Which are the healthiest seats to book on airliners? Here’s some tidbits from a couple of articles about staying healthy while flying.
Not the best seat for mobility, but where should you sit to avoid getting sick.
First avoid the sitting in the center of the plane. And research shows that passengers in window seats face the smallest risk of infection.
How much contact passengers had with their fellow travelers varied by seat position. Those seated at the aisle averaged 64 contacts, the middle seat 58 and the window only 12. People sitting in the middle of the cabin had more contacts than those sitting in the front or back.
And if you can, skip using the bathroom on planes which see heavy use.
While it may seem that there is always a line for the restroom when you need one, only a third of passengers used the facilities even once, and half never used them at all.
Flu is most commonly transmitted by small respiratory droplets moving through the air after an infected person sneezes, coughs or talks. The droplets don’t go especially far — typically six feet or so — and they don’t become suspended in an aerosol that travels through currents of air in the plane’s cabin. The flu virus can also be picked up from something an infected person touched.
The team also collected samples from airplane surfaces before and after passengers boarded, and found that airplanes are pretty clean. Of 229 samples collected, not a single one showed any evidence of any of 18 common respiratory viruses.
The lead author, had some advice for people who fly when they have the flu. “Sneeze into your elbow, use good hand hygiene, and turn on your air vent. That will send the droplets straight to the floor.”