The Department of Transportation (DOT) is expected to release a national aviation pandemic preparedness plan this year and the FAA is paving the way for disease mitigation research, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported. However, that plan comes nine years after the GAO first recommended it and four years after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. And while the preparedness plan is congressionally mandated, the disease mitigation research is not yet, the watchdog pointed out.

In a report released this week, "Key Lessons from Covid-19 Preparedness and Emergency Financial Assistance to the Industry," the GAO found that “greater federal leadership could benefit both aviation pandemic preparedness and disease mitigation research.”

The GAO recommended in 2015 that the DOT develop the plan after the nation faced outbreaks of Ebola and other viruses. Congress in 2022 mandated that plan. “Such a plan is needed to avoid the piecemeal response seen early in the Covid-19 pandemic,” the watchdog stated. “Stakeholders GAO spoke to in 2020 and 2021 said confidence in air travel could have been restored more quickly with greater federal coordination.”

Heather Krause, managing director of physical infrastructure for GAO, in a podcast noted that well before Covid, outbreaks such as SARS and Ebola showed how vulnerable the aviation system is to communicable disease threats. “That type of plan and being prepared to respond as a communicable disease threat emerges is really important,” she said, adding that such a plan could have reduced some of the confusion among aviation stakeholders and passengers early in the pandemic. “[The] DOT has now started to make some progress on that plan and expects to issue it at the end of this calendar year,” Krause said.

The GAO in 2022 also had recommended that federal leadership was necessary to advance research on disease transmission in air travel, including an examination of real-world situations and the effectiveness of mitigations.

Krause said the GAO report in 2022 looked at research on how air moves in an aircraft and the effect of different airline operations on disease transmission. “But stakeholders that we spoke with told us that more real-world research is needed that incorporates factors such as human behavior. So how folks move through an aircraft. How that might affect disease transmission, as well as some of the challenges that they face in conducting that kind of research, like lack of access to aircraft or data,” she said. “That led us to recommending to Congress that they direct the FAA to develop and implement a strategy to identify and advance needed research when it comes to communicable disease in air travel.”

On the financial end, the GAO looked at Covid-19 assistance programs, including the Payroll Support Program (PSP), CARES Act loan program, airport grants, and the Aviation Manufacturing Jobs Protection Program. The DOT and Treasury Department quickly distributed funds through these programs but did not always have the proper safeguards in place at the time, the GAO noted, citing as an example a slower implementation of a monitoring plan for PSP.

“Financial and other safeguards, when developed before distributing assistance, can help agencies minimize risks associated with emergency funding,” the GAO maintained.

Further, clear communication surrounding such programs is important, the watchdog said, noting reports of confusion among some program applicants. However, aviation entities credited the programs with providing critical support.