On the Effectiveness of Flight Ban Strategies in the Fight Against COVID-19 Variants of Concern

21 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2022

See all articles by Xiaoqian Sun

Xiaoqian Sun

Beihang University (BUAA) - School of Electronic and Information Engineering

Sebastian Wandelt

Beijing Key Laboratory for Network-based Cooperative ATM

Changhong Zheng

Beihang University (BUAA)

Anming Zhang

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Sauder School of Business

Date Written: February 10, 2022

Abstract

Initial hopes for a quick disappearance of COVID-19 seem to fade away gradually, partially due to the emergence of new virus variants, which come with an inherent possibility for breakthrough infections. In this study, we take the recently emergent variant of concern B.1.1.529, labeled as Omicron by the WHO, as a motivating example for analyzing the possibilities flight bans provide for effectively containing the disease spreading process of such variants before they become widely spread. We compare several flight ban strategies including source-targeted bans, spatial neighbor bans, and flight neighbor bans, under varying simulation parameters. We hope that our results contribute to our aviation system becoming more pandemic-resilient.

Note:
Funding: This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71731001).

Declaration of Interests: None to declare.

Keywords: COVID-19, pandemics, air transportation, variants of concern

Suggested Citation

Sun, Xiaoqian and Wandelt, Sebastian and Zheng, Changhong and Zhang, Anming, On the Effectiveness of Flight Ban Strategies in the Fight Against COVID-19 Variants of Concern (February 10, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4031490 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4031490

Xiaoqian Sun

Beihang University (BUAA) - School of Electronic and Information Engineering ( email )

Beijing
China

Sebastian Wandelt (Contact Author)

Beijing Key Laboratory for Network-based Cooperative ATM ( email )

Beijing
China

Changhong Zheng

Beihang University (BUAA) ( email )

37 Xue Yuan Road
Beijing 100083
China

Anming Zhang

University of British Columbia (UBC) - Sauder School of Business ( email )

2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Canada

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