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Reports have indicated that a number of passengers refused to wear masks and harassed crew members in early January during an Alaska Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Seattle. The airline immediately responded and banned 14 of the passengers on that flight. Point to be noted that President Joe Biden has signed an executive order making face coverings mandatory on planes. The move will ensure passengers wear masks after the Federal Aviation Administration announced several weeks ago it will start taking legal action over such behavior. Alaska Airlines said it has banned more than 335 passengers since August for violating its mask policy. The airline also called those passengers “rowdy” and “argumentative”, and said, “Their behavior was unacceptable. Because of their actions and non-compliance, we have banned 14 of those passengers from future travel with us”.

The airline issued a statement and said, “We apologize to our other guests who were made uncomfortable on the flight. We will not tolerate any disturbance onboard our aircraft or at any of the airports we serve”. The list compiled by individual airlines and different from the federal no-fly list, which aims to block suspected terrorists from the skies, has swelled to more than 3,000 people. The flight bans grew out of mask requirements put in place due to the coronavirus. Most flight bans will last until those mask policies suspended at the end of the pandemic. It is noteworthy that many of the bans have occurred since the violent riot at the US Capitol, swelling to 2,700 in the week after 6^th January 2021.

The order was signed on 7^th January by FAA Administrator Steve Dickson. The FAA announcement said, “The FAA has seen a disturbing increase in incidents where airline passengers have disrupted flights with threatening or violent behavior. These incidents have stemmed both from passengers’ refusals to wear masks and from recent violence at the US Capitol”. However, American Airlines refused to disclose the number of customers banned. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, American’s flight attendants union said it has set up a hotline for members to report these encounters. A union member harassed with racial epithets while riding a hotel shuttle to Reagan National Airport. Alaska airlines banned 335, Allegiant airline 15, Delta airline 950, Frontier airline 550, JetBlue 115, Spirit airline 432, and United airlines banned 610 passengers.