Yahoo Finance Passengers should 'try to smile and be caring': former United Airlines CEO on flying
Flying the friendly skies has been anything but friendly in the two plus years of the pandemic as passengers rail against mask requirements and feel the stress of quarantine life.
Former United Airlines CEO Oscar Muñoz thinks travelers need to be more mindful of their surroundings on aircraft as to avoid any potential confrontations.
"I think what you as an individual can do is look around yourself and try to smile and be caring," the former long-time CEO of United Airlines said on Yahoo Finance Live. "It helps."
While the number of unruly passengers appears to be on a downtrend from a year ago (see chart below), travelers would agree that even one is too many.
Year to date, there have been 1,150 reports of unruly passengers on airplanes, according to the latest data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). A whopping 65% of the reports were related to face mask requirements. In total, 169 enforcement actions have been initiated against unruly passengers.
"I don't understand why people do what they do, and it has been getting worse," Munoz said. "I think we have to monitor it ourselves and to check our troubles at the door to some degree. But also there needs to be intensive training of flight attendants to manage these things — it can never be enough when somebody is just a jerk."
The angst on airlines related to face mask requirements is poised to carry on, at least through the end of April.
The Biden administration is reportedly expected to extend the mask mandate for passengers on airlines and other forms of transportation for another 15 days. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is reportedly examining whether rising COVID-19 cases will lead to a pickup in hospitalizations.
The federal mandate on masks wearing was poised to expire on April 18.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.
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