Airline passengers irked by lack of face mask use
Allegiant to require them beginning Thursday
Vernon Petri’s trip to Florida ended before it began. The Indianapolis attorney said he walked off his June 11 Allegiant flight before it departed because some passengers and crew were not wearing face masks and the passengers were not separated by empty seats, reports the Indianapolis Star, which is a part of the USA TODAY Network.
People were sitting shoulder to shoulder, he said. The pilots and three of the four flight attendants did not have a mask on. Whole families boarded without masks.
Petri said he voiced his concerns to a flight attendant, but Allegiant at the time didn’t require passengers to wear masks.
“Well, I picked up my baggage and I walked off the plane and went home,” Petri said. “I missed the whole vacation time.”
His experience reflects how not all airlines require masks. Even among those that do, enforcement and compliance isn’t always certain.
“Everybody has to wear it in order for this to be effective,” said Thomas Duszynski, director of epidemiology education at the Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis. Wearing a mask, he said, can keep you from spreading the disease to other people, “and when you get on an airplane, you’re in one of those confined, closed spaces for long periods of time.”
Airline trade association Airlines for America says its members, including Indianapolis carriers Southwest, Delta, United, American and Alaska Airlines, require passengers and customer-facing employees to wear face coverings, according to a news release.
“The face covering requirement is just one of many steps U.S. airlines are taking to help protect the wellbeing of all travelers,” Airlines for America communications director Katherine Estep said in a statement. “U.S. airlines have implemented intensive cleaning protocols, in some cases to include electrostatic cleaning and fogging procedures.”
Southwest, American and other airlines do not allow passengers to enter a plane without a face covering, according to company news releases. Passengers also are reminded during the flight to wear a covering.
But American spokesman Ross Feinstein said passengers don’t have to wear face coverings if they are children, if they are eating or drinking, or if they have a medical reason for not wearing one.
Allegiant said Friday that it will begin requiring passengers to wear masks on Thursday.
Hilarie Grey, Allegiant’s managing director of corporate communications, said the airline has been strongly encouraging passengers to wear face coverings and provides them with a health and safety kit that includes a mask and other items. She also said Allegiant employees are required to wear masks when interacting with customers, but some personnel are exempt of the requirement because of medical reasons.
Grey said customers complete a health acknowledgment questionnaire when they check in. She added that Allegiant tries to keep as much distance as possible between passengers and boards its flights starting with rows in the back of the plane and continuing forward.
“Passenger seating is spaced out as practicable, but on fuller flights, that’s not always possible,” she said.
Grey noted that passengers can choose to hear ahead of time whether their flight will be over 65% capacity. If they don’t want to fly, they can pick another flight or ask for a credit voucher.
Petri said he opted in to hear about the plane’s capacity, but Allegiant did not notify him about it. Last week, the airline issued him a refund.