United CEO Scott Kirby is optimistic that the mask mandate in the US is going to end by September. In an interview, he said that “My guess is that the current government order expires on September 13 and fingers crossed. My guess is it will expire on September 13, but we’ll wait and see for sure”.
The federal mask mandate requires everyone to wear masks whenever they are using public transportation including in airports and planes. For the past year, mask-wearing has been a source of agitation for a good number of passengers. It has been reported that over 75% of FAA’s unruly passenger complaints were disputes on wearing masks.
He also stated that travel picked up and has “more than 100 percent recovered”. The United CEO also expects European travel to make a comeback soon. As for Asia, he predicts that it is still going to take 18 to 24 months for things to come back to pre-pandemic level. To double down on their prediction, United is adding 150 flights by winter to different warm destinations.
When asked about business travel, he said that it is never going to get back to “normal”. Despite his forecast, he still believes that business demand is going to go up by September.
Is the United CEO just being overly optimistic with his predictions? Are we going to see improvements that soon or it is going to be a long haul for the entire travel industry?
48.4% of the entire US population is currently vaccinated. Even if the US is doing well compared to other countries, health experts don’t want to put their guards down.
Delta virus is now the most dominant virus in the United States. According to the CDC, the delta variant accounted for 51.7% of COVID cases during the last two weeks of July. Top health officials are now warning about the possibility of returning indoor mask mandates.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said that “It is very clear that this is a nasty variant”. He added that “It has a much greater capacity of transmitting from person to person”. Fauci also raised concerns regarding the current “schism between some states and some areas that have a very low level of vaccination”.
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