Back-to-front plane boarding is virus risk, study says

Boarding passengers seated at the back of an aircraft first – a coronavirus-era change introduced by airlines – increases the chance of someone catching the virus by 50 per cent, a study showed.

Back-to-front boarding is also twice as risky as letting passengers on at random, although it does reduce exposure between seated passengers and those walking down the plane, according to the study published yesterday in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

Instead, the higher risk comes from closer contact between passengers in the same rows clustering in the aisle as they stow their luggage.

US airline Delta, for example, adopted back-to-front boarding to “minimise contact with other customers”, although the airline boards only 10 passengers at a time.

The change was among several across the industry – including blocking out middle seats – to persuade passengers it is safe to get back on a plane.

Scientists from institutions including the University of West Florida and Florida State University simulated 16,000 possible passenger movements for the study. “The new policies do not improve on the old ones in any situation,” they said.

Delta did not reply to a request for comment.

The risk could be reduced, however, by stopping people using overhead storage bins and by boarding passengers in window seats before those in aisle seats, according to the study.

Airlines are still grappling with the coronavirus pandemic and trying to encourage more people back on board.

Some airlines, such as Etihad, decided to take the International Air Transport Association’s Travel Pass on trial.

This allows users to upload pre-departure coronavirus test results through a smartphone app.

Researchers looked at 16,000 permutations for moving passengers and concluded new policies did not improve safety