WINDSOR, Conn. — Travelers at Connecticut airports will no longer have to wear a mask if they so choose after a court ruling overturned the federal requirement on Monday, officials said.
The Connecticut Airport Authority told FOX61 News in a statement on Tuesday that following the court ruling out of Florida, they will no longer enforce a mask mandate at their airports, effective immediately. CAA operates Bradley International Airport and the state’s five general aviation airports, Danielson, Groton-New London, Hartford-Brainard, Waterbury-Oxford, and Windham.
Tweed New Haven Airport, which operates separately, has not a made decision and therefore, is continuing to ask customers to wear them in the terminal.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with our regulatory partners regarding any additional changes,” a spokesperson said.
A federal judge’s decision to strike down the national mask mandate on airplanes, buses and trains was met with cheers on some airplanes but also concern about whether it’s really time to end one of the most visible vestiges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The major airlines and many of the busiest airports rushed to drop their requirements on Monday after the Transportation Security Administration announced it wouldn’t enforce a January 2021 security directive that applied to airplanes, airports, taxis and other mass transit.
In a 59-page lawsuit ruling, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority in issuing the original health order on which the TSA directive was based. She also said the order was fatally flawed because the CDC didn't follow proper rulemaking procedures.
Mizelle, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said the only remedy was to throw out the mandate for the entire country because it would be impossible to end it only for the people who objected in the lawsuit.
The White House said the mask order “is not in effect at this time” and called the court decision disappointing.
The Justice Department declined to comment on whether it would seek an emergency stay to block the judge’s order. The CDC also declined to comment.
United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines all quickly announced they were yanking the mask requirement for domestic and some international flights. So did American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue Airways.
Avelo Airlines, which flies out of Tweed, has made masks voluntary.
Major airports dropped their requirements but sided with the CDC in recommending that people be voluntarily masked. They included Los Angeles International Airport, the world’s fifth-busiest by passenger volume, and Salt Lake City International Airport, which announced it would hand out masks to anyone requesting them.
The CDC had recently extended the mask mandate, which was set to expire Monday, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant of the coronavirus now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S. But the court ruling puts that decision on hold.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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