Communicable diseases and pandemics have important implications for airlines and their customers. On this page you will find resources for airlines and other travel professionals medical crews.
COVID-19
IATA continues to monitor developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretariat, ICAO and the US Centers for Disease Control.
Status: COVID-19: Air Travel, Public Health Measures and Risk: A Brief Summary of Current Medical Evidence (pdf)
Other Communicable Diseases
Measles
Measles is still common in many parts of the world including some countries in Europe, Asia, the Pacific and Africa. Anyone who is not protected against measles is at risk of getting infected when traveling internationally.
Ebola
There have been separate outbreaks of Ebola virus disease since February 2021 in both Democratic Republic of the Congo (North Kivu province) and in Equatorial Guinea. For now, this situation doesn’t impact international air travel.
Emergency response
Based on the experience with different outbreaks, IATA has produced an Emergency Response Plan and Action Checklist (pdf), for use by air carriers in the event of a public health emergency.
An important part of this plan involves a series of guidelines and best practices for airline staff in the event of public health emergencies.
- Crew health precautions during pandemic (2020) (pdf)
- Cabin Announcement Scripts (2017) (pdf)
- Universal Precaution Kit (2017) (pdf)
- Cabin Air Quality Brief (pdf)
- Bird Strike (2017) (pdf)
- Maintenance Crew (2017) (pdf)
- Cargo & Baggage Handlers (2017) (pdf)
- Cabin Crew (2017) (pdf)
- Cleaning Crew (2017) (pdf)
- Passenger Agents (2017) (pdf)
- Passenger Locator Form
- Flu Hygiene flyer (pdf)