DALLAS (AP) — Remember all those thousands of passengers that airlines banned for not wearing face masks? Now many airlines want them back.
Leaders of unions that represent flight attendants are reacting with outrage.
American, United and Delta all indicated last Thursday that they will lift the bans they imposed now that masks are optional on flights.
Alaska Airlines said last week the worst of the banned passengers won’t be welcomed back. Southwest said a judge’s ruling that struck down the federal mandate won’t change its decision to bar an undisclosed number of passengers.
United plans to talk with people. “We have talked to them individually,” United CEO Scott Kirby told NBC. “Many of them assure us that now that the mask mandate is off, everything is going to be fine, and I trust that the vast majority of them will.”
American Airlines Chief Government Affairs Officer Nate Gatten told reporters that “in most cases,” people who were banned over masks will be allowed back, but that won’t extend to the worst offenders.
“In cases where an incident may have started with face mask non-compliance and escalated into anything involving something more serious — certainly an assault on one of our team members or customers — those passengers ... will never be allowed to travel with us again,” Gatten said.
Delta Air Lines spokesman Morgan Durrant said the airline will restore flying privileges after a case-by-case review and the customer’s understanding of expected behavior.
“Any further disregard for the policies that keep us all safe will result in placement on Delta’s permanent no-fly list,” he said.
The leaders of two unions that represent flight attendants and other airline workers slammed the airlines that are moving to bring back banned passengers.
“The timing of this is outrageous,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants. “The federal mask mandate has been lifted, but the pandemic is not over.”
Nelson said airlines “need to slow down and consider all potential consequences of any policy changes,” and that no banned passengers should be allowed back until unions and public health officials weigh in.
The president of the Transport Workers Union, which represents workers across the airline industry, including flight attendants at Southwest, also complained that the carriers did not consult the union or provide a plan for protecting crew members. John Samuelsen said the situation underscored the need for federal legislation that would create a new no-fly list to prevent passengers barred by one airline from flying on another.
That idea has been promoted most notably by Delta and its CEO, Ed Bastian, but it has failed to gain traction in Congress. The legislation doesn’t spell out what offenses would land flyers on the list, or how they would petition to be removed from it. Critics say people could be denied the ability to travel without due process to protect their rights.
Airlines have reported more than 7,000 incidents of disruptive passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration since the start of 2021, when unruliness aboard planes seemed to take off. More than two-thirds of those cases involved passengers who refused to wear a mask.
Delta has banned about 2,000 passengers; Alaska more than 1,700; and United about 1,000. American and Southwest have never disclosed numbers.
In the meantime, the FAA’s acting administrator, Billy Nolen, said the agency is making its zero-tolerance policy against unruly passengers permanent. Under the policy, the FAA can seek fines without first issuing warnings to disruptive passengers.
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