The airline world lobby group IATA – the International Air Transportation Association – has been consistently awful throughout the pandemic. They’ve argued for government subsidies and that passengers shouldn’t be entitled to refunds for cancelled flights.

Now they are coming out against middle seat blocking. Here they are mostly correct that,

• It will be financially costly to airlines to give up perhaps a third of the aircraft space. That means higher fares on a reduced number of routes that can support those fares, or big losses into the future.
  
• It won’t help very much, since you still have people within a couple of feet of you on multiple sides.

Ignore their selective reading of the data about whether viruses spread on board, and glossing over the aircraft that lack HEPA filters. It’s a good thing that everyone is facing the same direction on most flights and that seat backs are (mostly) a physical barrier between passengers.

IATA advocates social distancing in airports, but doesn’t think the same thing should extend to planes, in order words impose costs on others but not their members.

I used to have a great deal of respect for IATA, but like the CDC, FDA, WHO, and United Airlines their status has fallen markedly during the coronavirus crisis.