United boss doesn't think masks will come back as airline staff offer perks for the maskless....

Scott Kirby,  the CEO of the U.S. mega-carrier, United Airlines believes another federal mask order on planes is very unlikely to be made.   During an appearance on The Today Show on America’s NBC Network, Kirby stated:  “We were on the road, I think, to removing the mask [mandate] even before the judge’s ruling. - This appeal is mostly about jurisdiction. I think it’s very unlikely that a mask requirement is going to come back any time in the foreseeable future.”

The U.S.  like many other countries around the world have mostly returned to a situation much akin to before the pandemic. “Broadly everywhere, indoors, we’re getting back to living life as normal” Kirby said, “The airports actually wind up being one of the safer places as well because the standards for air filters are higher,”

Many other airline bosses have been calling for the mask mandate to be withdrawn and welcomed the news that it would no longer be enforced, including American. Delta, Southwest, JetBlue, Alaska Air, Hawaiian Airlines and UPS.  Yet, each of those airlines have say they have adopted a policy of free choice now the rule has been dropped. Yet it is probably only a matter of a few weeks before one or more of those carriers faces a lawsuit for damages over an infection believed to be contracted on one of their planes by other passengers, or by one of their maskless employees.

There have been many passengers taking to social media to complain about the scant regard for personal choice and safety by Delta cabin crew.  Some of the airline crew are welcoming passengers on board with champaign but only if they removed their masks.  Another reported that “flight attendants greeting us “would you like champagne? Let’s celebrate no more masks” warning that it was not only childish but also created a potentially hostile environment for passengers who still preferred to wear a mask.

Doctor Jerome Adams tweeted that a Delta pilot walked passed him at the airport and said, “take your mask off man- breath free!” 

"Why is it those who so strongly felt others were imposing their beliefs (in health, wellness and compassion) on them, feel so free to impose their beliefs on others?!" Jerome asks.

Another complained that a Delta crew member told her she was ridiculous for continuing to wear a medical-grade mask on a flight from Atlanta and telling her  "COVID is a thing of the past"

It is not just Delta where staff are making mask wearers are being made to feel like third-class citizens,  Alaska Airlines is doing the same according to some passengers on social media,  Jonathan Evans commented that he was hounded for wearing a mask on an Orlando-Seattle flight - “The pilot created an anti-mask party from the start, which encouraged the non-mask wearers to chide the mask-wearers,” adding that he was called a “freak” and that staff awarded the most “outspoken guy with free drinks.”

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