Before the airlines remove seats they will invent disposable space suits for us to wear while flying.

This. Plus there are so many other places to catch it.

At most, US airlines might block out certain seats in the seating map to try to encourage social distance, or sell fewer tickets per plane and re-assign seats to spread people out, but I doubt they'd spend the money to physically retrofit planes.

Though as long as flight loads are under ~30%, there's probably enough room for people to spread out themselves. I guess part of the question is just how long these low flight loads will be regular.

There is so much to find at fault in this thread its tough to know where to start but ;
Why only US airlines
No airline will remove seats
the world will go back to normal at least in terms of restaurant seating and airline seating etc etc etc, they more it changes, the more it will stay the same, already in China , life is getting back to normal and it will step by step everywhere.

My belief is that here in the US the government will be forced to end the shut down before the crisis is over. It's simple math. The human misery index of millions unemployed (and many can't get through to file for unemployment benefits) will soon surpass the human misery index from COVID-19.

For the past 20 years airlines have had a business model based upon getting a butt in every seat on every flight, or close to it. So how will flyers feel about continuing to rub shoulders with perfect strangers for hours when the virus is still around, or not forgotten and could return?

Airlines could try to keep the draconian cuts in place, jack up fares and try to eek out a profit by flying around 1970s style 50% load factors. Some business travel will continue as well as non price sensitive leisure travel. But what about the ULCCs that have catered to the $49 ow crowd?

I suppose given how at least in the West people have become addicted to cheap prices with $108 round trip transcons they'd be willing to get back into sardine mode. But that's not exactly a recipe for sustained operations.

Just to clarify
1. I only mentioned US airlines because that's the context that I'm familiar with, I don't want to presume about areas of the world I'm less familiar with (shocker for FT, I know).
2. I agree, no airlines will remove seats. (I was saying that in the short term, the digital seating chart/seat assignments might be changed to spread out people, without making any physical changes).
3. Eventually, yes the world will go back to normal. But again, coming from the US, where we were not as aggressive as China in monitoring and containing the virus, I expect the situation to last longer here than it has in China. (And when there are some parts of the world shut down, and some open, to me that likely means there will still be a patchwork of international travel restrictions, at least until there's a feasible cure/vaccine).

Ok we agree no airlines anywhere will remove seats ( the title of this thread ) and the world will get back to normal, its just a question of how long that will take and how.

It looks like I wasn't far off.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/trave...riority-skies/

Looks like you were way, way off, not even a hint of a seat being removed.

And its all ridculous, how can this be safe !

Today is not a new normal -- we are viewing the upside-down-parabola crisis curve from its very nadir -- so there are not going to be permanent infrastructural changes made on the basis of today's realities.

In any event airline economics say it would be less ruinous to just park the planes than to hike prices astronomically and cap LFs at 40%. When it's $3,000 to fly cross-country the 40% LF will be moot because you'd never get enough takers. Very good news for Greyhound though.

Way off? The reason I mentioned remove the seat was to ensure no one can sit in it.

Looks like they are blacking them out. If they don't remove them will they tarp them over to make sure? They are going to have to police it if they leave them in, right?

Is this really a problem? Are people dying to sit in middle seats next to someone else when they have the option to sit in an aisle or window with the middle blocked?

It boggles my mind that people see a forever future with "social distancing". Even right now, there's a ton of people who think it's a load of crap, even with "people dying".

And its accepted now that you need 2-4 meters distance to have any effect, an empty seat width is 100% totally useless as a way to reduce infection.

And Super Mario is right, this is not the future, no one is removing seats or tarping over seats etc etc etc

Suppose the middle seat isn't blocked and someone has a lap chid. With high probability the parent will put the kid in the empty middle seat, right next to the customer with the misfortune to be assigned to sit on the other side of the blocked seat. Alternatively, if a family can't get seats together, they'll move into the middle seat that's supposed to be empty.