Speaker 1: It's Friday, June nine. I'm Oscar a Mirrors from the
Speaker 1: Daily Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is Reopening America.
Speaker 1: We have shifted into a new phase in the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaker 1: We're social distancing, washing our hands, wearing face masks, and
Speaker 1: we're reopening the country. I'll still give you updates on
Speaker 1: any new information about the virus and vaccine development, but
Speaker 1: I'll also be focusing on how we're reopening America. Despite
Speaker 1: what your local rules around face masks are, you'll want
Speaker 1: to make sure you have one if you're gonna be flying.
Speaker 1: Air travel is starting to pick up and most airlines
Speaker 1: require that you wear a mask, but if you want
Speaker 1: to be difficult, it could land you on an airline
Speaker 1: no fly list. Scott McCartney, middle seat columnist at The
Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, joins us for flying in the pandemic.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining a Scott, gonna be with you, Oscar. So,
Speaker 1: air travel has been rebounding. It's not at the levels
Speaker 1: that it was last year, but just from a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, we're seeing like more people starting to fly,
Speaker 1: so we're seeing an uptick and one of the interesting things,
Speaker 1: obviously we're still living in this time of coronavirus, trying
Speaker 1: to keep things clean and whatnot. But this kind of
Speaker 1: whole argument about whether to wear a mask or not
Speaker 1: to wear a mask that's playing out around the country
Speaker 1: is also playing out with the airlines, and there's some
Speaker 1: interesting things happening surrounding this. Some airlines, if you're not
Speaker 1: wearing them, they could put you on it do not
Speaker 1: fly list. Even Scott tell us a little bit about this. Well,
Speaker 1: this has been a real problem for airlines. There are
Speaker 1: no federal regulations on it, and airlines are only governed
Speaker 1: by federal regulations, so whatever particular state does or city
Speaker 1: does or whatever doesn't apply to airlines, so they're kind
Speaker 1: of on their own. Most all of them in the US,
Speaker 1: with the exception of Allegiance, have required a mask, but
Speaker 1: many of them, Delta, United American and others were simply
Speaker 1: enforcing it at the gate on the ground and not
Speaker 1: in the air and a lot of people were getting
Speaker 1: on the airplane and taking them off. And as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: there's a great debate. Some people think they don't need
Speaker 1: to wear them, and some people think that's offensive because
Speaker 1: when you wear a mask, you're not really protecting yourself,
Speaker 1: you're protecting everybody around you in case you happen to
Speaker 1: be infected. So this week, airlines have gone to a
Speaker 1: tougher approach, at least at American United Delta. It's an
Speaker 1: approach that actually Jet Blue and Hawaiian have been doing already,
Speaker 1: and that is, if you're not going to comply, their
Speaker 1: flight attendants aren't going to pick a fight with you
Speaker 1: in the air, but when you get on the ground,
Speaker 1: they're gonna quiz you about why you didn't comply, And
Speaker 1: the airline has the option of putting you on a
Speaker 1: restricted list. Now that's up to each airline. It's not
Speaker 1: clear how long you might be restricted on the airlines
Speaker 1: no fly list. I think it really depends on how
Speaker 1: big a jerk you are about it. But it's a
Speaker 1: threat that I think will resonate with a lot of
Speaker 1: travelers and force more compliance. Um So the fight attendants
Speaker 1: can say, hey, if you're not gonna put your mask on,
Speaker 1: we're gonna turn in your seat number. They're gonna put
Speaker 1: you on the no fly list, and I think that
Speaker 1: will force more compliance in the cabin. Those are some
Speaker 1: strict measures right there, But if you need to get somewhere.
Speaker 1: If you get someone you want to go back home
Speaker 1: and you had your round trip with the same airline,
Speaker 1: that should be enough to scare a lot of people
Speaker 1: into just backing down and doing it. But it's an
Speaker 1: important thing. You know, there's recent surveys that have been
Speaker 1: done that say that airport cleanliness is at the top
Speaker 1: of the list right now. It's up there with the
Speaker 1: prices of the actual flights. I think Southwest did their
Speaker 1: own surveying and it said the top three concerns for
Speaker 1: their passengers are clean surfaces, clean air, and masks. So
Speaker 1: it's a really important thing. Yeah, it is. And the
Speaker 1: survey you mentioned, uh, really quite remarkable of the travelers,
Speaker 1: and the survey said cleanliness was huge factor in a
Speaker 1: buying decision, really in a travel or don't travel decision,
Speaker 1: and that was at the same rate as ticket price.
