BERLIN, May 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The EU will lift its mask requirement for flights and airports from next week, its aviation safety agency said on Wednesday, as the pandemic eases in Europe.
“The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) issued an update to the health safety measures for air travel, dropping the recommendation for mandatory wearing of medical masks in airports and on board a flight, while noting that a face mask is still one of the best protections against the transmission of COVID-19,” the Germany-based EASA said in a statement.
Nevertheless national regulators and airlines will still have scope to demand face and nose covering by passengers and staff, it noted.
“From next week, face masks will no longer need to be mandatory in air travel in all cases, broadly aligning with the changing requirements of national authorities across Europe for public transport,” said EASA executive director Patrick Ky in a statement.
“For passengers and air crews, this is a big step forward in the normalization of air travel.”
Despite the new guidance, Germany as the EU’s most populous country and top economy said it had no plans to lift the mask mandate for flights.
“The mask requirement on airplanes continues to be in place for all domestic routes as well as on flights that take off or land in Germany,” health ministry spokesman Hanno Kautz said in an emailed statement.
EASA said after Monday, “rules for masks in particular will continue to vary by airline beyond that date.”
It stated that “flights to or from a destination where mask-wearing is still required on public transport should continue to encourage mask wearing.”
Vulnerable passengers with compromised health “should continue to wear a face mask regardless of the rules,” it added.
The EASA said passengers were also encouraged to observe social distancing at the airport but that operators should adopt a “pragmatic approach,” meaning avoiding measures that would “lead to a bottleneck in another location in the passenger journey.”
The Geneva-based International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the new guidance for the EU but acknowledged the picture was more complex in an international context.
“Although the European protocol comes into effect next week, there is no globally consistent approach to mask-wearing on board aircraft,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, in a statement.
“Airlines must comply with the regulations applicable to the routes they are operating. The aircraft crew will know what rules apply and it is critical that passengers follow their instructions.”
He added that the IATA asked all passengers to “be respectful of other people’s decision to voluntarily wear masks even if it not a requirement.”
The European aviation sector has predicted a return to near pre-pandemic traffic levels this summer despite soaring fuel prices, the war in Ukraine and inflation. — NNN-AGENCIES
