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Delta CEO: ‘Well Over 100 People’ Have Been Banned From Flying For Not Wearing Masks

"We've had well over 100 people that have refused to keep their mask on"

   DailyWire.com
BRAZIL - 2020/06/08: In this photo illustration the Delta Airlines logo seen displayed on a smartphone.
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian claims that “well over 100 people” have been banned from the airline for refusing to wear masks.

“We’ve had well over 100 people that have refused to keep their mask on during the flight,” he told CNN on Friday.

“You can’t get on the plane without wearing your mask. But we do have some customers that don’t want to keep their mask on during flight,” he later added. “We remind them several times over the course of getting ready to take off to please keep that mask on. But if they insist upon not wearing it — we insist that they’re not going to travel on Delta today.”

Of all the airlines, Delta has implemented some of the strictest COVID-19 policies to date by “requiring health screenings for passengers who cannot wear masks and pledging to leave middle seats empty to put distance between travelers.” However, Bastian told CNN last month that a large majority of passengers have been compliant.

Shortly after Bastian’s statement, a spokesperson for the company confirmed that people who adamantly refused to wear masks will be barred from booking future flights.

“Delta, along with other major US carriers, warned in mid-June that airlines would begin banning passengers who refuse to wear masks during air travel in an effort to beef up enforcement of the policy,” reported CNN. “The federal government has not made mask-wearing a mandate, leaving it up to airlines to enforce their own policies.”

The passengers who adamantly refuse masks often cause unnecessary commotion that disrupts and delays travel.

Bastian told employees in a letter on Thursday that the intense safety policies are to ensure customer satisfaction.

“We want to ensure that those who travel now are choosing Delta,” he said, adding that it will “will help bring in the additional revenue we need to reduce our cash burn. It also will build additional loyalty and affinity for our brand, which will power our growth when demand begins to come back.”

Delta CEO Ed Bastian became the subject of controversy earlier this year when he suggested that passengers should request permission before reclining their seats.

“I think customers have the right to recline,” Bastian said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I think the proper thing to do is if you’re going to recline into somebody that you ask if it’s okay first and then you do it.”

Bastian added that he never reclines, believing it unbecoming of a man in his position to do so.“I never recline, because I don’t think it’s something as CEO I should be doing,” he added. “I never say anything if someone reclines into me.”

On the subject of face masks, scientists generally agree that they protect the person wearing it from spreading COVID-19 and should not be considered a safeguard. In the past two weeks, both top epidemiologists in Sweden and the Netherlands announced that there will be no nationwide mask mandate.

RELATED: Sweden’s Top Epidemiologist Says ‘We See No Point In Wearing Masks’ As COVID-19 Cases Drop

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