Major U.S. airline trade groups urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reduce the recommended quarantine period for people with breakthrough Covid-19 cases to half, as they warned that the 10-day current time could cause flight cancellations and labor shortages.

The Omicron surge could have a significant impact on healthcare, public transport workforces and police/fire departments.
This will exacerbate our personnel shortages, and create substantial disruptions to the workforce and operations,” Nicholas Calio of Airlines for America wrote to Rochelle Walensky, Director at CDC on Thursday.

It is the letter that echoesWhat Delta Air LinesWalensky wrote Tuesday that the industry is increasingly concerned about the effects of the guidelines, especially as Covid cases increase, in particular the omicron version.

Airlines for America represents American, United, Delta, Southwest, FedExYou can also use UPS or other services.

However, the CDC has yet to comment.

The push is not supported by everyone within the industry. Sara Nelson (president of the Association of Flight Attendants), the largest union of flight attendants in the country, wrote Walensky on Thursday arguing in favor of the current recommendations.

Nelson said, “Staffing flights that have crew members who might still be symptomatic, infected, or both will only worsen this situation.” While most of the flight attendants were vaccinated, she said some may not have had booster shots.

Nelson said that flight attendants should not return to work until symptoms are resolved and they’ve passed all necessary tests. While we don’t know for sure if 10 is the’magic number,” Nelson said, “We do believe that it does not justify reducing this number.”