Major Airlines To Require Passengers To Wear Face Masks; Sara Nelson, Association Of Flight Attendants International President, Discusses Mandating That Passengers Wear Face Masks On All Flights
CABRERA: The days of casual air travel are still far ahead, at least the way we all remember it. Major airlines, including United, Delta, JetBlue, American, and Southwest, have all announced they are making face masks mandatory for all passengers boarding those flights. That is not the only change in the works. CNN Aviation Correspondent, Pete Muntean, took a flight to see for himself the future of air travel.</s>PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A scene too similar to travel before this pandemic, new videos of packed planes, passengers bottled up in rows and aisles, raising new fears about social distancing when flying and new calls to restrict air travel even further. This week, JetBlue became the first airline to require passengers to wear masks. Its COO calling it the new flying etiquette. Now all major U.S. airlines, Alaska, American, Delta, Frontier, Southwest, and United, have volunteered to do the same. But the leader of the Association of Flight Attendants goes further, telling CNN there must be a federal ban of leisure travel by air.</s>SARA NELSON, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: Because the flights have been pulled down, we're seeing more and more full flights without policies that really address proper social distancing.</s>MUNTEAN: But the nation's air travel is at a virtual halt. Nearly half of all commercial jet liners are now parked. The TSA says only five percent of passengers are passing through airports compared to a year ago. I set out to see what it's like to fly right now, traveling from Washington D.C. to Atlanta and back. (on camera): It's hard to find someone not already wearing a mask. (voice-over): Airlines are stepping up their use of electrostatic sprayers to disinfect passenger cabins. (on camera): We were handed this Purell wipe when we got on board. (voice-over): Airlines are also not booking middle seats -- UNIDENTIFIED FLIGHT ATTENDANT In according to the social distancing.</s>MUNTEAN: -- hoping to keep up social distancing on board. Industry groups say the average domestic flight is now carrying 17 passengers, up from just 10 passengers just over a week ago.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the people that are traveling are probably healthy. They're not ill or critical or in a bad situation.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody should be wearing a mask.</s>MUNTEAN: The Department of Transportation gave airlines permission to start scaling back service to small city airports. Plane-maker Boeing's CEO is forecasting a years-long recovery for airlines. Even still, the industry is holding out hope that new measures will mean a new normal of flying again.</s>DENNIS MUILENBURG, CEO, BOEING AIRLINES: We're hopeful that that will happen.</s>MUNTEAN (on camera): From what I saw, passengers do seem keen on social distancing not only on planes but also here in the terminal. Delta and United have both done away with boarding by zone. Instead, now boarding by row, starting with the back of the plane first. At Reagan National Airport, Pete Muntean, CNN.</s>CABRERA: Joining us now is the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, Sara Nelson. Sara, good to have you here. We have so much to cover about the very frightening times in your industry.</s>NELSON: Yes.</s>CABRERA: You wrote a strong letter a few days ago to the Department of Transportation and the Department of Health and Human Services. I want to read part of it. "We are calling on the Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services and other relevant agencies to use its authority to mandate masks in aviation for crew, employees, and passengers, require personal protective equipment, and end all leisure travel until the virus is contained." Sara, end all leisure travel is a strong demand. What feedback have you gotten from that? And how do you make that demand knowing that the aviation airlines that you work for are dying to sell every single ticket they can?</s>NELSON: We have made a lot of progress since we sent that letter nine days ago. In fact, now we do have masks required at all airlines. And we're starting to get the social distancing policies in place. So that letter is very full of all of the steps we need to take to regain trust from the traveling public in being able to fly safely. Safety and security are the bread and butter of aviation. So that letter is about having the Department of Transportation and HHS take coordinated steps to put these policies in place. I want to applaud our airlines because even without that instruction from the government they have taken those steps over the last nine days. And we are getting more to a place where we're going to have policies in place where people can feel confident to fly again. And that is what this is about. We have to be able to make sure that aviation is helping to stop the spread of the virus and not contribute to it and, in fact, be a part of containing it in the air travel so that people will buy tickets again.</s>CABRERA: We know travel was one of the reasons this virus spread so quickly, according to the latest CDC report, which was sort of looking back to how we got here. I want to show our viewers a picture you posted a few days ago, last weekend. It is a pretty full flight. A few people only wearing masks, certainly not all. As we have just discussed, a number of airlines are now mandating masks be worn by all passengers. You, specifically, asked for this. You just said you believe it is a step in the right direction. Safe to say flight attendants are breathing easier now or do you still think travel should be halted until this pandemic is behind us?</s>NELSON: No. Listen, this was always contemplated that there was going to be a period of time where people were not traveling because of the virus, because of the concerns around the virus. And the few people who were buying tickets were not enough to sustain an industry. This was about using these times to put clear policies in place so that everyone can feel confident. The reality is that every single flight attendant on the front line should be able to have an N-95 mask to protect themselves because we're aviation's first responders. Those masks are not even fully available to our health care professionals. So making sure there's a mandate that every single person traveling from the airport door and on to our airplanes is wearing a mask, if everyone is doing that, we're much safer. These are the policies and guidelines that CDC is recommending to everyone. They need to be applied to aviation. I'm pleased to say we've made incredible strides in the last nine days and especially over the last four. And our airlines are stepping up here in the void of direction from the government. So I think we're getting to a place where we will have a new norm in air travel but it will be a place where people can feel a lot more comfortable about buying tickets. And certainly the people I represent are feeling a lot better about the policies that are being put in place.</s>CABRERA: How do you handle enforcement of the mask rule? What if a passenger refuses to put on a mask or refuses to keep social distancing and you're at 30,000 feet in the air? What does a flight attendant do in that situation?</s>NELSON: So the masks are overlaid with other policies like social distancing policies, which should give us the ability to separate those people from other people so they're not a threat to someone else. Flight attendants are very adept at dealing with this at 30,000 feet. We have people who don't want to put their seat belt on, don't want to put their tray table up. And we deal with this all the time. We do it expertly. We also do it with a little peer pressure from passengers, saying, come on, man, let's all get along together so we can get there safely. And so we will handle this like we do every other regulation. And, in fact, passengers are supposed to comply with crew member instructions. So at the end of the day, if someone can't do that for medical reasons, we'll treat it that way. But if they won't do it, then they have to pay some consequences, like they would with any other instruction from a crew member.</s>CABRERA: I want you to take a look as we discuss the future of air travel. This is in Hong Kong where they are testing out a sanitizing system, a booth that people walk through. They are sprayed with a microbial agent that can kill viruses on their skin and clothes. Is this too extreme? Can you see something like this put in place here in the U.S.?</s>NELSON: Look, at this point in time, we really can't recommend this because we don't know enough about it. We are very familiar with getting sprayed with pesticides in our aircraft cabin. We have fought against that and stopped the spraying of pesticides and put other measures in place to keep insects off the planes. We want to make sure when the airplane door is closed and we are pressurizing that cabin we are not stuck in a cabin with poisons that could be recirculated throughout the air and poison people. So we'll be very diligent about checking this and making sure that this is a safe practice before this would be put in place and our crews would be really guinea pigs in a project that we don't know everything about yet.</s>CABRERA: Sara Nelson, thank you very much for joining us. And thanks to your crews as well for the work they're doing.</s>NELSON: Thank you very much.</s>CABRERA: Join CNN's Jake Tapper as he investigates what really happened during the U.S. fight against COVID-19. CNN's special report, "THE PANDEMIC AND THE PRESIDENT," airs tomorrow night at 10:00 here on CNN. We'll be right back.