Airplanes are 'safest place to be' in coronavirus: Barry Diller
Air travel is down 85% from a year ago
Billionaire investor Barry Diller thinks the airline industry should do more to inform customers about the safety of air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Travel businesses have been hit hard over the past three months as efforts to curb the disease's spread prompted consumers to reduce, if not eliminate, nonessential trips. Sales have only now started to pick up as states begin reopening from lockdowns.
“The safest place to be is probably in an airplane because the air is recycled, fresh air every three or four minutes, 15 or 20 times an hour,” Diller, whose IAC spun travel-booking website Expedia in 2005*, told FOX Business’ Maria Baritoromo on Thursday. “You couldn't be in a better atmosphere than in a plane yet people are afraid to fly.”
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXPE | EXPEDIA GROUP INC. | 185.01 | +0.39 | +0.21% |
Just 387,000 passengers passed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on Wednesday, down 85 percent from the 2.5 million a year ago.
While air travel is down sharply, Diller doesn’t think the industry will see a dramatic change as a result of COVID-19. However, he believes airlines may undertake elaborate cleaning procedures and other preventive measures for a time.
Diller thinks wearing masks should be “mandatory” for a while, but he doesn’t think social distancing works in highly concentrated urban areas.
“We're bursting to reopen. It's going to happen,” he said.
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“The only thing that will stop its progression is if we get such an overwhelming uptake, not only in cases, but in the ability of our services to handle the cases,” he added. “Once you start that process, you only go backward if there is a catastrophe.”
*This story was updated to reflect IAC spun off Epxedia in 2005.