The middle or aisle seat is blocked
Some passengers do have a major concern with regards to physical distancing anywhere, even on board an aircraft. While mandatory social distancing on board may be disastrous to an airline’s balance sheet, Philippine Airlines found a way to still make social distancing on board possible for those conscious passengers.
Introducing, “Distancing Seats”, a new product that will be available on PAL aircraft beginning July 1 and will be available for both domestic and international flights. These are premium economy and a select economy seats where either the aisle or the middle seat beside will be left empty.
The distancing seat is available for all who book premium economy and economy flex tickets from July 1 onwards.
Available on all aircraft types
The distancing seat option is available on all aircraft of Philippine Airlines and PAL Express, all the way from the Boeing 777-300ER all the way to the De Havilland Dash-8 turboprop. Checking the configuration of where these seats will be located, PAL’s seatmaps show that these will be on seats somewhere near the front to middle portion, of the aircraft, behind business class.
All premium economy seats will have a distancing option while not more than half of the economy seats that follow will also have the “distancing” option.
To see the location of these seats, please click this. You may also check this portion for more information on the Distancing Seat option.
Stringent biosecurity measures still at place
PAL’s “Distancing Seat” option was opened to passengers who are not comfortable flying with someone beside them, especially those who are very conscious on physical distancing. Despite this, the airline will still be implementing strict biosecurity measures to ensure the safety of all passengers. These include health checks in the airport, disinfection of aircraft after every flight, and the mandatory wearing of face masks at all times.
Regular economy seats still available
PAL passengers may still avail of the regular economy seats where the seat right beside may be occupied, however, this does not mean that risks of possible coronavirus transmission is higher when seated in that section.
Research and reports done by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) show that risk of transmission on board is low, thanks to the HEPA filters on board which catches contaminants including viruses with a 99.9% efficiency, the direction of air flow which is from top to bottom, the injection of fresh air into the cabin, and the forward facing position of passengers.
Mandatory phyical distancing on board throughout all classes however is still deemed by the IATA as disastrous and may cause fares to either rise or the airlines to lose more money.
