Back-to-front-boarding on planes increases COVID risk by 50%: study

Back-to-front-boarding (BTFB), a change adopted by some airlines in the Covid times to reduce exposure of passengers to one another, increases the chance of infection by 50 per cent, as inferred from a scientific study published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal.

As per the BTFB, passengers at the back seats will board first and fills towards the front instead of random boarding.

The study, published on Wednesday, shows that even though the BTFB method reduces exposure with seated passengers and those walking down the aisle, the passengers in the same row could contact when they crowd in the aisle to load their luggage.

In addition to BTFB, airlines also adopted measures like boarding ten passengers at a time and blocking out middle seats. But the study says that these policies are not productive but causing more harm.

The researchers including scientists from the University of West Florida and Florida State University scientists simulated 16,000 possible passenger movements for studying the best boarding methods to reduce the risk of virus exposure.

The study suggested that the risk of virus spread could be decreased by stopping the passengers from using overhead storage racks and by boarding passengers in window seats first.