Three out of four planes are grounded in Europe because of coronavirus. In the rest of the world, the situation is similar, with at least one plane out of two out of service. Airports are often closed, authorities ban flights, and people are afraid to fly even when possible. Nevertheless, private flights rental companies are overwhelmed with orders. Let’s see why private flights offer much more protection against coronavirus.
Air quality on an airliner and on private flights
Airborne contagion
The first contagion vehicle for coronavirus seems to be the small droplets that each human being emits when exhaling air. this is why all health authorities strongly recommend keeping a distance of at least 1 m between people, or even 3 m from someone who has just sneezed or coughed. Not only in an airliner we breathe the same air as hundreds of other people, but we are very close to each other, a few tens of centimeters.
Air circulation and recycling
On all modern aircraft, passengers and crew breathe a mixture of fresh and recycled air. Using this combination rather than fresh air only helps regulate the temperature and helps maintain some humidity (more on humidity in an instant). The supply is purged from the compressor sections of the motors. The compressed air is very hot, but the compressors only compress; there is no contact with the combustion gases. From there it is connected to air conditioners for cooling. It is then channeled into the cabin by louvers, vents and gasps above your seat. AC units are known to pilots as “packs”. It is an acronym for Pneumatic Air Circulation Kits. There are usually two by plane, air circulates until it is finally sucked into the lower fuselage, where about half of it is evacuated overboard – sucked by the outlet valve of pressurization. The remaining part is re-mixed with a new supply from engines and passes through filters, and the cycle begins again. If it is true that aircraft manufacturers claim that up to 95% of bacteria are eliminated by the filtration system on recent airplanes, the fact remains that viruses are much smaller and difficult to filter.
The difference in air with private flights
The more people who breathe the same air as us, the more possibilities of contagion and transmission of the coronavirus. On private flights, not only do we share the air with a very limited number of people, but they are often the same with whom we share the air on a daily basis, whether they be colleagues of members of one’s own family.
Lining up at the airport, opportunity for contagion
Spending an average of two hours in waiting rooms, queues, crowded rooms, with seats, handles, toilets, rooms used by tens of thousands of travelers from hundreds of different origins: an ideal environment for the proliferation, circulation and communication of viruses among humans. With private flights, you enjoy reserved access, no queues or crowds. With a private jet, you take off on average 20 minutes after his arrival at the airport. Take advantage of reserved boarding channels, away from the crowds. The possibilities of contagion are not completely eliminated, but reduced enormously.