Airlines Dance Nearer to Extinction

By Robert McGarvey

Even as the nation’s air carriers do the right thing they manage to screw it up.

Case in point this week.  First I saw a story that led me to want to applaud the courage of some carriers.

Then I saw a story that left me swearing at the carriers’ executives for their greed which threatens our health and defies commonsense.

First the good news: The WAPO headline tells it –  Delta, United and Alaska Airlines have banned more than 900 passengers for not wearing masks.  Bravo, if the emasculated federal government cannot summon the bottle to issue a mask mandate for public places – an action it should have taken months ago – it’s up to the airlines and some have stepped up.

I know flight attendants – understandably – hesitated to get involved in insisting on masks. They understood there are nutters who believe they have an inalienable right to go maskless (probably they think it is the US Constitution). But airlines and their flight attendants have done the right thing here.

And the carriers have upped the ante by issuing flight bans. Delta leads the pack – it has banned 460 passengers. United has eighty-sixed 300. Alaska has booted 146.  

American and Southwest, sadly, declined to issue counts.  American Airlines did tell the Washington Post this: “We expect our customers to comply with our policies when they choose to travel with us,” American Airlines spokesperson Curtis Blessing said. “We take action when that is not the case, but the vast majority of our customers have supported and welcomed our continuing efforts to strengthen our face covering policy based on the CDC’s guidance … we may deny future travel for customers who refuse to wear a face covering for the duration of this requirement.”

No, I haven’t an idea what that is supposed to mean and, for now, I won’t be flying American or Southwest anytime soon.

Which brings us to the two steps back.  Southwest Airlines has joined the list of carriers who say they will stop blocking middle seats.  They start stuffing coach on December 1 (and I do wonder how many passengers will fall ill with Covid-19 due to holiday travel).

According to a tally by The Points Guy the only carriers that are sticking with an empty middle seat policy are Alaska, Delta, and Hawaiian.  

That is inexplicable. We are not flying because we fear getting the virus in the air…and we also know two things that are helpful in curtailing spread of Covid-19: mask wearing and social distancing, the latter being all the more important indoors (as in an airplane!).  

Meantime, a seven hour flight to Ireland is linked to a staggering 59 Covid-19 cases in Ireland, according to a new report: “An outbreak of 59 cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) originated with 13 cases linked by a 7 h, 17% occupancy flight into Ireland, summer 2020. The flight-associated attack rate was 9.8–17.8%. Spread to 46 non-flight cases occurred country-wide.”

Of course I know about a new Harvard report that says, hogwash, air travel is safe. But I also know the carriers paid for the report and that causes me to keep looking for data.

Such as? Another recent report looked specifically at the question: does keeping middle seats empty impact Covid-19 spread. The authors’ conclusion: unquestionably yes.  Here is what they write: “We use recent data and research results and a probabilistic model to estimate the chance that an air traveler in coach will contract Covid-19 on a US domestic jet flight two hours long, both when all coach seats are full and when all but middle seats are full. The point estimates we reach based on data from late September 2020 are about 1 in 3,900 for full flights and 1 in 6,400 when middle seats are kept empty.”

That’s commonsense. When you sit literally elbow to elbow next to a passenger in coach your chances of getting any and all contagious diseases rise.  An empty middle seat is no panacea.  But it definitely makes the flight safer.

No wonder I have re-installed my Delta Sky app – and of course I have now downloaded Alaska Air too.

Note to self: change Amex Plat $200 airline credit from American to Delta in January.  Besides, Delta has spiffy new digs at Sky Harbor and there’s a new 7500 sq. ft Sky Club there too.  That, plus a tough mask policy and empty middle seats win my business.