Flying in times of corona

We have booked. I haven't seen my parents in five months and I miss them so much that it gives me a stomach ache. But how will that be on the plane? I have looked into it a bit.

1. Face masks
They are mandatory from the age of 13. I breathe out softly, because with a little autistic one who already struggles with the seatbelt, an extra task on board doesn't really seem like a party to me.

2. The one and a half meters
This is to be observed as much as possible by creating space around the passengers, but I read that KLM says the chance of infection is small due to the efficiency filters that hang in the plane and filter out the virus. The chance of infection would also be low because all noses literally face the same direction. Claudia de Breij wondered in her column in the VARAgids why they don't hang those filters in theaters and that in theaters the same setup applies as in the plane (everyone looks the same way), so why these rules don't apply there, and I can imagine something about that.

3. No service on board
I recently spoke to a flight attendant who occasionally makes a flight again. The fun was a bit gone, she said. Food and drinks are in a bag on your seat, even if you fly business class. There’s something to drink in it, a filled cookie, a nut, that kind of thing. That's what you have to work with. Even if you're flying to Singapore. So don't expect too much in that regard. No friendly cabin crew coming by with the drinks and snacks cart.

4. Separate groups during boarding
Now that seems to me something that should remain for the future. Not all trying to break the world record of squeezing into the aircraft at the same time and not all being highly irritated when someone wants to store their hand luggage in the compartment. Just divide into small groups and board the aircraft in phases.

5. Temperature measurement
At Schiphol, your temperature will be measured. I experienced that in February in Italy and it went very quickly and easily. A thermometer was held to my forehead and that was it. It certainly won't be inserted rectally, no worries.

6. Health declaration
There are destinations that require a health declaration: Canada, Singapore, and South Korea. Check in advance what the requirements are of the country you are going to.

7. Try to keep a distance of one and a half meters as much as possible
On the aircraft, it probably won't work, but during boarding and disembarking and at the baggage claim it will. Also in this regard, it seems to me a nice goal to maintain that? Because that clumping together at the belt was certainly not one of my hobbies.

If you're going: safe travels.