Airline CEOs want to lift mask mandates. But do the passengers?

The CEOs of 10 major airlines signed a letter to President Joe Biden Wednesday asking him to lift mask mandates on airplanes and COVID-19 testing in international 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.’” read the letter. “Now is the time for the Administration to sunset federal transportation travel restrictions … that are no longer aligned with the realities of the current epidemiological environment.” 

The letter, signed by the heads of American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, FedEx Express, UPS Airlines, and others said that “The science clearly supports lifting the mask mandate” and referenced a “CDC framework indicating that 99 percent of the U.S. population no longer need to wear masks indoors.” 

“It makes no sense that people are still required to wear masks on airplanes, yet are allowed to congregate in crowded restaurants, schools and at sporting events without masks, despite none of these venues having the protective air filtration system that aircraft do,” the letter continued. 

Biden has been staunchly pro-mandate, even threatening to veto a Congressional effort to abolish mask mandates. 

And to many people, that may be just fine. 

According to a February CBS News-YouGov poll of 2,578 adults, 56% think their states should have mask mandates. 

Interestingly, when broken down by vaccination status, most (66%) of those who are fully vaccinated and thus “protected” by the vaccine want mask mandates, while 66% of those who are “unprotected” by the vaccine do not want mask mandates. 

When parents were asked if mask wearing in their children’s schools should be required, optional or not allowed, 57% said required, 36% said optional and 7% said not allowed. It was not broken down by vaccination status. 

In another poll by YouGov/The Economist, people who live in communities with mask mandates were asked if they would still sometimes wear a mask even after the mandates are lifted. 63% of them said yes. 

On Wednesday, shock jock radio host Howard Stern ranted about the “wackos” who don't want to wear masks, blaming them for the end of mask mandates.

“You’ve got all these wackos with their anti-mask, anti-vaccine. The reason they’ve lifted these mask mandates is because we gave into this small minority of people who are completely out of their f*cking mind who think masks are some sort of prison sentence and their freedoms are being taken away,” said Stern.

On Monday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford lifted the province’s mask mandate. The same day, students from 11 Toronto high schools staged a walkout in protest of ending the mask mandate, according to Global News. 

So while airlines may be ready to take off the masks, they may have passengers who don’t want to take off.