ASK THE EXPERTS

NEED ADVICE FOR YOUR NEXT TRIP? ARE YOU AFTER RECOMMENDATIONS, TIPS AND GUIDANCE? THE TRAVEL GEEKS HAVE THE ANSWERS…

// I’m due to fly in January, but am concerned about the risk of coronavirus transmission. Do you have any advice on staying safe on a flight?

QThe risk of catching Covid-19 on a flight is very low. The characteristics of the aircra cabin naturally limit the spread of droplets — everyone faces forward, the seat backs act as a barrier between rows, people generally don’t move around very much on a flight, and the air in the aircra cabin circulates from the top to the bottom of the cabin (instead of along the length of the fuselage). Cabin air in modern aircra is 50% fresh air from outside the aircra and 50% recirculated air, which goes through High Eƒciency Particulate Air filters, which are over 99% e‡ective in removing bacteria and viruses, such as Covid-19.

Besides wearing a face mask throughout the entire travel process, it’s important to practise good hand hygiene. That means washing your hands regularly with soap or an alcohol-based hand sanitiser. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth, especially a er contact with commonly touched surfaces on the aircra , such as seatbelts and table trays.

And while boarding in today’s context tends to be done in an orderly manner with physical distancing, do also take precautions when disembarking at the destination. And most important of all, don’t fly if you’re unwell or experiencing any symptoms.

The number of tourists that have already travelled to space

Stars in their eyes

Tom Cruise, NASA and SpaceX are set to shoot a film in space. Russian agency Roscosmos

is backing a similar project.

The space station orbits Earth at an average altitude of around

250 miles.

An average of 238,855 miles from Earth, although the distance is

gradually growing.

It’s constantly changing, but the average distance between us and the red planet is 140 million miles.