American Airlines has started making face masks for its own employees at DFW International Airport and other hubs after looking unsuccessfully for personal protective equipment on the open market.
In conference rooms lined with sewing machine stations, under-utilized workers are cutting and stitching homemade masks out of fabric bought at local Walmart stores. They are using pipe-cleaners to help fit the masks around noses and hair bands in place of elastic, which is also in short demand in stores.
The measure is meant as a stop-gap while the Fort Worth-based airline searches around the world for face masks and that are in short supply because of high demand from the general public with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
American told workers last month, including flight attendants, that they could start wearing face masks to work, but they had to bring their own. Now with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifting recommendations to everyone wearing a mask, the carrier is looking to supply the equipment.
But for now, face masks are hard to find, said Joe Taney, American’s senior vice president of the DFW hub.
“There’s just not a lot available,” Taney said. “As much as we want to protect our team members, it’s hard to get them.”
Tammy Spence, a customer service manager for American at DFW, showed up to work yesterday with a sewing machine with plans to make masks out of old promotional T-shirts. American management got behind the effort and sent workers to Walmart to find fabric.
Spence said by the end of Tuesday, there were a few dozen workers cutting fabric. By Wednesday, employees had brought more than a dozen sewing machines and began finishing the first batch of masks.
So far, about 100 employees have stopped by to volunteer. Since only about 20 people at a time can work in a conference room turned into a sewing center, they have been working in shifts. They are spread out roughly six feet apart to follow social distancing guidelines.
By mid-day Wednesday, American Airlines workers had produced about 500 masks of varying styles, including polka dots and a wolf-themed hunting camo print.
The CDC hasn’t released any endorsement about how effective masks are in protecting wearers from contracting the virus. But it’s now recommending all people wear them in public to help stop the spread. That can be particularly helpful among people carrying the virus but not showing any symptoms.
“We’re just gonna keep on going because we have a lot of employees and demand,” Spence said. “We can’t even keep up.”
DFW has had several cases of COVID-19 infections reported, including a DFW-based pilot for American and a baggage handler. Three Transportation Security Administration agents have also been reported to have positive cases. Across American, the union for flight attendants said about 100 crew members have COVID-19.
Keeping up with demand is a big order at American’s DFW hub. The airport has about 18,000 American Airlines workers, including pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, gate agents and others. It will take much longer to produce enough masks, but Taney said the workers will start getting equipment to colleagues soon.
American also has employees doing this at other hubs, including Charlotte, Philadelphia and Miami.
The airline has a lot of workers with little to do as passenger loads have dropped to record lows. On Tuesday, airport traffic across the country was less than 5% of what it was a year ago, according to TSA statistics.
At DFW, half of the TSA lines have been shut down and those that are open have only one or two passengers going through at a time. Passengers spread out liberally across normally cramped waiting areas. Some of the most crowded planes are less than half full.
At this time last year, American operated about 900 flights a day. Now it’s about 400 and the departures board has far more cancellations than on-time flights.
“Everyone here is anxious, just like I think all of us are,” Taney said. “This is something we haven’t dealt with as a country or as a world.”
American has instituted voluntary leave for employees, but will still have to keep many of its workers on the job to meet union contract stipulations as well as rules set forth by the CARES Act to take federal grants and loans.
Taney said making masks gives employees with downtime something to do and a sense of purpose that they are helping one another.
“This was a grassroots effort to take care of each other and it’s spread literally in two days,” Taney said.
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