Originally Posted by
ForeverJunior
They posted this bulletin yesterday:
Effective immediately Alaska Airlines is implementing new mask policy to reduce / prevent high-risk COVID19 exposures. The Omicron variant now accounts for approximately 95% of positive cases in the U.S. and is having significant impacts on our nation’s critical infrastructure, Alaska Airlines is instituting this temporary policy for the remainder of January and will re-evaluate on or after January 31st.
Effective January 5th, 2021, masks will be worn at all times by all employees in the indoor/office work environment, including in the simulator and all other locations at the FTC. In the Flight Deck (FD)masks will be worn:
• Anytime the FD is open either on the ground or in the air.
• Anytime a Flight Attendant is in the FD either on the ground or in the air
• Anytime either pilot expresses a desire to have masks worn in the FD.
o In this case, the expectation is that masks will be worn unless you are actively eating/drinking, having difficulty communicating on the radio or fogging of prescription glasses causes a potential safety risk.
That pretty much mirrors our policy except the last point about if any pilot desires to have mask worn. We can email the other person prior to the trip and ask if they would be willing to wear a mask. If they say no, you can still wear your mask but can’t force them (they can’t tell you not to wear one either), or you can remove yourself from the trip. I’ve never been notified. Two people have used mask but never expected me to, however the vast majority can’t get that thing off fast enough.