American Airlines will resume booking its capacity flights starting July 1, the company announced. The policy is similar to that of United Airlines, which ABC News Reports have never blocked seats or limited the capacity of their flights. However, the approach contrasts sharply with other airlines, which continue to impose capacity limits to allow for social distancing on the plane as the number of coronavirus cases in the United States increases.
The airline industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, with the number of passengers plummeting. the Chicago Sun Times reports that at its lowest point in April, the number of American Airlines passengers dropped by about 95 percent. Although passenger bookings have increased since then, the number of people passing through US airports is still a quarter of what it was a year ago.
American Airlines began limiting bookings to about 85 percent of a plane’s capacity in April, according to the Chicago Sun Times.
United CEO Scott Kirby has questioned whether social distancing is even possible on planes, Chicago Sun Times reports, as people are less than six feet apart, even when the middle seats are left empty. The Boston Globe reports that American CEO Doug Parker has expressed similar concerns. However, a union representative from the Allied Pilots Association replied that this “does not mean that you give up and throw the plane with every seat full.”
American says it has other measures to help prevent the spread of the virus. It will notify customers if they are booked on crowded flights and give them the option to transfer their reservation at no additional cost, and at check-in will ask customers to certify that they have had no symptoms of COVID-19 for the Previous 14 days. Customers will also be allowed to move seats once boarded, subject to limitations. American is implementing other safety measures, such as deeper cleaning, HEPA filters to clean the air more frequently, and a mandatory face mask requirement.
Several airlines require passengers to wear face masks. Earlier this month, a group of top U.S. airlines, including American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and Southwest, made face linings mandatory for all passengers, with exceptions for eating or drinking, young children, or people with a medical reason or disability that prevented them from wearing a mask.
While American and United proceed without capacity limits, other airlines will maintain theirs throughout the summer. Delta has a 60 percent seat limit in the main cabin and 50 percent in first class through Sept. 30, along with the blocking of the middle seats, ABC News reports. Southwest Airlines is blocking intermediate seats for the same period of time, while JetBlue is blocking intermediate seats until the end of July.
The announcement comes as the United States is seeing an increase in new COVID-19 cases. Yesterday, the COVID Monitoring Project said there were 42,000 new cases of the virus in the country, after a record three days of new cases. Although more tests explain part of the increase, the percentage of positive tests also tends to rise, according to data from John Hopkins University.
“I can’t imagine a worse time to tell passengers that the planes they are in will be completely full,” she told a spokeswoman for the Allied Pilots Association, a union that represents American Airlines pilots. Chicago Sun Times, noting that movement could harm the public’s confidence in flying.
