To more than 99% of the U.S. population, the word “airport” brings to mind a torture maze of jammed parking lots, endless ticket counters and serpentine throngs of passengers inching toward TSA humiliation. In fact, it’s just a tiny percentage of the nation’s 5,000 airports that serve major airlines and fit that description. The rest are the relaxed, more bucolic facilities that GA pilots envision when they think, “airport.”
That has led to some concern at the Experimental Aircraft Association over a January 21 federal order mandating that COVID-19 protective masks be worn on “most public modes of transportation,” but also creating mask mandates at “airports.” Though generally assumed to exclude smaller airports, the language doesn’t specify whether that includes non-commercial airports without airline service. EAA said it is “!working to ensure that the implementation of the order remains limited to public transportation facilities such as airline terminals.”
