Effect of Vaccination on Risk of Exposure to Airborne Infectious Disease During the Boarding Process in a Commercial Aircraft Using Agent-Based Simulation

As increasing proportions of the world's population have received at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID-19, everyday activities start to be resumed, including travels. The present study investigates the impact of immunization on the risk of exposure to an infectious disease such as COVID-19, during the boarding process in a commercial airplane. An agent-based simulation model considers different vaccine types and vaccination rates among passengers. The results show significant decrease in the median exposure risk, when the vaccination rate increases from 0% to 100%, but also that people in seats adjacent to an infectious passenger are in much higher risk, for a similar vaccination coverage. Such results provide quantitative evidence of the importance of mass immunization, and also that, when full vaccination is not guaranteed for 100% of passengers, it may be recommendable to avoid full occupancy of the aircraft, by implementing physical distancing when assigning seats. © 2022 IEEE.

Investigation of airborne exposure risk to infectious diseases during aircraft boarding process using agent-based modeling

The aircraft boarding process is characterized by great movement and close contact between passengers in a confined space, which is a situation of particular concern considering the risk of exposure to airborne infectious diseases such as the COVID-19. In order to evaluate the airborne exposure risk during a commercial aircraft boarding process, an agent-based simulation model approach is adopted in the present work. Since the elderly population is one of the most at risk groups, special features are included in the simulation model in order to evaluate how this group is affected in the process. Three aspects are considered: priority boarding (elders boarding order);boarding strategy;and social distancing measures. The main findings are that care must be taken when interpreting average exposure risks, since although the overall risk of exposure is low, there may be cases in which significant risk is presented. © 2022, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.

Measuring Proximity of Individuals during Aircraft Boarding Process with Elderly Passengers Through Agent-Based Simulation

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed severe restrictions to the mobility of people worldwide, bringing as a consequent great losses to the air transportation industry. The evaluation of biosafety risk has never been more critical for the recovery of transport and economic activity. Elderly passengers constitute a specially vulnerable population to infectious diseases. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the factors that lead to increased proximity of individuals during the boarding process when elderly passengers are present. In order to do so, an agent-based simulation model was built to represent the boarding process in a Boeing 737 aircraft. The simulated results indicate that elderly passengers are less exposed to contact with other individuals during boarding process when they are the last passengers to come onboard and social distancing actions are taken, although this strategy may increase total boarding time. © 2021 IEEE.