At the airport and on the plane

Hand hygiene, and the air you share

Hand hygiene is the single most useful thing a traveller controls in transit. Airports and aircraft are high-touch environments — check-in screens, security trays, handrails, tray tables, lavatory doors — and handwashing with soap and water, or sanitiser where washing is not possible, is the measure that applies on every trip, in every outbreak and in none. The WHO travel-and-health guidance lists safe food and water, sanitation and hygiene among the risks that depend on the traveller, the type of travel and the destination, and it lists food and water safety precautions among the things travellers should be mindful of during travel. The Five Keys to Safer Food on this site cover the food side in full; in transit the same shape applies — wash hands before eating, and be careful with food and water where safety is uncertain. This page does not give personal medical advice, and it does not tell any individual whether they are fit to fly.

What screening is, and when it appears

Screening at airports takes three forms: visual inspection, a questionnaire or health declaration, and temperature measurement, using thermal scanners or other suitable methods. It is the toolbox the IHR framework provides for, and it is event-driven and temporary. Examples from the research behind this area, all dated and all to be re-checked before travel: Singapore’s Changi Airport used temperature and visual screening for mpox from 23 August 2024, and for Nipah from January 2026 on flights from affected areas; Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection stepped up temperature screening at flight gates for arrivals from Russia and Irkutsk Oblast on 12 October 2026, with no ongoing transmission indicated; UK Health Security Agency airport notices were observed at Heathrow during the Ebola surveillance in September 2026. None of these is a standing measure, and none of them is still necessarily in place — that is the point. A traveller who asks “is temperature screening still in place at this airport?” is asking a question only the airport’s and the national health authority’s current notices can answer.

Fit to fly: the questions travellers ask

Four questions come up again and again in search evidence: can I fly with a fever, can airlines refuse boarding if I look unwell, do I need a health declaration form for this airport, and do I need a yellow-fever certificate if I only transit through an airport. The answers, at awareness level: consider postponing travel if you have a fever — the common advice is to wait until fever-free, and a clinician can advise on the individual case; yes, airlines may refuse boarding to a visibly unwell passenger under their conditions of carriage and fitness-to-fly policies, and crew look for fever, persistent cough, vomiting, difficulty breathing, rash and confusion; whether a health declaration is needed depends on the destination and on current outbreak surveillance, as the before-you-fly guide explains; and yellow fever can catch transit passengers — some countries require proof after a transit of more than 12 hours in a yellow-fever-risk airport, which is why the transit rule is the one cross-cutting rule this area explains in full. None of these answers is personal advice. If the question is about your own health, the answer belongs to a clinician.

If you feel unwell in transit

Tell someone. At the airport, tell airport staff or the airline’s staff; on the plane, tell the cabin crew. Crew are trained to respond to a passenger who becomes ill, the aircraft carries medical equipment, and the captain can seek medical advice from the ground and, if needed, divert. Do not wait until you land, and do not try to manage it silently in your seat. The IHR framework is built around exactly this: designated airports must have access to medical services placed so ill travellers can be assessed and cared for promptly, with staff, equipment and premises, and transport to an appropriate medical facility. Reporting illness also protects other travellers: it is how an airport’s public-health contingency plan is triggered, and how a possible public-health event is detected at the point of entry rather than days later, somewhere else.

What this page does not claim

This page does not describe the health measures at any named airport, because for 44 of the 50 busiest airports no airport-specific health item was found in the research behind this area — no airport-operator health page was opened for all 50 airports. That is absence of evidence, not evidence of absence, and no airport on this site is described as having “no measures”. The measures that are named on these pages are the dated, sourced ones: Singapore’s arrival card and screening, India’s Air Suvidha 2.0, Hong Kong’s gate screening, the US DRC attestation, and the UK notices at Heathrow. Everything else is the general framework and the general guidance, which is what an awareness site can honestly publish.

Frequently asked questions

Can I fly with a fever?

Consider postponing travel if you have a fever. Airlines may deny boarding to a visibly unwell passenger, and crew look for fever, persistent cough, vomiting, difficulty breathing, rash and confusion. A clinician can advise on the individual case — this page does not.

Is temperature screening still in place at airports?

It depends on the airport and on whether an outbreak is under surveillance. Screening is event-driven and temporary. Check the airport's and the national health authority's current notices before travel.

What do I do if I feel ill on the plane?

Tell the cabin crew. They are trained to respond, and the aircraft has a procedure for a passenger who becomes ill. Do not wait until landing.