American Airlines Quietly Axes Pandemic-Era Safety Precaution And Flight Attendants Are Very Divided

Jun 30, 2025

At the outset of the pandemic in early 2020, we saw airlines around the world rush to roll out in-flight protections for both passengers and flight attendants. More than five years later, however, one of the last visible measures is being banned at American Airlines.

In a leaked internal memo shared by aviation insider xJonNYC on Bluesky and X, the Fort Worth-based carrier has told flight attendants that they must no longer wear disposable gloves unless they are picking up trash.

AA: is the “truth” grosser than the “rumor”? pic.twitter.com/DwYqXaDysx

Until now, American Airlines has been loading boxes upon boxes of medical-grade nitrile gloves on its flights for flight attendant use. But now, the carrier has warned crew members that there could just be 12 pairs of gloves available on many flights as it introduces its new policy.

The use of disposable gloves has long been a contentious issue, and at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many service workers were encouraged to frequently wash their hands rather than wear disposable gloves.

One of the biggest issues with disposable gloves is that they can give the wearer a false sense of security. Their hands feel clean inside the gloves, but it can potentially increase the risk of germ transmission if the wearer accidentally touches their face with the gloves.

Airlines did, however, accept that it can be pretty difficult for flight attendants to regularly and thoroughly wash their hands, given the fact that airplane washrooms are always in use and the faucets don’t exactly dispense a lot of water.

As a compromise, airlines started to bulk load disposable gloves for flight attendants to use, while still encouraging frequent hand washing.

Of course, most other pandemic-era safety measures have already been scrapped – remember when airlines promised elaborate sanitization protocols for their airplanes, and passengers were handed germ-killing wipes and antibacterial gel?

It therefore makes sense that American Airlines would want to discontinue this one remaining throwback from the pandemic, especially when many other international carriers no longer allow crew to wear disposable gloves except for collecting trash.

“From this point forward, service gloves should only be worn during trash pickup,” the internal memo informs flight attendants.

Over the next few weeks, there could be just 12 pairs of disposable gloves available on many flights as American Airlines transitions to a new vendor. After the transition is complete, the number of gloves provisioned for flight attendants will be cut.

To say that flight attendants are divided over the issue would be an understatement, and it’s fair to say that many flight attendants will not give up glove wearing easily.

Of course, this poses the risk that die-hard glove wearers will no longer be able to frequently change their gloves, thereby increasing the risk of cross-contamination.

Qatar Airways: In May 2020, Qatar Airways made its flight attendants wear head-to-toe Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), including a disposable paper hazmat suit that covers the entire body and head, a face mask, and eye shield. The head and body suit was later replaced with a disposable paper apron.

Emirates and Etihad Airways: Other Persian Gulf carriers, including Emirates and Etihad Airways, also made their flight attendants wear disposable paper aprons, face masks, and eye shields for a significant portion of the pandemic.

Indian carriers: Airlines flying to India were forced to comply with strict regulations that required cabin crew to wear plastic aprons, gloves, hairnets, face masks, and visors. Bizarrely, the requirement for international carriers only applied during the boarding process.

US Airlines: Many carriers in the US were infamous for enforcing strict face mask rules with a much heavier hand than their international peers. The strict rules are believed to have contributed to a massive spike in unruly passenger incidents.

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Mateusz Maszczynski honed his skills as an international flight attendant at the most prominent airline in the Middle East and has been flying ever since... most recently for a well known European airline. Matt is passionate about the aviation industry and has become an expert in passenger experience and human-centric stories. Always keeping an ear close to the ground, Matt's industry insights, analysis and news coverage is frequently relied upon by some of the biggest names in journalism.