People ‘flight shamed’ over air travel during pandemic - Aer Lingus chief

Air travel has not been the “ogre” responsible for spreading coronavirus it has been portrayed as by policymakers, the CE of Aer Lingus has said. Donal Moriarty, Aer Lingus interim CE, said there had been an unfair “degree of toxicity and flight shaming” around international travel. The airline boss maintained that the rates of infection linked to flights and overseas travel was low. “The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control came out earlier this week and showed that international travel was the cause of less than one per cent of infections,” he said. While not outright criticising the Government, or the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), Moriarty said policymakers had relied on “anecdote” when it came to the risk of Covid-19 from flights. “There was certainly a very negative narrative towards travel and it really wasn’t merited by the facts,” he said. v“Travel hasn’t been the ogre it’s portrayed as … There was a degree of toxicity and flight shaming and really we have to move on from that.”<br/>