Americans are ready to travel, but they want to do so safely. The survey results show that the majority of frequent flyers want to see mandatory face masks, vaccination passports and social distancing on the plane in order to feel confident in air travel again.
A heated battle over vaccinations and face mask usage raged in the U.S. this year. The politicized debate has entrenched Republicans and Democrats against each other at the federal, state and local levels of government.
The Frequent Flyer survey found a divide between Republican and Democratic respondents:
- 44% of Republicans said they would support a government requirement to provide proof of vaccination in order to fly;
- 48% of Republicans would also support a mandate directly from commercial airlines;
- 95% of Democrats, on the other hand, would support either a government or commercial airline vaccine passport requirement.
This partisan divide is a problem as it politicizes a public health crisis that we should all be working together to end. But the overall numbers are encouraging. With 90% of frequent flyers fully or partially vaccinated and nearly two-thirds supporting vaccine passports, it shows people are ready to take the necessary steps to make flying safer.
Two thousand people responded to the 2021 Frequent Flyer Survey and they are self-described members of loyalty programs of major U.S. airlines including Delta, United, Southwest, American, JetBlue, Alaska and others.
