Ebola is a bloodborne pathogen, not a respiratory (airborne) pathogen. No pathogen has ever been known to change its mode of transmission. Unless someone is spraying bloody bodily fluids into the plane’s air handling systems, it is highly unlikely that Ebola would spread via the cabin air.
If the Ebola passenger were symptomatic and had physical contact with the passenger next to him, then there is a possibility that the adjacent passenger could get Ebola.
I seriously wish the author of The Hot Zone would have never written that book. It is responsible for more misinformation about Ebola. There are diseases right here in the US that are just as deadly (if not more deadly) than Ebola, and at least one spreads through an aerosol route—but no one freaks out about those.
Sneezing, coughing and vomiting could induce airborne transmission, especially in a crowded airline cabin.
The CDC upgraded from N-95 facial masks , to N-100, to improved particulate respirators, and transparent facial shields
since mucus membranes (eyes, nose, and throat) are the most susceptible receptors to the Ebola virus.
The Ebola virus, if airborne, can remain active as a contaminant for up to two hours outside the host.