Airline CEOs Ask Biden To Drop Masks & Testing For Travel

The CEOs of 10 major US airlines have written a letter to US President Joe Biden asking him to drop the federal transportation mask mandate and the requirement to test for US-bound international travel. Will this request affect the stance of the administration?

The CEOs of Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines sent a letter to President Biden yesterday.

The letter starts by talking about all the precautions that airlines took at the start of the Pandemic to keep people safe, as well as the importance of the restrictions that the government has imposed. The letter goes on to say that the time is right to lift restrictions because we have entered a different stage of the Pandemic.

However, much has changed since these measures were imposed and they no longer make sense in the current public health context. The persistent and steady decline of hospitalization and death rates are the most compelling indicators that our country is well protected against severe disease from COVID-19.

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.” Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions – including the international predeparture testing requirement and the federal mask mandate – that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.

The following is stated in the letter.

The high level of immunity in the U.S., availability of high-quality masks for those who wish to use them, hospital-grade cabin air, widespread vaccine availability and newly available therapeutics provide a strong foundation for the Administration to lift the mask mandate and predeparture testing requirements. We urge you to do so now.

We are requesting this action not only for the benefit the of the traveling public, but also for the thousands of airline employees charged with enforcing a patchwork of now-outdated regulations implemented in response to COVID-19.

Flight attendant unions have previously asked President Biden to keep the mask mandate in place, but now they are against it. The Senate recently voted to overturn the federal transportation mask mandate, but that has limited practical implications.

Will President Biden listen?

The federal transportation mask mandate will remain in effect through April 18, 2022, after a recent one month extension. There is no end date for the requirement to be tested within 24 hours of travel to the United States.

My take on these requirements is as follows.

• While I absolutely think masks work, I think we’re at the point where people have access to vaccines and high quality masks so that they can make their own choices (and I say this as someone who will likely still choose to wear masks in certain situations); while masks are largely about protecting others, a KN95 provides a high level of protection to the person wearing it as well
• The testing requirement is a complete money grab and borderline scam, not because of anything the US government is doing, but because the companies providing testing in some destinations are quite shady; also, in general there hasn’t been evidence that testing for travel works to stop transmission if a variant is already in a country

I had thought that the mask mandate wouldn't be extended past April 18 and that the testing requirement would be eliminated before the summer travel rush. I think I'm still confident about that.

I wonder if there is a chance that the mask mandate could be lifted earlier than April 18. This would be a good time to do it, with hospitalizations and cases down and another variant on the horizon. If cases start to go up again in a few weeks, the Biden lifting the mask mandate wouldn't be great. Many people wouldn't be happy if the mandate was extended further.

I don't think it's out of the question that Biden just lifts the mask mandate earlier than the April 18 date, but I also don't think it's likely.

Bottom line

The CEOs of major airlines in the United States have written to President Biden, asking him to lift the current federal transportation mask mandate and the requirement to get tested when traveling to the United States. The latter has no end date, but is in place through April 18. It is time to change policies because we have entered a different stage of the Pandemic.

The idea of lifting the transportation mask mandate is getting more and more support, though it's not known if this will cause the administration to change its stance.

When will the testing requirement for air travel be lifted?