Ludite

Airport managements in Thailand seem to be doing a good job trying to keep passengers socially distanced e.g. at gate lounges seats are clearly marked for social distancing but are the airlines doing the same? Proper social distancing could be critical in minimising the spread of Covid and particularly the new highly transmissible variant of the virus that is spreading fast in the UK.

On a flight to Chiang Mai today on a major domestic airline, at a time when there are worrying concerns about a resurgence of infections in different parts of Thailand, passengers were seated close together without any apparent concern for social distancing. There were three in our row,  my partner and I and a Thai while across the aisle just one person sat in a row of three. In fact there was uneven seating throughout the aircraft. With more care passenger seating could be more evenly spaced.

On arrival at Chiang Mai all passengers on board our aircraft were off loaded onto just 2 busses. On our bus there was less than half an arm’s length between passengers, hardly social distancing. This lack of social distancing by airlines needs to be addressed.