kolkata an inflight transmission study by industry body international air transport association iata of four airlines that carried 13 lakh flyers 1100 of whom were confirmed covid19 cases revealed that only one passenger may have been infected during the flight in india 341 passengers tested positive for covid out of more than 124 lakh who travelled on domestic flights between may 25 and june 15 but contact tracing did not find even one coflyer to have contracted the infectionin covid times air travel is the safest mode of public transport inflight travel is safe due to strict regulatory checks high compliance to protective measures among passengers and crew and use of technology aviation medicine expert group captain yashvir singh dahiya said at an aviation webinar on navigating through covid clouds to safer cruising heights boeing india president salil gupte explained the distinctive features of aircraft ventilation systems that replace the cabin air every twothree minutes pumping fresh air in from ceiling vents and removing the air from vents on the walls along the floor this meant there was very little possibility of lateral droplet transmission the high air displacement rates are complemented with hepa filters that remove almost all particles of the typical size of coronavirus he explainedboeing and airbus whose planes carry nearly 95 of flyers in india have advised airlines to keep the ventilation system running when passengers are boarding and disembarking to further minimize the riskturnover time for aircraft has increased from 2540 minutes to at least an hour to ensure sanitization earlier deep cleaning of an aircraft happened at the end of the day now it happens after every flight said indigo senior vp flight operations capt ashim mittra the sops adopted at airports including emphasis on webcheck in has added to the safety said civil aviation additional secretary usha padhee former dgca chief arun mishra now the asiapacific director of international civil aviation organisation has been coordinating the sops as an integral member of the council for aviation recovery taskforce veteran pilot sarvesh gupta and iata country head amitabh khosla also discussed the possibility of covid insurance being introduced in air travel and rapid test prior to flying some international carriers like emirates have already introduced free global covid cover