cabin air humidity
 

We flew from IAD to Brussels last week.
After two hours my sinuses started to ache and I had rock hard secretions in my nose.
The first two days after this flight both my wife and I still had painful dry sinuses and had blood in handkerchief when we blew our nose.
Still now , 5 days later : stll present dry ache up in nose.

We fly this flight often and experienced the consequences of too dry air before. Never as bad as now.

So : my complaint is : better air quality (humidity % in cabin) please.
We know more humidity means more weight and thus fuel cost.
Bad economy.
Where will they try to save next ???

Christian from Belgium

Humidity means more weight? LMAO. It's not an issue of economics :)

Water vapor is bad for aircraft pneumatic lines. It is conducive to ice forming at those altitudes.

Cabin air is taken from the engine compressors before fuel is added to light it off. It's very dry.

Oceanic-length flights can reduce humidity down toward single-digits.

Drink water, a lot of it. Hydrate yourself.

There is no humidity control on current commercial aircraft. The 787 is purported to have a difference pressurazation system that will increase humidty/comfort, but even now they are having some unexpected icing conditions from it.

There is NO WAY to add humidity in the cabin!!! Never was, except on the 747. Those were taken out due to stale air, and health issues.....unbelievable what people expect from an airline, What no tepid bath drawn either? You HAD A COLD, YOU GAVE IT TO YOUR WIFE!!

Hi,

I have to agree with the others. There are some aspects of the on-board environment that the airline- as the operator of the aircraft-- can not really "fix"..

While the aircraft may "belong" (in general terms as there are many leased aircraft which are not a ownership basis) to the airline, they are NOT free to make changes to it as they please.. ANY modifications have to undergo a pretty rigorous screening process.

So largely you and I have to live with whatever the aircraft is built to provide in terms of air flow systems and the like. Hopefully going forward the enviornment on next-gen aircraft will be better.

The new Boeing 787 has more humidity in the cabin air, but they're able to do that through some serious cabin air redesigns.