Another big factor is proximity and the lack of protection when eating/drinking (no mask). Restaurants are mostly limiting to outdoors and/or reduced capacity, while passengers in Y are packed in like sardines. The issue when eating/drinking is that everyone has their mask off at the same time, and there are also many conversations between companions, since they are not being distracted by video/infotainment. This all means that we are breathing quite a bit, with zero protection, and what we are breathing out will end up in the respiratory tract and on the food of our neighbors. There is definitely an increased risk of spreading the virus in this manner. The recent
story about how one passenger infected 15 others(mostly in J) on flight in March to Vietnam highlights just how readily COVID can spread in an airplane when no protective measures are taken (which is exactly what happens during meal/drink service on a flight). There are also quite a few anit-mask people who will exploit this loophole by pretending to be eating/drinking the entire time, just to avoid putting on a mask.