How Social Distancing Goes Out The Window On 22 Hour Sydney-Paris Flight

Long haul flights are no fun at the best of times. Flying long haul from Sydney to Paris in COVID-19 days is nothing short of a nightmare. Primarily because of the anxiety of being crammed in an airplane for 22 hours with hundreds of other (potentially sick) passengers. Then, as I fear, all social distancing rules fly out the window the minute we climb onboard.

In the almost empty airport departure hall, social distancing is not a problem. To ensure the regulations are met, “only staff and those with a valid flight ticket are currently allowed into the International terminal,” says management.

In any case, Sydney Airport like so many right now is a graveyard. The Australian travel ban–on almost all travelers in and out of the country–has seen a halt on all international flights by national carrier Qantas, as major players such as Emirates, Etihad, BA and Singapore Airlines disappear from Australian skies.

Overseas Traffic At Sydney Airport Plummets 96%

The atmosphere at the airport is quite grim. My first potential obstacle is to ensure I have the required exemption to be able to leave the country. This comes in the form of a French residency permit. Bar the Australian Border Force officers, and cleaning staff, barely a soul is wandering about Terminal 1 when I turn up mid-afternoon. According to Australian Aviation, overseas passenger traffic at the airport plunged by 96% in April, as coronavirus travel restrictions took effect. “Total traffic for the month of March, was 2 million passengers.” That’s 45% less than the same time last year.

Less than a handful of worldwide flights a day are currently operating from the airport. One is the Sydney-Doha with Qatar Airways I’m due to board. Another a United flight to San Francisco. This is my only other way of getting back to Paris, if I am prepared for a 30-50 hour ordeal via San Fran and Frankfurt. (With travel demand “essentially at zero”, the Sydney connection is one of United’s only remaining routes, after its schedule was cut by 90% for May, and probably into June).

Strict Social Distancing In Terminal, Not Onboard

As more people start to turn up for the evening flight, social distancing is strictly enforced (though less strictly observed) in check-in queues. Then again, at the boarding gate. But on the plane, I find myself shoulder to shoulder with other passengers. (The atmosphere on the other side of immigration controls is more uplifting, despite the closure of nearly all shops and services).

I hoped, on booking online a week earlier, that the two empty places alongside my window seats would remain that way. A few such vacant rows can be seen dotted about the plane. Maybe the airline was automatically allowing for social distancing by leaving those gaps here and there I wonder. Alas, Qatar’s feisty “We Will Get You Home” drive, which has seen it dominate the skies on many global routes, ends up filling all those spaces. On the 320-something seat Airbus A350, the only empty spots appear to be in business and first class.

Lovely service aside, I feel incredibly uncomfortable about this. I understand airlines’ business models, particularly in these blighted times, requires them to fill all seats. But cramming people on planes seems to fly in the face of the whole social distancing policy we are practicing in all other walks of life.

“Qatar Airways is taking firm steps to respond to COVID-19,” the airline states in a press release. Social distancing onboard it says will be ensured only “where possible, especially on flights with lighter loads.” So from the pledge of distancing during the boarding process, “ensuring passengers are allocated seats far apart from each other” in departure lounges, to finding myself like a sardine in a can onboard. Reminders for regular hand washing and promises of copious WHO and aviation industry compliant disinfectants hardly help, when you find yourself in such close quarters with several hundred other passengers.

Seat Blocking During Corona Crisis

Airlines are a bit ambiguous about social distancing requirements. Because flights are seen as essential, “priority” services by the government, says KLM, airlines are thus exempt from the guidelines that apply to “events and gathering”. On the one hand, the Dutch airline maintains, it tries to implement the “social distance of 1.5 meters” … “when the occupancy of an aircraft is low–which is now more common–as much space as possible is created around the passenger by keeping seats empty.

“On repatriation flights to Amsterdam, however, seat blocking may not be possible. In this case, returning as many Dutch nationals home as possible has the highest priority.” Does one really need to preclude the other, or is this just what airlines would have us believe in their COVID-19 struggle for profits?

United Airlines meanwhile is pledging to take extra social distancing steps from late April, in regards to seat assignments on all United and United Express flights. In place through May 31, the measures it says include:

• “Limiting seat selections in all cabins, so customers won’t be able to select seats next to each other or middle seats where available. We’re also alternating window and aisle seats when seats are in pairs.”
• “Customers who prefer to be seated together may contact us for reseating options,” the airline says.

When Space Allows, Passengers Spread Out

American Airlines is one of several operators currently coming under fire for not lightening the load, even on U.S. domestic routes. Despite promising in late March to block half of all middle seats “where possible”, as the country’s coronavirus pandemic took off.

Qantas and Air France too are copping flak for often packed flights.

Post-Covid Flights May Cost More, If Governments Enforce Social Distancing For Airlines

If social distancing rules are a mandatory condition for a return to normal airline schedules, passengers can probably expect a hike in prices. That’s the likely scenario in Thailand reports the Bangkok Post, after the country’s Civil Aviation Authority gave a green light this week to the resumption of domestic flights from May 1. To adhere to government rules on lower passenger volumes, seat capacity is forecast to drop by 60%.

Global airline industry trade body, IATA, is warning such moves will wipe cheap air travel off the map, as airlines either raise prices by 50% or go bust. Ryanair has slammed the empty middle seat social distancing option as “idiotic”, while others including EasyJet are more receptive to it in the short term. Delta meantime has been blocking middle seats since mid-April, to enable social distancing via seat allocation.

But the measure can be a bit of an illusion. Just because the middle seats show as unavailable in the booking process, does not mean some airlines will not book to full capacity, argues Ben Schlappig from One Mile At A Time. According to him, United’s move to ensure “everyone will have an empty seat next to them” is an aim, not a guarantee.

Ironically, after zilch social distancing on the 15-hour Sydney-Doha flight (the tough bit), I end up with those 3 seats to myself on the second 7-hour Doha-Paris leg. It’s wonderful to be able to stretch out, but the constant spluttering all around is worrying. Especially that coming from very close quarters. Concerns among cabin crew about the health of the man seated behind me hardly allay my fears.

I was surprised not to encounter temperature or any other health controls at the airports. Unless the “thermal screening” which Qatar says passengers undergo is extremely stealthy, which it may well be.

“Advanced thermal cameras have been installed that can remotely record the body temperature of each passenger,” it says. If they are similar to those being used by some retailers at Doha’s Al Sadd Mall, this may mean an alarm is set off by temperatures of over 37.3° during transit, and ill passengers shuffled off for further checks.

In the end, I survive (so far at least) one of the longest haul trips in the world. But unless it is by absolute necessity, I can not vouch for such trips in Corona-times. Even if, as Qantas so vehemently insists, the virus is not “airborne”, the rest of the world is not sitting at home for nothing.