纽约（美国有线电视新闻网）西南航空公司首席执行官加里凯利周三激起了一些争议，当时他表示在飞机上戴口罩对阻止 Covid 的传播几乎没有作用。
他在参议院听证会上回答一个问题时说：“我认为，如果口罩在机舱环境中有任何作用，那么这种情况非常有说服力。” “与任何其他室内环境相比，它非常安全且质量非常高。”
两天后，西南航空透露，在听证会上没有戴口罩的凯利的新冠病毒检测呈阳性。
很明显，凯利是对的，飞机上的空气比大多数其他室内环境都更安全，包括大多数办公室和商店。它不仅通过医疗级 HEPA 过滤器，而且机舱空气在整个飞行过程中始终与外部空气交换。
但是疾病控制中心和运输安全管理局坚持认为，即使空气质量如此之好，口罩对于对抗乘客之间的 Covid 传播仍然很重要，其中许多人没有接种疫苗，因为他们挤在一起的距离可能比他们更近在任何其他设置中一次持续数小时。不仅在飞机上而且在火车和公共汽车上都要求戴口罩的联邦规定将至少持续到 2022 年 3 月。
专家认为，口罩对航空公司还有另一个不太明显的好处——它们首先为乘客提供了预订航班所需的信心。
马里兰州洛约拉大学经济学教授、空气经济学专家 Kerry Tan 说：“我无法谈论戴口罩是否有帮助的科学。但我对戴口罩的看法是，它们有助于预订休闲旅行。”旅行。 “我觉得它通常会让乘客安心。”
尽管商务旅行和国际旅行尚未恢复到大流行前的水平，但据信休闲旅行已接近 2019 年的水平，尤其是在假期旅行季节。
谭说，由于不喜欢戴口罩而不会乘坐飞机的乘客人数可能远远超过预订航班的人数，因为他们知道坐在他们周围的人会戴口罩。当然，他承认这很难证明，因为没有任何确凿的证据。
众所周知，在大流行初期，所有航空公司都将中间座位留空，以让乘客在机上保持一定程度的社交距离。这是一种轻松的住宿，因为在早期飞行的乘客很少，当时大流行导致对空中旅行的需求几乎停止。
但是，一旦需求在 2020 年夏天开始恢复，大多数航空公司就放弃了该政策，但达美航空公司除外，该航空公司的中间座位一直空着直到 5 月 1 日。该公司因能够收取更高的费用而获得奖励。每英里的平均票价比其竞争对手高。当然，没有人可以说乘客是否为社交距离或额外的肘部空间支付了更多费用。
其他航空公司的首席执行官表示，他们不同意凯利关于不再需要口罩的观点。就连在凯利发表声明后最初说“我同意”的美国航空公司首席执行官道格·帕克（Doug Parker）后来也表示他说错了，并没有明确表示他只是同意飞机上的空气是安全的信念，而不是口罩是不必要的。
“我们支持联邦口罩指令。句号。它由 TSA 发布，并与 CDC 和其他健康专家协商，以保护我们客户和团队成员的安全和福祉。我们的工作是执行该指令，”帕克在周四晚上的后续声明中说。 “我们期待着联邦航空旅行不再强制戴口罩的那一天，因为那将意味着大流行已经过去。但今天不是那一天。”
达美航空 (DAL) 首席执行官埃德·巴斯蒂安 (Ed Bastian) 表示，随着 Omicron 病例数量的增加，“口罩作为一种保护措施将在一段时间内发挥重要作用。”
航空公司强制执行口罩有一个缺点——它导致涉及不守规矩乘客的事件激增。但至少根据联邦规定，航空公司可以告诉那些只是不开心而不是不守规矩的乘客，他们必须戴口罩才能遵守联邦规定，而不是航空公司自己的规定。而且他们不必担心会将反对戴口罩的客户流失给竞争对手。
所有四大航空公司都拒绝推测他们的预订是否受到口罩规定的帮助或伤害，但其他专家同意这可能是一个好处。
Raymond James 的航空公司分析师 Savi Syth 表示：“这对人们乘坐飞机旅行来说并不是一个很大的威慑，因此目前这对预订来说可能是一个积极的因素。” “这是一项服务业务。航空公司需要确保乘客尽可能舒适。即使没有人喜欢戴口罩，如果其他人不这样做，许多人也会感到不舒服。
Why the mask mandate on planes is good for business
New York (CNN Business)Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly stirred up some controversy Wednesday when he suggested that wearing masks on planes did little to prevent the spread of Covid.
"I think the case is very strong that masks don't add much if anything in the air cabin environment," he said in response to a question at a Senate hearing. "It is very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting."
Two days later Southwest disclosed that Kelly, who was not wearing a mask at the hearing, had tested positive for Covid.
It's clear that Kelly is right that the air on planes is safer than most any other indoor setting, including most offices and stores. Not only does it pass through medical-grade HEPA filters, but the cabin air is exchanged with outside air consistently throughout the flights.
But the Centers for Disease Control and the Transportation Security Administration insist that even with that air quality, masks still are important to combat the transmission of Covid among passengers, many of whom are unvaccinated, as they are packed together closer than perhaps they'd be in any other setting for hours at a time. The federal rules requiring masks not only on planes but also on trains and buses are set to stay in effect until at least March 2022.
Experts believe that the masks have another and less obvious benefit for the airlines -- they provide passengers with the confidence they need to book the flights in the first place.
"I can't speak to the science of whether masks help. But my thoughts with the mask mandate is that they help with booking leisure travel," said Kerry Tan, professor of economics at Loyola Unversity Maryland and an expert on the economics of air travel. "I feel like it generally will give passengers peace of mind."
Although business travel and international travel have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels, leisure travel is believed to be near 2019 levels, especially during the holiday travel season.
The number of passengers who won't fly because they don't like masks is likely greatly outnumbered by those who book flights because they know the people sitting around them will wear masks, Tan said. Of course he admits that is difficult to prove, since there is no hard evidence one way or another.
What is known is that in the early days of the pandemic, all the airlines were leaving the middle seats empty as a way to provide passengers with some degree of social distancing on board. It was an easy accommodation to make since so few passengers were flying in those early days, when the pandemic caused demand for air travel to ground to a near halt.
But as soon as demand started returning in the summer of 2020, most of the airlines abandoned that policy, with the exception of Delta Air Lines, which kept its middle seats empty until May 1. The company was rewarded by being able to charge a higher average fare per mile than its rivals. Of course, no one can say whether passengers were paying more for the social distancing or the extra elbow room.
The CEOs of other airlines have said they disagree with Kelly that masks are no longer needed. Even Doug Parker, CEO of American Airlines, who initially said "I concur" after Kelly made his statement, later said he misspoke and did not make it clear that he was only concurring with the belief that the air on planes is safe, not that masks are unnecessary.
"We support the federal mask mandate. Full stop. It was issued by the TSA and in consultation with CDC and other health experts to protect the safety and well-being of our customers and team members. Our job is to enforce the mandate," Parker said in a follow-up statement Thursday evening. "We look forward to the day when there will be no federal mask mandate for air travel, because that will mean the pandemic is behind us. But today is not that day."
Delta (DAL) CEO Ed Bastian said with the rising number of cases of Omicron, "masks are going to be important as a safeguard for a while yet."
There is one downside to the airlines having a mask mandate to enforce -- it has caused a spike in incidents involving unruly passengers. But at least with a federal rule, the airlines can tell passengers who are merely unhappy, and not unruly, that they must wear a mask to comply with federal rules, not the airline's own rules. And they don't have to worry about losing customers opposed to masks to a competitor.
All four major airlines declined to speculate if their bookings are helped or hurt by the mask mandate, but other experts agree that it's likely a benefit.
"It's not a big deterrent for people to take trips on planes, so it's probably a net positive for bookings at this point," said Savi Syth, airline analyst for Raymond James. "This is a service business. Airlines need to make sure passengers are as comfortable as possible. Even if no one likes wearing masks, many would feel less comfortable if others are not doing so.
