Let me get this out there. My family wants to go on a trip. That being said, my family is pretty good at staying home too, so as much as we can’t wait to travel somewhere, I’m finding a lot of issues with travel, specifically air travel in this post-COVID world.
First, there needs to be something done to address distancing in a plane. I’ve heard rumors of new seat configurations and other changes to make distancing possible in planes. One idea that I came across was changing seats such that you can bring your own luggage on board, so the seating area and baggage are together. You can get creative here to see how this might work. As far as all the space on the plan that used to be for bags? Well, now airlines would have more space for cargo, which they can tie together with packages and mail. USPS, UPS, FedEx, Amazon could make use of cooperative agreements to move packages and passengers.
Second, the travel rules need to become more flexible. As of right now, if a person gets denied boarding because of a fever or other symptom, they can usually get a waiver or refund, but what about if that person is a member of a family. Can the whole family get a waiver? This needs to be addressed, or it’ll be difficult for my family to commit to travelling.
Finally, airlines and airplane manufacturers should not consider airflow and how to further reduce transmission of disease on board a plane. I suspect it’d be easy to redesign the HVAC systems aboard airplanes to be focus on comfort and safety.
I’m hoping these changes happens on airlines quickly. That way we can all get back to seeing the world safely.