Passengers using protective masks wait to board a Delta Air LinesInc flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.
Elijah Nouvelage|Bloomberg|Getty Images
Delta Air Lines Chief Health Officer Henry Ting stated that he thinks that the federal mask required for airports and aircrafts will be raised on “April 18th or shortly thereafter.”
Speaking at CNBC’s Healthy Returns occasion on Wednesday, Ting stated that while he does not understand if the required will come down on April 18, the CDC, TSA, and the White House are all “looking closely at this” and will “certainly provide a roadmap.”
“We’ve always known from the beginning of the pandemic that all restrictions should be lifted as soon as it’s safe to do so,” Ting stated, including that there is a shift taking place today from “a global pandemic to a seasonal respiratory virus.”
Ting, a prominent cardiologist who was called Delta’s initially primary health officer in January 2021, stated that in the middle of the pandemic, the airline company’s efforts around air ventilation, cleansing, and masking have actually led to “few if any outbreaks that could be attributed to a flight.”
The U.S. extended the requirement that masks are to be endured aircrafts and in airports, along with on buses, trains, and other types of transport, through April 18 prior to it was set to end on March19 The Biden administration at first released the mask required order soon after the president took workplace in January 2021 and has actually consistently extended it ever since. Under President Trump, there was no federal government required around masking, however airline companies, consisting of Delta, released their own mask requirements going back to the start of the pandemic in spring 2020.
The airline company market has actually been pressing back versus more extensions of the required in current months. On March 23, Delta CEO Ed Bastian, in addition to the CEOs of American Airlines, Alaska Air Group, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and others, sent out a joint letter to Biden that stated it is “past time to eliminate COVID-era transportation policies,” that includes the mask required on aircrafts and in airports.
“Given that we have entered a different phase of dealing with this virus, we strongly support your view that COVID-19 need no longer control our lives,” the letter states. The CEOs likewise required the elimination of worldwide pre-departure screening requirements for U.S. incoming guests.
Ting stated that the CDC knows that airports and aircrafts are “really the last place where masks are still required,” and he included that in “the rest of America you can go to restaurants, churches, sports venues, where masking is optional.”
He likewise kept in mind the effect that both complying with and implementing those guidelines for the last 2 years has actually had on Delta’s employees, flight attendants, and team. More than 71% of the record 5,981 reports of rowdy airline company guest habits in 2021 were connected to conflicts over mask requireds, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
“This has been two years that’s been hard on our people,” he stated. “This is the last area where I think the CDC is looking at when it’s safe to have an exit ramp and lift the mask mandate.”
