Russian airline designates plane seats for passengers who refuse to wear masks



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(CNN) – Russian airline Aeroflot has announced it will designate specific seats on board its planes for passengers who refuse to wear masks.

“It is extremely important for us to ensure the safety of all passengers,” said Yulia Spivakova, spokesperson for the airline, in a statement.

Aeroflot, which is Russia’s largest airline and national flag carrier, has a policy that travelers must wear masks when boarding and on the plane, unless they eat, drink or change their mask.

However, it appears that some passengers do not obey these guidelines. And because a plane can’t just stop mid-flight and kick an offending passenger, Aeroflot has designated certain seats on each flight for travelers who can’t or will not comply with the mask policy.

“[This] does not exclude the application of other liability measures in case of violation of the rules for the use of personal protective equipment on board, ”added Spivakova.

Policies for wearing masks on planes vary around the world, and individual carriers often set their own rules. Much of the burden of enforcing these policies is transferred to the flight attendants.

Russia is not the only country where the regulation of masks on planes has become an issue.

In the United States, several high-profile incidents have occurred on flights where passengers have refused to wear masks. In July 2020, a Southwest Airlines flight returned to the boarding gate at Denver International Airport when a scuffle took place between several passengers, one of whom claimed it was their “constitutional right” not to wear it.
In August this year, Delta Air Lines announced that it had instituted nearly 250 lifetime bans on travelers who refused to mask themselves.

Aeroflot has not announced whether it will implement long-term bans or other penalties for passengers who refuse to wear their masks throughout the flight. But isolating them in a specific section of the plane may somewhat reduce the likelihood that an unmasked traveler could transmit the coronavirus to one of their seat mates.

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