Getting back to the original post, I don’t believe the airline CEO’s factor the passengers’ health interests into their opinion about the mask mandate. Of course they would prefer not to be responsible for enforcing mask wearing. As someone else here said, you could get sick by sitting next to a sneezing passenger before the pandemic. HEPA filters didn’t change it then and still won’t change it. For now, I will wear a mask because it makes me feel safer, regardless of my vaccination status. I don’t give a rat’s tuchus about what other people do.
If I were an airline CEO I would continuously poll the public over whether they would/would not fly based on a mask requirement. As the flying public’s opinion changes I would rerun the numbers and change my position about masking based on achievable revenue.