Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Dec;53(1):1569-1575.
doi: 10.1080/07853890.2021.1973084.

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during air travel: a descriptive and modelling study

Jinjun Zhang  1 , Fei Qin  2 , Xinyan Qin  3 , Jianren Li  1 , Sijia Tian  1 , Jing Lou  1 , Xuqin Kang  1 , Huixin Lian  1 , Shengmei Niu  1 , Wenzhong Zhang  1 , Yuguo Chen  4
Affiliations

Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during air travel: a descriptive and modelling study

Jinjun Zhang et al. Ann Med. 2021 Dec.

Abstract

Objectives: To explore the potential of SARS-CoV-2 spread during air travel and the risk of in-flight transmission.

Methods: We enrolled all passengers and crew suspected of being infected with SARS-CoV-2, who bounded for Beijing on international flights. We specified the characteristics of all confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection and utilised Wells-Riley equation to estimate the infectivity of COVID-19 during air travel.

Results: We screened 4492 passengers and crew with suspected COVID-19 infection, verified 161 confirmed cases (mean age 28.6 years), and traced two confirmed cases who may have been infected in the aircraft. The estimated infectivity was 375 quanta/h (range 274-476), while the effective infectivity was only 4 quanta/h (range 2-5). The risk of per-person infection during a 13 h air travel in economy class was 0.56‰ (95% CI 0.41‰-0.72‰).

Conclusion: We found that the universal use of face masks on the flight, together with the plane's ventilation system, significantly decreased the infectivity of COVID-19.KEY MESSAGESThe COVID-19 pandemic is changing the lifestyle in the world, especially air travel which has the potential to spread SARS-CoV-2.The universal use of face masks on the flight, together with the plane's ventilation system, significantly decreased the infectivity of COVID-19 on an aircraft.Our findings suggest that the risk of infection in aircraft was negligible.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; air travel; aircraft; infectious diseases; transmission.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Screening flow and diagram of aircraft. (A) Screening flow; (B) Diagram of the Boeing 787-9 aircraft. I: Schematic diagram of seating plan with 11 confirmed cases; II: Air circulation pattern in passenger cabin, arrows show air currents from the Lancet22.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
The inference process of the SARS-CoV-2 infectivity in aircraft. (A) The classification of 161 confirmed case; (B) The estimated rate of quanta generation in aircraft.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The predicated transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in aircraft. (A) The per-person risk of infection due to one infector. (B) The per-person risk of infection, assuming without face mask protection. (C) The predicted number of infected individuals due to one infector. (D) The predicted number of infected individuals, assuming without face mask protection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Boldog P, Tekeli T, Vizi Z, et al. . Risk assessment of novel coronavirus COVID-19 outbreaks outside China. J Clin Med. 2020;9(2):571–583. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gilbert M, Pullano G, Pinotti F, et al. . Preparedness and vulnerability of african countries against importations of COVID-19: a modelling study. Lancet. 2020;395(10227):871–877. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Craig AT, Heywood AE, Hall J.. Risk of COVID-19 importation to the pacific islands through global air travel. Epidemiol Infect. 2020;148:e71-76. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xu S, Li Y.. Beware of the second wave of COVID-19. Lancet. 2020;395(10233):1321–1322. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Leung K, Wu JT, Liu D, et al. . First-wave COVID-19 transmissibility and severity in China outside Hubei after control measures, and second-wave scenario planning: a modelling impact assessment. Lancet. 2020;395(10233):1382–1393. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms