Airlines want to bring back passengers banned over masks

By DAVID KOENIG
AP Airlines Writer

DALLAS (AP) — Remember all those thousands of passengers that airlines banned for not wearing face masks? Now the airlines want them back — or at least, most of them. Officials with United Airlines and American Airlines said Thursday that they will lift the bans now that masks are optional on flights. United CEO Scott Kirby says many of those passenger promise to behave, and he believes them. American Airlines official Nate Gatten says most people who were banned for refusing to wear a mask will be allowed back. But Gatten says those whose behavior escalated beyond a mask violation — to things including assault — will never be allowed back.