Airports vary on mask guidance following court ruling

Airports across the country are divided over their masking policies after a federal judge ruled Monday that masking requirements on planes, trains and buses could not be upheld.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement on Tuesday that it would continue to follow each state’s respective guidelines on masking despite the change at the federal level. As such, masks will still be required at LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport as well as at other New York transportation facilities. But in New Jersey, including at Newark Liberty International Airport, masking is now optional. 

Similarly, Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport will continue to enforce masking, citing an Illinois executive order. 

The Chicago Department of Aviation “will continue to follow, observe and enforce all guidance by federal, state and local health and security authorities” and will still mandate masks “on public transportation and in transportation hubs,” the airport’s tweeted statement said.

Other airports across the country, including San Francisco International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, have moved to make masks optional.

On Monday, many airlines, including United, American, Delta and Southwest, made masks optional.  

But the changes and their regional differences coupled with many airlines dropping their requirements could lead to confusion among passengers. 

For example, while O’Hare will continue to enforce masking, United Airlines, which is hubbed at the Chicago airport, said in its announcement making masks optional on Monday that masks were no longer required “at U.S. airports,” per the federal court ruling. 

The federal change stems from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) policy in which the government had argued for a broader definition of the word “sanitation” to include preventing disease.

Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a federal judge in Florida appointed by former President Trump, decided the word was “limited to cleaning measures.”

“Wearing a mask cleans nothing,” Mizelle wrote.  

While the mask mandate will no longer be enforced federally, the CDC still “recommends that people continue to wear masks in indoor public transportation settings.”