United Airlines today became the first of the "big four" U.S. carriers to require that its flight attendants wear face masks-either commercial face masks or homemade nose-and-mouth coverings-while they're on duty. This fresh mandate extends a previous policy requiring flight crew to wear face masks only on international flights serving COVID-19 hot spots.
On its website, United stated, "In coordination with the AFA-starting on April 24-we will require that all flight attendants wear a face covering or mask to help protect themselves and customers on board our aircraft."
A JetBlue Airways spokesperson told Fox News that JetBlue first began requiring its in-flight crew members and airport employees to wear facial coverings back on April 17 as part of its heightened efforts to prevent coronavirus transmission. It now remains to be seen if and when other carriers will follow suit.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), which represents 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, would have airlines extend their requirements even further to obligate passengers to wear masks, as well.
On April, the AFA sent a letter petitioning the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Department of Health to mandate the wearing of masks by passengers, in addition to airlines' in-flight crews and ground employees.
Representatives for U.S. pilots' unions have also reportedly been appealing to Congress in hopes of prompting legislation that could help prevent the spread of COVID-19 through air travel.
"Flight crews are a unique vector for the virus, traveling all over the country. It is vital that our crews be treated as essential workers and have access to personal protective equipment and testing," said Jason Goldberg, spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association.
Forbes reported that all airline passengers in Canada are already compelled by regulations to wear non-medical-grade face masks or face coverings at airport screening checkpoints and wherever they cannot maintain a six-foot area of social distancing.
This marks the third change made by United this week aimed at further addressing the potential spread of COVID-19 aboard airplanes. The airline is temporarily altering seat assignments in all cabins, eliminating middle seats; and adjusting its boarding process to allow fewer passengers onto the aircraft at a time, and enforcing social-distancing protocols to cut down on crowding on the jet bridge and at the gate.
An earlier April announcement saw United's boarding process altered to load passengers beginning at the back of the plane to the front, limiting the need for customers to pass each other in the aisles.
Travel Weekly reported that United has slashed 90 percent of its previously-planned capacity for May 2020, and that CEO Oscar Munoz and president Scott Kirby wrote to employees, "We expect to fly fewer people during the entire month of May than we did on a single day in May 2019."
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