By Christopher Muther
Safe Travel Barometer pulled together a series of lists that looks at COVID-19 safety protocols across 10 different industries. Here are the results from the airline study.

As you may have heard from many, many, many sources this fall, holiday travel is not recommended. If it’s fun, the rule of thumb for 2020 is that it’s not allowed. Therefore, you’ve been asked to politely tuck away your dreams of family gatherings, much the way you would tuck away stuffing in a turkey. A turkey that you should not be consuming with a large group.

That said, please don’t take the information I’m about to impart as an endorsement of travel. It isn’t. But if you are still planning to visit loved ones, a website called the Safe Travel Barometer (safetravelbarometer.com) has pulled together a series of tidy lists that looks at COVID-19 safety protocols across 10 different industries, ranging from airlines to amusement parks, and then offers scores based on the precautions being taken at each. Those precautions include (but are by no means limited to) the availability of hand sanitizer, issuing of free masks, frequency of cleaning, thermal screenings, and all of the other things that have made this year about as fun as watching an army of gypsy moth caterpillars strip the leaves from the trees in your front yard.

First the bad news. Honestly, after that cheery intro did you think I would start with good news? The Safe Travel Barometer found that North American airlines are not up to snuff with their international aviation compatriots. The only US airline to wind up in the top 10 of COVID-19 safety protocols was Delta (Emirates snagged the top score internationally). Going down the list, the only other US airline in the top 20 was Southwest Airlines. Keep scrolling, and eventually you’ll find Alaska Air at 35 and United at 38.

If you’re not keen to do all that scrolling, then the Safe Travel Barometer allows you to group airlines by country. Delta is tops in North America, and — no surprise here — Spirit Airlines lands with a thud at the bottom of the list. The top barometer score an airline can receive is a 5.

Read original story on Boston Globe.