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Welcome back for another week of TWIT (This Week In Travel) notes. Before we touch on the topic of the day “What Is It Going To Take To Get People Back On Airplanes?” I figured I would ramble for a few moments. I’m currently listening to our town’s school board talk about the plans for reopening schools, and all I can think about is that episode of The Simpsons where Springfield put all the smart people in charge of the town. Needless to say, it didn’t end well.

The article about returning to travel is the main one, but don’t forget about the other links that caught my eye, at the bottom.

If You Have To Fly | You Must Choose One Of These Airlines
Back On Airplanes? | Photo by Farshad Rezvanian on Unsplash

What Is It Going To Take To Get People Back On Airplanes?

The Boston Globe just wrote an article about what it would take to get people back on airplanes. I don’t think that there’s anything in the article that will surprise people, other than the number of surveys that people were willing to take about flying.

HEPA filters could help make travelers feel safe when traveling. Is it going be enough to get people back out there again?

— Korey Matthews, Skift Take

At this point, the best that the airlines can do to get us back on airplanes is clean as much as possible and monitor the air quality that is circulating in the plane.I’ve learned more about HEPA filters than I would have ever dreamed, as they get rolled out across fleets. Etihad has gone so far as to add a “Health Ambassador” on their flights to manage the process.

The article mentions that Norwegian Cruise Line uses them also, which is a good thing, since they’re even more desperate to get customers back than the airlines (Cruise lines aren’t getting government assistance.).

Personally, I don’t think that people will return en masse until we get a vaccine and, even then, some people won’t return (if for no other reason than middle seats are no fun). I don’t think that Zoom is going to take over the world; there’s simply too much business that happens over a handshake (or elbow-bump, whatever the new method of greeting is). But without significant government aid, there are going to be a lot of bankruptcies in the sector.

And if you’re already back on the planes, check out our article about which airlines you should fly if you need to do so.

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What Else Caught My Eye…