American to open all plane seats for sale
Carrier follows lead of rival United, takes flak
DALLAS— American Airlines will start booking flights to full capacity next week, ending any effort to promote social distancing on its planes while the United States sets records for numbers of new reported cases of the coronavirus.
American’s move matches the policy of United Airlines but contrasts sharply with rivals that limit bookings to create space between passengers to minimize the risk of contagion.
American said Friday that it will continue to notify customers if their flight is likely to be full and let them change flights at no extra cost. The airline said it will also let passengers change seats on the plane if there is room and if they stay in the same cabin.
Since April, American has limited bookings to about 85 percent of a plane’s capacity by leaving about half the middle seats open. However, the airline will start selling every seat it can beginning Wednesday.
Delta says it is capping seats at about 60 percent of capacity and Southwest at about 67 percent, both through Sept. 30. Jetblue says it will leave middle seats empty through
July 31 unless the person is traveling with a passenger in an adjoining seat.
United, Spirit Airlines and now American, however, are taking a different approach, arguing that other steps — including stepped-up cleaning procedures and requiring all passengers to wear face coverings — eliminate the need to block some seats. United CEO Scott Kirby has said social distancing is impossible on planes anyway; that even with empty middle seats, people are less than 6 feet away from one another.
Photos and videos of full flights on American and United have drawn criticism for their lack of social distancing.
The number of confirmed new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. hit an all-time high of 40,000 on Friday, eclipsing a record set on April 24, according to Johns Hopkins University.
American is based in Fort Worth, Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday rolled back some steps the state had taken just two months ago in an aggressive attempt to reopen its economy.
The airline announced the change deep into a press release that was mostlydevotedtomeasuresitistaking to clean planes and kill the virus.
“As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are booked to capacity starting July
1,” American said. Starting Tuesday, American will ask passengers to confirm that they haven’t had COVID-19 symptoms in the previous 14 days.
Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst for Atmosphere Research Group, said American “is clearly putting its profitability ahead” of the health of both passengers and its own employees.
“Packing an airplane 100 percent full without health testing in place is a risky business decision. If someone contracts the COVID-19 virus on a 100 percent full plane, they’re going to sue American Airlines,” Harteveldt said. “Just because another airline is doing it doesn’t mean it’s the right business decision.”