Major Airlines are Banning Cloth Face Coverings

Despite the fact that a number of COVID restrictions have come and gone, one has stayed constant: you must wear a mask on planes. Many airlines implemented this requirement early in the pandemic to keep air travel safe, and government agencies around the world have followed suit with their own mandates. Over the previous year, airlines have levied fines, removed individuals from planes, and even canceled entire flights as a result of people breaking mask restrictions. Some companies are now going even further, prohibiting a specific type of mask entirely.

Since the onset of the pandemic, cloth masks have been used routinely by individuals around the world, particularly when medical masks for frontline workers were not available. But in certain cases, cloth masks will no longer cut it. Many of the top international airlines are now prohibiting cloth masks such as Finnair, Air France, Lufthansa, Swissair, Croatia Airlines, and LATAM Airlines, according to Travel & Leisure. These airlines allow only alternative, more efficient massages, such as N95 masks, KN95 masks, operative masks, and respirators without exhaust valves.

On Aug. 13, Finnair became the most recent airline to ban cotton masks, claiming that the face covering is not protective. “The safety of our customers and employees is our first priority. Fabric masks are slightly less efficient at protecting people from infection than surgical masks,” In a statement, Finnair claimed.

This is supported by a recent study that is currently being peer evaluated for publication in the journal Science and will be pre-printed on August 13th. Researchers evaluated over 340,000 adults from 600 villages in rural Bangladesh for this study and discovered that cotton masks did not function as well as surgical masks. While the authors found “clear evidence” that surgical masks are useful in lowering symptomatic COVID, they were unable to claim the same for fabric masks. Surgical masks had a filtering efficacy of 95%, but textile coverings were only 37% effective, according to the study.

“While cloth masks clearly reduce symptoms, we cannot reject that they have zero or only a small impact on symptomatic COVID infections,” the authors wrote. “Surgical masks have higher filtration efficiency, are cheaper, are consistently worn, and are better supported by our evidence as tools to reduce COVID-19”

According to Fast Company, it’s unclear whether any big US-based airlines would follow suit in banning cloth masks, but it’s worth anticipating. In fact, some of these airlines have already prohibited the use of certain types of face coverings. Although Delta Air Lines maintains that “cloth masks with tightly woven fabric are still permitted,” bandanas, scarves, masks with exhaust valves, and any mask with slits, punctures, or holes are currently prohibited.

Bandanas are not permitted, according to United Airlines, and a “face shield alone does not count as a face covering.” Balaclavas, bandanas, and scarves are also prohibited on Southwest and American Airlines.

Because the federal mask mandate for flights has been extended, U.S. airlines may implement a ban on cloth masks this year. This injunction went into effect in January and was supposed to expire on May 11 before being extended until September 13. However, on Aug. 20, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) stated that the federal face mask requirement would be extended once more, this time until Jan. 18, 2022.