The Cranky Flier: Ditching mask mandates won’t affect air travel’s COVID recovery – KJZZ The Show
I really don’t think the end of the mask mandate will make a bit of difference on travel demand. I sat down for a few minutes with the Phoenix area NPR station’s morning show to discuss.
TSA won’t enforce mask mandate after judge rules against CDC – Biz Journals
Same thing here!
3 comments on “Cranky on the Web: Impact of Mask Mandate’s End on Travel Demand”
It won’t hurt demand in any meaningful way. Most of the shrieking about the mandate going away is performative.
On every flight I have been on in the last two years, half of the plane is unmasked while sipping (as slowly as humanly possible) and/or eating. This changes nothing except to give flight attendants some relief from having to try to enforce rules that have nothing to do with their jobs.
Whilst the US still demands a negative COVID test result to enter the country, it does make the prospect of international travel less appealing to those who need to work and can’t afford to get stuck on a plague island (such as the UK). Infection rates are climbing again in the US, and we saw the effects of dropping masks on BA and Easyjet staffing levels. Someone will say that’s due to them laying off staff in the early days of the pandemic, but it’s mostly because staff have been too ill to come to work; difficult to see how the US airlines will be any different (unless COVID no longer affects US cabin crew…).