DENVER, Colorado — There have been a few different approaches to social distancing by America's biggest airline carriers.
Southwest said it's reducing the number of available seats by at least 20%. Delta says it'll cut 40% of its available seats. Frontier took some heat after charging customers $39 to sit next to an empty seat.
They now join American and United in allowing passengers to spread out if there's room.
But without caps, passengers flying with those airlines could very well end up on a fully-packed flight.
A United Airlines flight from Chicago O’Hare to the Denver International Airport Thursday morning sold out, making social distancing impossible once passengers boarded.
“More and more people started pouring in until they said on the intercom that it was going to be a full flight, that they wouldn’t be doing social distancing that all seats would be taken,” said Garrett Olsen who flew with his girlfriend Taylor Koc to pick up a car in Fort Collins.
Olsen’s father, Karl Olsen, a physician in Fort Collins, said he purchased the flight on United after looking at the airline’s safety guidelines, which state “customers won't be able to select seats next to each other or middle seats where available.” The web page also includes seat maps showing middle seats empty in every row.
“My first feeling was to have them not get on the flight,” said Karl Olsen who knew the couple had masks and gloves on. “We allowed it, for them to get on the flight. Then, at the airport, I sprayed them down with Lysol and their bags down with Lysol!”
United declined an interview with 9NEWS but provided a statement, which said there are no social-distance guarantees but that most flights are taking off with many empty seats. A spokesperson also reiterated that deep cleaning being done and the requirement of crew and passengers to wear a mask. Though, it’s not clear how that’s being enforced.
“There were probably three people in the near vicinity of me that weren't wearing masks and not one of them was even offered a mask,” said Garrett.
The couple will be driving back to Chicago with the car they came to Colorado to pick up and said they'll likely pay closer attention to the fine print when they have to take-off again.
“Putting profits ahead of patient safety or passenger safety, I think is the wrong policy right now,” said Karl.
The airline industry is expected to lose hundreds of billions of dollars because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Airlines and TSA have reported a drop of more than 90%. The federal government has already paid airlines $50 billion in assistance, though industry experts said more may be needed if ridership remains this low. The airline industry is expected to lose hundreds of billions of dollars because of the pandemic.
Here is the full statement provided by a United Airlines spokesperson:
"As we continue to keep the safety of our customers and employees at the center of everything that we do, we are taking additional steps to promote social distancing in the air and on the ground for an even safer journey. Last month, we began limiting advanced seat selection for adjacent seats in all cabins, including middle seats where available and alternating window and aisle seats when seats are in pairs. Though we cannot guarantee that all customers will be seated next to an unoccupied seat, based on historically low travel demand and the implementation of our various social distancing measures that is the likely outcome.
Some flights may have more customers on board than others depending on the particular route or frequency. Given our significantly reduced schedule, we want to ensure customers have an opportunity to get to their destinations. However, most flights currently depart with many unoccupied seats.
We’ve taken additional measures to help ensure a safe onboard experience, including mandating face coverings for our flight attendants and passengers, enhancing our cleaning procedures and implementing new boarding and deplaning procedures to promote social distancing.
We have flexible rebooking options for our customers and ask that they contact us if they have questions."
SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Coronavirus