Major U.S. airlines place customers who will not wear masks on flights on “no-fly” lists.
On Friday, Alaska Airlines announced that any passenger over the age of 2 would be prevented from flying with the company again if they refused to wear face coverage, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
It is only the last airline to do this.
In early April, JetBlue was the first U.S. airline to announce that it requires all customers to wear face masks on flights. Since then, all major U.S. airlines have required masks for passengers to board flights. Some like Delta and United have tightened mask requirements – United now requires all passengers to wear masks at all parts of the airport prior to boarding.
Even so, a number of incidents in which passengers have refused to cooperate with the requirements to wear masks have been made headlines in recent months. Many airlines have expressed their concern about confronting passengers who will not comply with guidelines.
Earlier this month, a Delta Airlines flight to Atlanta from Detroit returned to the port to pick up two passengers who refused to wear masks. Delta’s CEO told NBC’s show “Today” in July that the airline would place customers who do not want to follow the masking guidelines on a no-fly list, and that they will not board any aircraft in the future.
United Airlines also said in June that it would ban passengers who refused to wear masks in the future to fly with the airline.
This weekend, the U.S. marked at least 5 million coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. Growing research bodies are proving that wearing face masks is the key to reducing the spread of coronavirus.
A former Federal Aviation Administration associate administrator for airports for the Obama administration told NPR that “No one has the right to fly” – airlines, like private companies, have the right to refuse service, in accordance with their own policies.
