In the COVID-19 Era, Changing Air Travel Culture... 'Social Distancing' Even Onboard

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] As the untact (contactless) culture spreads throughout our society due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) crisis, the landscape inside airplanes is also changing. Each national airline is attempting 'social distancing' even inside the aircraft and is preparing various measures to minimize contact between people in case of possible infections.

According to the aviation industry on the 13th, Jeju Air introduced systems such as 'self barcode recognition' and 'sequential boarding by seat location' starting from this day. The company explained that this is to promote the spread of contactless culture.

The self barcode recognition system is a method where passengers themselves carry out the boarding pass verification process previously performed by airline staff in front of the boarding gate at the airport. When a passenger shows their boarding pass to the staff in front of the barcode reader, the staff visually checks for any abnormalities, and if none are found, the passenger directly scans the barcode at the bottom of the boarding pass and then proceeds to the aircraft.

Social distancing is also applied during the boarding process. Previously, passengers boarded the aircraft on a first-come, first-served basis, but from this day, only on-time flights will board passengers sequentially starting with those holding priority boarding passes. Passengers assigned seats from row 20 onwards board first, and those assigned seats in the front rows board last to minimize contact between passengers.

Depending on the reservation status, social distancing is also applied to seat arrangements. When there is seat availability, solo travelers are assigned only window and aisle seats, and groups of three or more sit in one or two rows with the rows in front and behind left empty to ensure sufficient distance between passengers inside the aircraft.

This is not an attempt unique to Jeju Air. Korean Air has also been pre-assigning seats to ensure sufficient spacing between passengers on flights with low reservation rates since March. Although it is difficult to implement on flights with high reservation rates, it is one of the efforts to expand contactless interactions between passengers.

In addition to social distancing, national airlines are implementing various quarantine measures. Most airlines have recently introduced contactless thermometers to restrict boarding of symptomatic individuals, and they are providing masks and, in some cases, protective suits to flight attendants to prevent COVID-19 infections. Regular aircraft disinfection has already become standard practice.

Discussions about the changing in-flight landscape in the COVID-19 era are also ongoing internationally. According to CNN in the United States, a French engineer recently proposed the idea of installing detachable plastic partitions on middle seats in airplanes. In fact, some airlines such as American Airlines are already operating with the middle seats left empty, which is a similar approach to seat management.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.