To help revive the wrecked travel industry, aviation trading groups and aviation manufacturers are starting a campaign to convince travelers that the risk of being infected by the corona virus in low flights is thanks to improved cleaning efforts and a sophisticated cabin ventilation system.

Medical experts tend to agree, with one caveat: Rising risk because more passengers are crammed into the plane.

However, a group representing several low-cost airlines in the country is asking for permission from federal regulators to pack passengers into the cabin without having to issue them to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.

National Air Carrier Assn., A trade group for 18 low-cost passenger and cargo transportation, wrote last month to the U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, argued about any capacity limits, including the requirement that the airline leave the middle seat empty.

The group wrote that imposing “arbitrary” capacity limits on operators could lead to higher fares or even airline bankruptcy.

Trading group, which has several airlines the narrowest seat in the industry, wrote a letter in response to a request from Democrats on the congressional transportation committee, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), that Chao requires airlines to eject passengers to reduce the risk of infection.

Chao has not yet responded to the request.

Consumer groups also participated in the debate.

The head of the plane’s passenger rights group said that Chao and the U.S. Department of Transportation must enforce regulations to force airlines to eject passengers.

“If they don’t do something, they will make us a big point,” said Paul Hudson, member of the FAA regulatory advisory committee and president of Flyersrights.org, a consumer group with more than 60,000 members.

Hudson called the trade group’s request to allow airlines to package passengers without complying with the CDC’s recommendations on “silly” social distances. He also wants federal regulators to require passengers to wear masks.

The largest stewardess union in the country has considered, asking lawmakers to ask for masks on all passengers and, for the time being, prohibits free time and air travel that is not essential to reduce the risk of infecting flight crews.

The pandemic has revived an old debate about the risk of being infected by fellow passengers on commercial aircraft.

Health experts agree with the aviation industry that the risk of being infected by other passengers is low.

“It’s not risk free to travel on commercial airplanes but the risk is relatively low,” Dr. Dean Winslow, infectious disease specialist at Stanford University Medical Center and former flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force

Winslow and other health experts say air on airplanes is often recirculated, mixed with clean and filtered outside air, making it difficult for germs and viruses to travel throughout the cabin. But the air flow system doesn’t help much, they noted, if you sit shoulder to shoulder with sick passengers on long-haul flights.

“Flying on a plane is relatively safe from transmission of infectious particles if you are not near other people,” Dr. Timothy Brewer, a professor of medicine, an infectious disease division at the David Geffen University School of Medicine, UCLA. “If they are going to package an aircraft … then there is a higher risk.”

To increase travel demand, Airlines for America, the trade group representing the ten largest airlines in the country, recently launched “Healthy Flying.” Fly Smart Campaign “to promote industrial efforts to reduce the risk of infection on aircraft. The campaign also stressed that cabin air was filtered through high efficiency particulate air filters (HEPA) to produce hospital-level air for passengers.

International Air Transport Assn., A trade group representing 290 airlines in 120 countries, recently plunged into battle with a report titled “Restart Flights Following COVID-19.” The report cites several studies which show that the number of passengers infected by coronaviruses on airplanes is minimal.

Meanwhile, Boeing announced last week the appointment of longtime executive Mike Delaney to lead the Trust Travel Initiative to develop “solutions to help minimize the health risks of air travel amid a COVID-19 pandemic and encourage awareness of existing health protection.”

This initiative will study the use of new disinfectants, antimicrobial surfaces, and ultraviolet rays in the aircraft cabin to reduce the risk of infection. In addition, Boeing is making graphics, videos and website pages to help airlines promote the technology currently used on aircraft, said Jim Haas, director of product marketing.

“We are trying to spread the message everywhere,” he said.

Delta’s chief executive, Ed Bastain, said that he plans to test all employees for COVID-19 when operators prepare for increased demand this summer.

The reason is clear. Passenger traffic at the U.S. airport began to decline dramatically, starting mid-March, to a low level of less than 88,000 passengers on April 14, based on the number of passengers screened by the Transportation Security Administration. On the same date last year, TSA filtered out 2.2 million leaflets.

Since then, total daily passengers screened at U.S. airports has risen to the highest level of nearly 353,000 as of May 31.

Ari Rastegar, a real estate investment executive from Austin, is among those who are ready to fly again. He stopped flying for business when the COVID-19 pandemic first invaded the United States, but he is now returning to do three or four airline trips in a month. He wore a mask and wiped the surface with disinfectant.

“Everything is at risk,” said chief executive Rastegar Property Co. in Austin. “You can catch a cold. You can get hit by a car. We cannot live in constant fear. We must continue our lives and become resilient.”

Rastegar, 38, believes that the risk of being infected on a plane is relatively low as long as he wears a mask, washing his hands and wiping the surface. He also praised the airlines for more often cleaning the cabin and requiring passengers to wear masks.

“I took these precautions and put on my mask, at the same time I did not lock myself in,” he said.

Many state airlines responded to the outbreak by adopting improved cleaning protocols and requiring passengers and crew members to wear face masks. Delta Air Lines announced this week that it would make the middle seats on the aircraft empty until September 30 to help create the distance between passengers. Other operators, such as JetBlue, also promised to keep the middle seat open.

Some operators have eliminated or reduced their traditional food and beverage services to reduce interaction with flight crew.

But determining the exact source of infection is not easy. That Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that all types of travel can increase the risk of infection due to close contact with others, whether in a taxi on the way to the airport or in the security check lane.

The CDC added that “most viruses and other germs do not spread easily in aircraft cabins because of how air circulates and is filtered on aircraft.”

Inside the cabin, filtered air mixed with outside air blows on the passenger from the vents on the seat and escapes through the vents under the seats. This system reduces the chance that germs and viruses can travel through the length of the cabin, according to aviation industry experts.

“The design of aircraft flow for air recirculation is actually done very wisely,” Brewer said.

In its report, the International Air Transport Assn., The global airline trade group, cited an informal survey of 18 airlines, which represented 14% of global air traffic, which did not find cases of virus transmission from passenger to passenger from January to March.

The report also included a study of 1,100 passengers who were infected with the virus and had recently flown. The report concluded that of the 125,000 passengers flying with infected passengers, only one additional passenger and two crew members were suspected of being infected due to in-flight transmissions.

But the report also cited an investigation into a flight from Britain to Vietnam on March 2 which suggested that one passenger transmitted the virus to another 14 leaflets and a crew member. Twelve infected passengers sat near the infected passenger.

The country’s airlines got a boost in their efforts when a Harvard public health expert published a opinion pieces in the Washington Post May 18, arguing that the risk of infection flying on commercial aircraft is low because the HEPA filter captures 99.9% of particles in the air and the air is recirculated every five to six minutes.

“You are more at risk of getting sick while traveling, but not the plane that makes you sick,” according to Joseph Allen, assistant professor of exposure assessment at Harvard T.H. Chan Public Health School. “Every time you fly, you can also take a taxi, bus or subway, stand in long lines at the airport, eat unhealthy food, sit for a long time. … All of these factors are known to affect your immune system. ”

The Airlines for America “Healthy Flying. The Fly Smart Campaign “cites Allen’s article in his campaign literature, as did the National Air Carrier Assn. in his letter to Chao.

“The concept of social distance is almost impossible to achieve in confined spaces such as aircraft cabins,” National Air Carrier Assn. said in his letter that opposed cabin capacity limits. “The aircraft cabin, however, is a safe environment.”