  Despite commercial airlines mandating masks, there have been multiple
documented events of COVID-19 superspreading on flights. We used available data
from three flights, including cabin layout and seat locations of infected and
uninfected passengers, to suggest interventions to mitigate COVID-19
superspreading events during air travel. Specifically, we studied: 1) London to
Hanoi with 201 passengers, including 13 secondary infections among passengers;
2) Singapore to Hangzhou with 321 passengers, including 12 to 14 secondary
infections; 3) a non-superspreading event on a private jet in Japan with 9
passengers and no secondary infections. We show that inclusion of passenger
movement better explains the infection spread patterns than conventional models
do. We also found that FFP2/N95 mask usage would have reduced infection by
95-100%, while cloth masks would have reduced it by only 40-80%. This suggests
the need for more stringent guidelines to reduce aviation-related
superspreading events of COVID-19.
