Seven U.S. carriers who have responded to a lawsuit by a man claiming the mask mandate on planes is illegal have all said the same thing - you're barking up the wrong tree.
Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska, Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit all generally shared the same opinion in trying to dismiss the suit, saying the man should be suing the federal government, which instituted the mask mandate, and not the airlines.
There is "no private right of action," lawyers for Frontier and Allegiant wrote to the court.
According to Business Insider, Lucas Wall, of Washington DC, in June filed the lawsuit, alleging that the airlines had violated the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA). He said he has a medical condition that means he can't wear a mask and should be exempt from the federal mandates and airline requirements.
"The ACAA confers no private right to sue an air carrier," lawyers for Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways wrote in a joint motion to dismiss filed on Monday.
Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air also filed a joint motion in US District Court in Orlando. Spirit Airlines filed separately.
Wall said the airlines were sidestepping the issue at hand, relying instead on technical arguments to try to dismiss his lawsuit.
"My rebuttal to that is that the DOT is not enforcing the law as it's required to do," he said in a phone interview.
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