I, and others, have noticed that we all have a high probability of getting sick due to air travel.  We often get a cold that makes our vacation suck, or even forces its termination.  Or we come home and get sick.  Or both!

This simple suggestion seems to dramatically reduce the problem of airline travel sickness:  bring a little baggy of antiseptic wipes, and as soon as you sit down in your airline seat, wip down every surface that you might touch.  That includes the light and air and remote controls, the tray, the recline button, your seat-belt buckle, and - everything.  If you do have to go to the bathroom, then do not touch your face with your hands once you've left your seat.  When you return from your bathroom adventure, wipe your hands with antiseptic.

The big danger is from touching contaminated surfaces and then touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.  Or anything that will go into your mouth.  The airline air filtration is pretty good and keeping air clean, but when someone sneezes, liquid micro-drops get on everything.  So if you have a long flight near a sick person, try wiping down the surfaces again, mid-flight.

Airplanes are also very dry.  Counter that with saline spray, and by drinking water.

Note that airplane cabin pressure changes a lot  If you are already having a runny nose, pressures can force infected nasal mucus up into your sinuses, giving you a sinus infection.  if so you should probably take a shot of  nasal spray (e.g. Flonase or Afrin) at the start of your flight see recommended use of sprays in an earlier blog).  If you can force medicine into your sinus tubes, then they will drain during the flight - and they will not give you that terrible pressure headache. Also, you will likely avoid a sinus infection.

I personally use Flonase now. It is an anti-inflammatory that opens airways by reducing the size of the cells that line them. Vasoconstricting decongestant sprays, like Afrin, work by limiting the amount of mucus secretions and "drying" your nasal passages; I think that the mucus secretions actually help your recovery. The side-effects of Flonase can include "upper respiratory tract infection, throat irritation, thrush, cough, and headache" but I have avoided these by using only one squirt into my clearest nostril, then rabbit-sniffing that dose back and forth for 30 seconds with my head upside down, so that (1) it is fully absorbed in my upper nose instead of draining into my throat and lungs, (2) it gets to both nostrils by being sniffed back past the septum and forth into both nostrils. After that 30 seconds of rabbit-sniffing, I usually hold my nose (head still inverted) and blow to force the medicated mucus into the start of my sinus drain tubes. You can so this same thing with Afrin (or whatever) so that you absorb that Afrin in the nasal passages and sinus drains; that way you only need one Afrin squirt in a single nostril, and so avoid some of the side effects, but you'll still likely get nasal rebound congestion.