavirus contamination?



The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control:


’At the beginning of the influenza A(H1N1) pandemic in 2009, air travel was the cause of the introduction of this new virus into countries not primarily affected, and aeroplanes are likely to be a major vector when the next pandemic occurs.’


https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/seasonal-infl

Reports from some of the flights which operated during lockdown including Aer Lingus:


https://www.irishnews.com/coronavirus/2020/05/05/news/concerns-raised-after-images-emerge-of-packed-flight-from-belfast-to-london-during-coonavirus-crisis-1926494/

This was a recent British Airways flight:


https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11701722/british-airways-passengers-packed-flight/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebarweb



In the USA it’s been ‘business as normal’:


https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/crowded-flights-airlines-coronavirus-masks-photo-2020-4

But airlines ‘wouldn’t operate an aircraft unless it was safe to do so’, would they?