Wizz Air is considering flying with empty middle seats to enable social distancing while on flights. This would need to be combined with all passengers have masks and other sanitizing and safety products.
Social distancing could remain the new normal. Planes will have higher per seat prices and fewer passengers per plane. They will need to charge 120 people what 180 people used to pay in order to have an economic flight.
Economy airfare would need to be 50% to 100% more expensive.
It can cost about $20 million per plane to reconfigure an aircraft cabin.
Airlines that survive would need to adapt to lower passenger volumes and providing safe flights.
Packing people into the current economy in relative complete safely would require all passengers to travel the way some Taiwanese passengers travel to and from coronavirus hotzones.
SOURCES- Reuters, Forbes, Travel Update, NPR, AP, Analysis by Brian Wang
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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