The directors of the ten main airlines of the United States with international flights requested in a letter to the president Joe Biden to lift the health requirements related to covid-19 for aircraft passengers, given that “many things have changed since its imposition and no longer make sense in the current health context”.
Specifically, the ten executives ask the Biden Government, in a letter sent last night, to eliminate the mandatory test (PCR or antigens) required to board a flight and to also lift the need to wear masks throughout the air journey and even in the airport area.
They recall that “the burden of forcing both to wear the mask and to show the tests has fallen on our employees for two years now, and it is a task for which they are not trained”, especially when they are faced with “frustrated customers”, which ends up affecting their own psychological well-being.
The airlines argue the high level of immunity in the United States, the availability of high-quality masks “for whoever wants to use them”, the quality of the air in the cabins of the planes and the ease of access to vaccines, for what they tell Biden: “We urge you to do it (lift the measures) now.”
They recall that the sector has supported and cooperated with the federal government when it introduced the measures to stop COVID-19, but that the current data on the pandemic are “encouraging” and that the restrictions are beginning to be eliminated from coast to coast of the country, for what “it is more than time to eliminate these policies”.
The top executives of American Airlines, Delta, United, JetBlue, FedEx Express, Southwest, Alaska, Hawaiian, UPS and Airlines for America, that is, practically all companies in the sector with international flights, sign the letter.
Last year, more than two million passengers a day used air transport in the United States, including domestic or low-cost airlines, which are not signatories to the letter.
