Flying soon? Don’t forget to bring a mask.
Despite updated COVID-19 mask guidance announced Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the lifting of mask mandates across the country, the federal mask mandate covering planes, airports, trains and other public transportation is in effect until at least March 18.
“The mask requirement remains in place and we will continue to assess the duration of the requirement in consultation with CDC,” Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Robert Langston said in a statement Friday.
The Transportation Security Administration mandate was announced in January 2021, but U.S. airlines have been requiring passengers to wear masks since May 2020, a few months into the coronavirus pandemic.
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Airlines, unions and consumer advocates pushed the federal government for months to mandate the policy so flight attendants had backing when encountering passenger resistance but found no support from President Donald Trump’s administration. President Joe Biden promised a transportation mask mandate if elected as one of many ways to combat COVID-19.
The mandate went into effect two years ago and has been extended three times.
Will the mask mandate for travel be extended?
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, a large union representing flight attendants at airlines including United, Alaska, Hawaiian, Spirit and Frontier, expects it will be extended again.
“We have every expectation that the mask mandate will be extended for the near term,” the union said in a statement. “The conditions in aviation are the same. Our youngest passengers do not yet have access to the vaccine. The airplane is a unique, but controlled environment for everyone’s safety. The layered approach to safety and security includes masks. Aviation is a world-wide network that harmonizes safety procedures around the world. It’s also critical that we maintain passenger confidence in the safety of air travel.”

Do I still need to wear a mask on a plane?
Airlines have not come out with a public stance on whether the mandate should be extended.
In mid-January, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said it was premature to speculate on when passengers would be able to fly without masks.
“Obviously, that’s going to be driven by the medical experts and not by the airlines, and we’ll follow their guidance,” he said on the airline’s quarterly earnings conference call.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly drew criticism at a Senate hearing in December 2021 for saying masks don’t do much on planes.
“I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment,” Kelly said during the hearing. “It is very safe and high-quality compared to any other indoor setting.”
He and other executives testified without masks on and Kelly tested positive for COVID-19 soon after. (Kelly retired as CEO earlier this month.)
While welcomed by the industry and unions, the federal mask mandate has not put an end to inflight resistance by some passengers, with frequent high-profile incidents causing flights to be delayed and diverted and passengers escorted off planes.
Union officials say mask issues are the root of the most severe unruly passenger incidents but they do account for the bulk of overall incidents.
There have been 607 unruly passenger incidents in 2022, with 397 tied to masks, the Federal Aviation Administration reported this week.
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Fines for not wearing mask on plane
Passengers who refuse to wear masks face fines and other consequences.
Last fall, Biden doubled the fines for travelers who refuse to mask up in airports. The new fines for those who refuse to wear masks are $500 to $1,000 for first offenders and $1,000 to $3,000 for repeat offenders. Children under the age of 2 and those with certain disabilities are exempt.
Airline mask requirement timeline
► April 2020: United, Frontier add mask requirement for flight attendants and others soon follow.
► May 2020: JetBlue Airways becomes the first U.S. airline to require masks for passengers, a policy quickly matched by other airlines.
►Jan. 2021: President Joe Biden announces federal mask mandate for travel with an initial expiration date of May 11. Airlines, unions and consumer advocates had called for such a move since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic but found no support from President Donald Trump’s administration.
►April 2021: Federal mask mandate extended through Sept. 13.
►August 2021: Mandate extended through Jan. 18 due to the delta variant.
►Dec 2021: Mandate extended through March 18 due to the omicron variant.
Contributing: Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY
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