A new research conducted to minimise the risk of secondary infections aboard has used two models to help solve the airplane seating assignment problem because COVID-19 has been shown to spread on airplanes by infected passengers.
The models can lower the transmission risk of COVID-19 more so than the strategy of blocking the middle seats, given the same number of passengers. The results of the study were published in the INFORMS journal Service Science.
“Blocking the middle seat on an airplane may provide limited benefit in reducing the risk of transmission of COVID-19. Rather, other health protocols are better supported at preventing the transmission of the virus,” said Sheldon Jacobson, Founder Professor of computer science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
