The United Airlines plane sat parked at the San Francisco International Airport on April 12. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
United Airlines said on Wednesday that it now requires all passengers to certify their own health before boarding the aircraft.
The airline was the first to require all passengers to fill out a health questionnaire to filter the corona virus as part of the check-in process.
The questionnaire includes asking passengers to state that they have not experienced coronavirus symptoms in the past 14 days or tested positive for the virus in the last 21 days.
They also asked passengers to agree to wear masks during the flight, which is aviation policy but not a federal requirement.
A United Airlines flight attendant, Susannah Carr, testified before the House Transportation Committee on Tuesday that her colleagues had discussed “the fact that passengers do not like to wear masks, maybe taking them off for a longer period than just eating or drinking. This is clearly a problem that we need to address.
The airline said customers who “cannot confirm these requirements” will “be able to reschedule their flights.”
There are no government or industry requirements for this broad type of health screening.
The airline has asked the Transportation Security Administration to do a passenger’s temperature filter, but so far the agency has not yet decided to do so.
There have been health checks by government officials at several airports, especially for incoming international passengers, and Frontier said it was necessary for the temperature of each passenger to check for fever before boarding.
