Commercial airlines are positioned to be the most effective means to address global infectious disease epidemics. However, during the Ebola epidemic in 2014, many countries responded by shutting down borders and banning flights to Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in attempts to “quarantine” the outbreak. Later studies demonstrated that these flight bans were not only ineffective in controlling the spread of disease but, at times, kept vital humanitarian assistance from reaching the epidemic, effectively providing conditions for the outbreak to grow. This paper examines lessons learned from commercial airline and nation-state behaviors during the Ebola outbreak to recommend how airlines can navigate between the constraints of their for-profit model and responses from nations during the next infectious disease crisis. To address these issues, we propose that before the next global epidemic, the WHO establish an Essential Air Corridor Policy (EAC) centered on global recognition of the need to keep commercial airlines running to affected countries. This policy would have the WHO organize an auction for airlines to bid on service to epidemic-affected areas while also providing a system of incentives to staff members and other airlines employees. The policy would also mandate that leaders from the airline join talks by global experts on the disease and establish mechanisms to ensure airlines have the latest safety protocols for cleaning equipment and surveillance and quarantine of passengers according to the nature of the disease.
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Ferrell et al. (2018) studied this question.