Tipsheet

Airline CEOs Have a Few Demands of Biden As the Rest of the Country Returns to Normal

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  March 24, 2022 9:45 AM

The executives leading ten American passenger and cargo airlines signed a letter to President Biden on Wednesday noting that "it is past time to eliminate COVID-era transportation policies" including the federal mask mandate and international predeparture testing requirement. 

"The persistent and steady decline of hospitalization and death rates are the most compelling indicators that our country is well protected against severe disease from COVID-19," the letter notes. "Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions...that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment."

Representing Alaska Air, American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx Express, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and UPS Airlines, the industry leaders touted their support and cooperation with the "federal government's measures" surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic until now, but noted that "much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context."

"The predeparture test requirement...has outlived its utility and stymies the return of international travel," the letter states. "The United Kingdom (UK), the European Union and Canada have recognized this reality and lifted travel restrictions. The U.S. inconsistency with these practices creates a competitive disadvantage for U.S. travel and tourism by placing an additional cost and burden on travel to the U.S," the letter adds. 

What's more, the airline executives highlight that even the World Health Organization noted that "the failure of travel restrictions introduced after the detection and reporting of Omicron variant to limit international spread of Omicron demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such measures over time."

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On required face coverings for air travel in the United States, the letter states that "the science clearly supports lifting the mask mandate, as demonstrated by the recently released CDC framework indicating that 99 percent of the U.S. population no longer need to wear masks indoors."

The airline executives also remind President Biden that (emphasis original) "several studies completed before we had the added layer of widespread availability of vaccines, including one from Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health and another from the U.S. Department of Defense, have concluded that an airplane cabin is one of the safest indoor environments due to the combination of highly filtered air and constant air flow coupled with the downward direction of the air."

The letter again points out that the Biden administration is playing catch-up to the rest of the world, saying "lifting the mask mandate in airports and onboard aircraft can be done safely as England has done."

"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," the industry leaders emphasized.

As for the White House, Jen Psaki responded to questions about why the federal mask mandate was still in place roughly two weeks ago with an apparently serious explanation of how "when you get on an airplane, you travel to different places," suggesting the one percent of Americans for whom the CDC still recommends masks mean the 99 percent must also keep their faces covered while traveling.