Following numerous accounts that the airlines were not applying their own mask policies, Delta, United and American Airlines have announced that they will now ban passengers from refusing to cover their nose and mouth.
“Until now, fortunately, there have only been a handful of cases, but we have already banned some passengers from traveling in Delta in the future for refusing to wear masks on board,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian wrote Thursday in a memo to employees, reports CNN.
Delta has mandated that passengers wear masks starting in the check-in lobby since early May, and its flight attendants must wear personal protective equipment since April 27.
American Airlines fired a conservative personality and described “former liberal” Brandon Straka on a flight earlier this month for refusing to wear a mask. Straka will not be able to fly back into the United States until the mask policy is lifted, the airline says.
American has also been requiring passengers to wear masks since early May, as has United Airlines.
This month, United also announced a new policy that threatens to ban passengers who do not comply with the mask mandate. United confirmed to CNN that it needed to enforce the policy, and the flyers were temporarily banned as a result.
The airlines are not working together, so passengers banned for refusing to wear masks at one airline can still make a reservation at others.
As the mask policy doubles, Delta is considering loosening its middle seat policy.
“As business begins to return, as demand begins to grow, and if people are more confident in their travel experience, we will decide later this year when we start to relax on that cap constraint,” he says. Bastian on the possibility that the company will start reserving passengers in intermediate seats again in the near future, writes CNN.
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