madurai air travel is not the safest mode of transport now as passengers flout rules of covid19 prevention especially social distancing and airline staff also do not give much importance to it say frequent travellers they point out that this should be given extra care in the festive seasonprofessor dr v nagarajaan of madurai who is chairman and head neurosciences research and translational task force icmr new delhi said that as a medical professional it required him to travel to different destinations in the country after domestic travel was allowed initially booking counters followed the notouch rule but no one followed it now when passengers are taken to the plane in buses more than 40 of them are crowded in them with no physical distancing they were kept in the bus for a good 17 minutes which is sufficient for covid19 to spread from an infected person to noninfected person due to the proximity he saidhe said the ppe provided to the passenger sitting in the centre seat does not provide proper protection as it does not have a proper cover and the aircraft employees do not ensure if he or she is wearing it properly though masks and shields are provided to passengers most of them do not wear it properly he saidthermal check was not done at entrance in chennai but we were checked when we alighted from the flight in madurai said s v pathy who travelled by spicejet on saturday face shields are provided but many do not wear it properly and as food is available on board the flight it doesnt serve the purpose because people remove both the mask and shield to consume it he saidmadurai airport director s senthil valavan said that all possible measures are being taken in the terminal building to ensure safety of the passengers sign boards have been kept at vantage points to guide passengers and to remind them to follow social distance hand sanitisers are kept whereever possible seating arrangements have been made following the distance norms glass enclosures have been provided at counters we are providing maximum possible safety to passengers and that is the reason why air travel in the country turned out to be a safe mode of transport around one lakh passengers have used the airport without any issues ever since flight movement was allowed to operate he said