Empty middle seat? Depends on which country you are flying in
SYDNEY — In Thailand, you cannot have food or water in flight and must wear a mask. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the plane needs to be halfempty. In the United States and Europe, it’s not mandatory for airlines to leave the middle seat open.
Measures to stem the spread of coronavirus have changed how people travel, as Beijing resident Feng Xueli, 26, found when she took a domestic flight this month. The aircraft was full - allowed under the Chinese rules.
“We needed to wear a mask during the flight and there were PA announcements basically asking for our cooperation with these anti-virus measures put in place, which made me a bit nervous,” Feng said. “You also need to go through a lot of temperature checks and security checks when you leave the airport.”
Travellers, airlines and airports are grappling with a hodgepodge of rules put in place during the pandemic that will make flying different in almost every country.
“When flying restarts, you are already working against the clock. There is still a latent fear of travel,” said Subhas Menon, head of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. “It’s not going to be such a smooth passage when you travel because of all of the measures that are going to be introduced.”
A little more than a year after uneven national responses to the grounding of the Boeing
The last trigger for such widespread changes in the way airlines operate was the 2001 attacks in the United States, which ushered in new security measures.