--- title: How to Avoid Getting Sick on a Plane, According to Science description: A new study says choosing a window seat on an airplane may help you stay healthy and avoid getting sick during flights. canonical: https://time.com/5207334/how-to-stay-healthy-while-flying/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-20T18:36:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:57:59.467Z article:section: Health og:title: How to Avoid Getting Sick on a Plane, According to Science og:description: The secret is picking the right seat og:url: https://time.com/5207334/how-to-stay-healthy-while-flying/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04ba309c9b939a0e/69892b848fd2ee10a935b183/airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5022 og:image:height: 2825 og:image:alt: Commercial jet In flight og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How to Avoid Getting Sick on a Plane, According to Science twitter:description: The secret is picking the right seat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04ba309c9b939a0e/69892b848fd2ee10a935b183/airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How to Avoid Getting Sick on a Plane, According to Science  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 20, 2018 6:36 PM UTC  Commercial jet in flight at sunset Commercial jet in flight at sunsetGetty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Mar 20, 2018 6:36 PM UTC Choosing the right seat may be the simplest way to stay healthy on your next flight, according to a new study. Picking the window seat — and staying put for the duration of your flight — minimizes your chances of coming into contact with a sick passenger and picking up their pathogens yourself, [according to a paper](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/03/13/1711611115) published Monday in _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences._ People seated along the aisle are most likely to encounter potentially ill passengers or crew members as they move around the plane, possibly upping their chances of infection. That finding may seem obvious, but the study is among the first to look specifically at how disease spreads on airplanes, given the widespread belief that [flying raises your risk of getting sick](http://time.com/4972452/why-you-get-sick-planes-after-long-flights/). The researchers behind the new paper traveled on 10 domestic flights, tracking the movements of passengers and crew members during the trips. During the 10 flights, which lasted between 3.5 and five hours each, they only observed one person actively coughing. Swabbing and testing seatbelt buckles also didn’t turn up evidence of any of 18 different respiratory-illness-causing viruses on any of the planes, even though eight of the flights occurred during flu season. Nonetheless, the researchers were able to create disease transmission models using the passengers’ movement patterns, as well as what scientists already know about the way respiratory illnesses are spread — namely by sick people coughing, sneezing [or breathing](http://time.com/5109729/flu-spread-breathing/) around others. They found that the 11 people seated closest to a hypothetical sick passenger — the two others in their row, the three passengers in the rows in front of and behind them and the three passengers seated in these rows across the aisle — are the most likely to get sick, while nearly everyone else on the plane has a negligible risk. Outside this radius, people in window seats have the lowest overall risk of getting sick, the researchers write.  Image via PNAS All told, a sick passenger is likely to infect, at most, two other travelers, while an ill crew member — who likely moves around the cabin far more during a flight — could infect four or five, the paper says. That said, the researchers note that crew members are unlikely to work if they’re very sick, and if they do, they may take medication, which can reduce the risk of transmission. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5207334/how-to-stay-healthy-while-flying/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5207334/how-to-stay-healthy-while-flying/"},"headline":"How to Avoid Getting Sick on a Plane, According to Science","datePublished":"2018-03-20T18:36:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:57:59.467Z","description":"The secret is picking the right seat","url":"https://time.com/5207334/how-to-stay-healthy-while-flying/","keywords":["Research","onetime","healthytime","Evergreen"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04ba309c9b939a0e/69892b848fd2ee10a935b183/airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt04ba309c9b939a0e/69892b848fd2ee10a935b183/airplane.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Commercial jet In flight","caption":"Commercial jet In flight","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5207334/how-to-stay-healthy-while-flying/","name":"How to Avoid Getting Sick on a Plane, According to Science"}}]}] ```