Speaker 1: The folks who did the survey had never before seen
Speaker 1: another factor that scored as high as ticket price. So
Speaker 1: this is really important to travelers. You know. You mentioned
Speaker 1: the rebound and travel, and yes, over the last two
Speaker 1: weeks or so, there's been about a fifty jump in
Speaker 1: the number of people actually traveling. But it's off a
Speaker 1: very small base. The total number of people traveling is
Speaker 1: still down about from where it was, so to get
Speaker 1: all those people back, there's going to have to be
Speaker 1: confidence that it's safe to travel. And you know, I
Speaker 1: think the inconsistency that we've seen with with airlines and
Speaker 1: airports just the general notion of is it going to
Speaker 1: be safe or not, and there's not a lot of
Speaker 1: confidence in that, and a lot of people aren't going
Speaker 1: to get back on airplanes until they get that confidence.
Speaker 1: And this is the early part, though, This is the
Speaker 1: part where the confusion happens and real policies are set
Speaker 1: in place so that when the real uptick does happen,
Speaker 1: everything is kind of already set. And obviously it does
Speaker 1: seem like this mask wearing is going to be something
Speaker 1: that's going to be enforced a lot more stricter across
Speaker 1: the board. And we have to remember, too, what happens
Speaker 1: on the planes where your most susceptible to get sick.
Speaker 1: And there's this thing known as the hot zone, and
Speaker 1: these are the area of the two rows behind you
Speaker 1: and in front of you, and someone's not wearing a
Speaker 1: mask and they sneeze, and that's going to go up
Speaker 1: in the air and that's how transmission of this thing
Speaker 1: could happen. So it's really important on that. And I
Speaker 1: know that the airlines are also experimenting with not filling
Speaker 1: the middle seat or kind of offsetting the rows behind them,
Speaker 1: things like that. On an airplane. On a basic single
Speaker 1: aisle airplane, the tube is about twelve ft wide. It's
Speaker 1: really hard to get six ft apart. And as you mentioned,
Speaker 1: the folks in the road behind you, um, a row
Speaker 1: is not a yard wide, there inches away from you.
Speaker 1: And so there has been a lot of medical research
Speaker 1: on transmission of viruses and other diseases on airplanes, and
Speaker 1: the key thing is the two rows in front, two
Speaker 1: rows behind. I think even with this, you know, even
Speaker 1: somebody walking down the aisle who happens to coffer sneeze,
Speaker 1: if you're sitting in the aisle seat, that's a risk
Speaker 1: of exposure. So there's really good ventilation and filtering of
Speaker 1: the air on the air plane, and it does move
Speaker 1: air from the ceiling to the floor, not sort of
Speaker 1: cross wise. And those filters on an airplane can filter
Speaker 1: out coronavirus, or at least substantially filter out coronavirus. So
Speaker 1: there are a lot of reasons that you can have
Speaker 1: some comfort that you're going to be safe, but the
Speaker 1: real risk is being in close quarters with people. That's
Speaker 1: just by definition what's going to happen on an airplane
Speaker 1: and getting exposed to whatever they're coughing, sneezing, talking. And
Speaker 1: that's why masks are so important. And you mentioned it
Speaker 1: in your article and I've seen all over the place.
Speaker 1: Make sure to open that air events a full blast
Speaker 1: to keep that air moving and just be prepared to
Speaker 1: have those masks because you don't want to end up
Speaker 1: on it do not fly list just because of that,
Speaker 1: so just make sure to bring him. Scott McCartney, writer
Speaker 1: of the Middle Seat column for The Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 1: thank you very much for joining us. Sure always going
Speaker 1: to be with you. Oscar. I'm Oscar Ramirez and this
Speaker 1: is reopening America. Don't forget today's big news stories. You
Speaker 1: can check me out on the Daily Dive podcast every
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