Tracking Sky-High Illnesses: CDC Wants Your Thoughts on Air Travel Data
Published Date: 1/13/2026
Notice
Summary
The CDC wants your thoughts on a plan to collect info about illnesses and deaths linked to air travel. This helps stop diseases from spreading between states or from other countries into the U.S. If you have ideas, send them by March 16, 2026—this effort aims to keep everyone safer without adding extra hassle or costs.
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 4 costs, 0 mixed.
Airlines must share passenger manifests
The CDC will collect conveyance, passenger, and crew contact information (manifests) from airlines to support contact investigations for communicable diseases. This collection is intended to help prevent spread of disease across states and from other countries into the United States.
Airline staff must comply with manifest orders
Airline medical officers, manifest information systems managers, or safety/administrative managers may need to respond to CDC manifest orders: the submission estimates 350 respondents at 150 minutes each (875 hours) for international manifest orders and 500 respondents at 90 minutes each (750 hours) for domestic manifest orders. The notice states there is no cost other than respondents' time.
Travelers may need to fill illness forms
Travelers may be asked to complete forms such as the Air Travel Illness or Death Investigation Form (estimated 4,000 respondents at 15 minutes each, totaling 1,000 hours) and Public Health Passenger Locator Forms for limited onboard exposure (545 respondents each for international and domestic flights at 5 minutes each, totaling 45 hours each). These forms collect information used for contact investigations when a traveler is suspected or confirmed to be infectious.
Crew must report onboard illness or death
Pilots, masters of vessels, and comparable persons in charge must submit reports when death or communicable illness occurs onboard (examples: pilot report of death/illness onboard — 500 respondents at 7 minutes each; pilot death/illness reports from aircraft — 1,400 respondents at 7 minutes each; master of vessel — 200 respondents at 7 minutes each). These reports support CDC and public health follow-up under 42 CFR parts 70 and 71.
Public health staff must report investigation outcomes
State, local, territorial, and international public health staff are expected to submit investigation outcome reporting forms for air travel contact investigations (examples and totals include: 60 respondents at 5 minutes, 72 respondents at 5 minutes, 51 respondents at 10 minutes, and other small entries). The CDC estimates total annualized burden hours for the collection at 2,981 hours and states there is no cost to respondents other than their time.
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