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US senator to propose bill to block middle seats after crowded flight - Business Insider
Jul 05, 2020 1 min, 6 secs

The US government is about to weigh in on whether airlines should block middle seats after a senator flew on a crowded flight Thursday that prompted him to take action.

Jeff Merkley of Oregon was flying on an American Airlines flight just before the holiday weekend and saw firsthand the airline's lack of social distancing policies in action.

Most policy choices have been left up to the airlines, as Business Insider found when reviewing the social distancing policies of the 11 major US airlines, especially whether to mandate face coverings for passengers.

American Airlines had been restricting flights at 85% capacity for the month of June — as Business Insider saw firsthand on two American flights in early June — and recently announced that it will be selling its flights to capacity starting July 1.

After this weekend, only four US airlines are expected to block middle seats or limit the number of bookings for each flight as JetBlue Airways will no longer follow the practice starting July 7.

Alaska Airlines, which has a hub in Merkley's home state of Oregon, is only scheduled to block middle seats until July 31.

American Airlines is operating just over half the number of domestic flights this month as it did in July 2019, but said it will increase its flying schedule on July 7?

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