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One sky, many standards: a call to update the fitness to fly guideline for passengers with cardiovascular disease

heartjnl · 2026-04-13 · canonical JSON source

10 visible annotations · policy: published · automated confidence ≥ 75.00%

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In 2010, the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) commissioned a working group to produce a report on cardiovascular passenger fitness to fly (FTF).1 This document provided a detailed review of the environmental stressors encountered during commercial air travel—such as hypobaric hypoxia and thromboembolic risk—and has since served as a key reference for both specialists and non-specialists assessing passenger FTF. While the environmental challenges of commercial air travel have remained largely unchanged, today’s flying population is increasingly affected by multimorbidity and rising disease complexity.2 As the population of patients with cardiovascular disease continues to evolve, advances in cardiovascular medicine have resulted in frequent revisions of international guidelines, including those issued by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology. Comparable developments have been observed across other specialties, with scientific communities such as the British Thoracic Society and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists updating their respective FTF guidance in response to emerging evidence. In contrast, the current BCS report is now 15 years old and does not incorporate significant updates in international cardiovascular practice. The objective of this letter is to highlight the need for a revised BCS report that reflects contemporary developments in cardiovascular care and aligns with current international standards.