US airlines, public transit passengers may travel without mask despite Omicron

Passengers on US airlines and public transit will get their first chance in more than a year to travel without a mask next week, if the federal government sticks to its current plan to let a pandemic-era mandate expire.

President Joe Biden is being urged by transportation groups and state and local officials to allow the mask rule to end, after extending it for a month through April 18 as the omicron variant added to the nation’s Covid case count. In recent weeks, cases have started to tick up and some local governments, like in Philadelphia, re-imposed indoor mask wearing.

White House and Transportation Security Administration officials are talking with their counterparts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on whether to revise or extend the mask rule. The decision will have implications for the nation’s economy, health-care system and millions of daily commuters.

Dr Ashish Jha, the White House’s new Covid-19 response coordinator, said on NBC’s “Today” show Monday that the CDC will come out with a “scientific framework” to help decide whether to keep the mask requirement in place. “I think it is absolutely on the table” to extend the rule, Jha said.

“I’m hoping that the mask mandate will come off,” Janno Lieber, chair and chief executive officer of New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest mass-transit provider in the US, said March 24. “Not because I have any status as an epidemiologist, but because mask mandates have come off in the rest of society.” There’s no longer a federal requirement for mask use in U.S. schools, restaurants, gyms and arenas.

Transit Demand

In a joint letter to Jha last week, groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the US Travel Association pushed for an end to the mask requirement and the mandate for pre-departure testing for vaccinated passengers traveling to the US The measures “no longer provide the public health benefits they once did,” it said. “Today, these measures are imposing significant costs on the traveling public, airline employees, and the American travel and tourism industries.”

Demand for transit across the US is about 60% of pre-pandemic levels, according to the American Public Transit Association.

Some state and local transit officials, reluctant to anticipate the Biden administration decision, say they’re preparing to run their systems without enforcing the mask rule if that’s the guidance from the US government. The list of such agencies include the Chicago Transit Authority, New Jersey Transit, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, operator of New York City’s three major airports.

The MTA and New Jersey Transit said they will inform customers of changes to the mask mandate through social media and push notifications, while eliminating signs and public address messages on mask requirements. Officials at Miami International Airport, and federally owned Reagan National and Dulles International airports, say they will follow TSA guidance.

In San Francisco, Bay Area Rapid Transit has no plans to institute its own mask mandate. BART plans increased messaging to customers on any changes, including an ad campaign about Merv 14 air filters installed on all train cars.

“We want riders to know there is an extra layer of protection on board trains, even crowded trains,” BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said in an email.

An Amtrak spokesperson said the national rail system is preparing a variety of customer and employee communications in the event that TSA lifts the mandate. Amtrak will determine its own response once specific U.S. guidance is known, and a Los Angeles World Airports spokesperson said officials are reserving comment until they have confirmation of any change in the mandate.

Fewer people wearing masks likely increases the risk of riders being exposed to the virus. While omicron and its new BA.2 variant are proving highly contagious, Covid cases are below the peaks seen in December and early January.

David Young, 81, a New York City resident at the 59th Street – Lexington Avenue subway station on Tuesday, said he wants masks to stay. “I’d rather wear a mask than take a chance on getting Covid,” he said.

But for many travellers, an end to wearing a mask during their commute or flight is welcomed.

“If there’s an indoor mask mandate for public space, there should be one for transit; but if there’s not, then we have to think really hard about the consequences of treating transit differently” Danny Pearlstein, a spokesperson for Riders Alliance, a transportation advocacy group, said in a phone interview. “Continuing the mandate long after there is no indoor mask mandate generally makes people afraid of transit and makes enforcement especially complicated.”