Four major US airlines are ready to allow passengers who violated face mask rules during the pandemic back on flights, days after a federal judge in Florida overturned the federal mask mandate for public transit including planes and airports.

Airlines quickly dropped in-flight mask requirements following the Monday ruling by the federal judge that determined the Justice Department failed to justify its decision to uphold the mask mandate and did not follow proper rule-making. The mask mandate for public transit was set to expire on May 3, after several extensions.

But at least four airlines — Delta, United, Alaska and American Airlines — are taking the rollback of coronavirus-era restrictions one step farther, saying some passengers who were banned from their planes because of mask violations will be allowed to return to their flight rosters on a “case-by-case” basis.

The Biden administration said it has halted its enforcement of mask mandates, but the Justice Department on Wednesday filed an appeal of the judge’s decision after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined an order requiring face coverings on planes and other public transportation is still needed.

Delta said Wednesday it plans to restore privileges for about 2,000 banned passengers who failed to comply with mask rules.

“At Delta, nothing is more important than the safety and security of our customers and our people. With masks now optional, Delta will restore flight privileges for customers on the mask non-compliance no-fly list only after each case is reviewed and each customer demonstrates an understanding of their expected behavior when flying with us,” the Atlanta-based company said in a statement to Reuters.

“Any further disregard for the policies that keep us all safe will result in placement on Delta’s permanent no-fly list. Customers who demonstrated egregious behavior and are already on the permanent no-fly list remain barred from flying with Delta,” the company continued. The 1,000 or so passengers “who demonstrated egregious behavior and are already on the permanent no-fly list” will still be barred from using the airline to travel the skies.

United Airlines said it also will allow roughly 1,000 passengers it banned for not following mask rules to fly again.

“On a case-by-case basis, we will allow some customers who were previously banned for failing to comply with mask-related rules to fly United again — after ensuring their commitment to follow all crewmember instructions on board,” the Chicago-based airline said in a statement.

When asked about what criteria would get someone off of the banned passengers list, United told USA TODAY, “We don’t have anything additional to share on this, as we do not share specifics of our internal security policies and procedures.”

Alaska Airlines will also give some of its banned passengers a chance to fly the skies once again, USA TODAY reported. The airline banned more than 1,700 guests over mask violations across the pandemic.

“Now that the mask policy has been overturned, guests who were banned solely for mask noncompliance will be allowed to purchase tickets on our flights,” Alaska said in a statement. “However, some guests whose behavior was particularly egregious will remain banned.”

American Airlines plans to follow suit as well, according to Nate Gatten, American’s chief government affairs officer.

American will also allow most passengers barred from flying for mask noncompliance “to resume travel at some point in time,” Gatten said in an earnings call on Thursday, according to CNN.

“In cases where an incident may have started with face mask noncompliance and escalated into anything involving something more serious, or certainly an assault on one of our key members or customers, those passengers are going to remain on our permanent internal refuse list and will never be allowed to travel with us again,” Gatten said.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian has been advocating for a national no-fly list banning passengers convicted of a crime because of an onboard disruption.

In a letter to US Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier this year, Bastian called for the “much-needed step of putting any person convicted of an on-board disruption on a national, comprehensive, unruly passenger ‘no-fly’ list that would bar that person from traveling on any commercial air carrier,” CNN reported.

The Federal Aviation Administration has logged 1,233 reports of unruly passenger behavior so far in 2022. Nearly 65% of those cases were mask-related.

The FAA said separately on Wednesday that it plans to make a zero tolerance policy for unruly passengers adopted in January 2021 permanent.

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