Federal COVID mask mandate lands at Eisenhower Airport, with much stricter rules
If you don’t mask up at Wichita Eisenhower National Airport, you could land in some serious trouble.
Practically all airport passengers, employees and visitors are now required by federal law to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at all times while in the terminal, the rental-car area, shuttles and taxis, said Brad Christopher, assistant airport director.
People who refuse to mask up will be asked to leave the airport and if they don’t, they could be escorted off the grounds and/or charged with trespassing, Christopher said.
If a person is escorted out, the Airport Police will be required to take a report documenting the incident and to turn that information over to the Transportation Security Administration for further action, Christopher said.
According to a TSA statement, mask refusers could be subject to federal civil fines.
Christopher said airport officials are required by law to enforce the new regulations because they are included in a TSA security directive that took effect Monday.
“In that security directive, there are actions required by airport operators, air carriers, federal government agencies or contractors,” Christopher said. “It gives us a list of things that we’re compelled to do.”
No one without a mask will be allowed through TSA security checkpoints that lead to the gate area and no one will be allowed to board a plane unmasked, the TSA said in its statement.
The only exceptions are children under 2 years old, people with disabilities who cannot safely wear a mask and a limited number of workers for whom wearing a mask would create an occupational health and safety risk.
For the airport, the first obligation is to provide “prominent and adequate notice” of the new rules, Christopher said.
“We’re in the process of doing that right now,” he said. “We’re updating our public-address announcements, going on our website and adding signs in the terminal.”
Christopher said mask compliance at the airport is nearly 100 percent and practically everyone understands that they’re required and why.
“Nothing will really be different at the airport, unless someone wishes to express their political views and make a statement at the airport and say, ‘No, I’m not gonna wear a mask and you can’t make me,” he said.
The directive is the implementation of an executive order by President Joe Biden.
The rules are considerably more strict than Wichita city and Sedgwick County mask mandates that have required mask usage at the airport for the past several months, Christopher said.
For example, the city and county measures allowed airport patrons to go unmasked while eating or drinking.
The federal rules only allow airport users to remove their masks “between bites and sips” of food and beverages, to prevent people from using that as a loophole to linger unmasked in airport bars and restaurants, Christopher said.
Although the rules specify that masks must be worn at all times “in or on” the airport, Eisenhower Airport management has interpreted that to mean when people are in airport-controlled buildings or on commercial transport vehicles, not across the entire airport property encompassing 3,300 acres and numerous private businesses.
For example, masks won’t be required in the smoking area outside the terminal, the parking garage or surface lots. They will be required on parking shuttles, Christopher said.
The rules also don’t apply to private aircraft operations, except for paid charters, he said.
