Airlines have urged the Biden administration to drop the mandate and international travel rules.
QUICK FACTS:
- The Biden administration is extending a mask mandate for airplanes and transit for 15 days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Wednesday, CNBC reports.
- It said the mandate will stay in effect through May 3.
- The mandate was set to expire after April 18 and following a one-month extension announced in March.
AIRLINES PRESS TO END MASK MANDATES:
- Airlines have required masks on planes since early in the COVID pandemic in 2020, but the Biden administration made them mandatory in early 2021, CNBC notes.
- But airlines have repeatedly asked the administration to drop that requirement and other COVID restrictions, such as predeparture testing for all international arrivals, including citizens.
- “It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do,” a letter from the airlines said.
- “Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions—including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate—that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment,” the letter continued.
- CEOs of Alaska Air, Atlas Air, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, UPS Airlines, and Airlines for America signed the letter, FOX Business notes.
- The CEOs also argued that enforcing the mask mandates has taken a toll on their employees, who have experienced an increase in unruly customers due to masking-related conflicts.
BACKGROUND:
- Biden’s CDC is making the extension due to an apparent increase in COVID cases in the U.S., according to FOX Business.
- The federal travel mask mandate has remained in place even as all 50 states have announced plans to end mask mandates.
