Both the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control — which is an agency of the European Union — issued an update yesterday, Wednesday, May 11, 2022, to the health safety measures for travel via airplane which paves the way for a relaxation of the need to wear medical masks aboard an airplane for a flight effective as of Monday, May 16, 2022.
Mask Requirement to Be Relaxed By European Union — But…
“While many states no longer require passengers to submit data through a passenger locator form, airlines should keep their data collection systems on standby so they could make this information available to public health authorities if needed, for example in the case where a new variant of concern (VOC) emerged which was identified as potentially more dangerous”, according to this official statement from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. “However rules for masks in particular will continue to vary by airline beyond that date. For example, flights to or from a destination where mask-wearing is still required on public transport should continue to encourage mask wearing, according to the recommendations. Vulnerable passengers should continue to wear a face mask regardless of the rules, ideally an FFP2/N95/KN95 type mask which offers a higher level of protection than a standard surgical mask.”
15 countries which are members of the European Union that still require passengers to wear face masks aboard airplanes include:
- Austria Passengers are required to wear FFP2 — or filtering face piece — masks or equivalent aboard airplanes during flights
- Cyprus
- Czech
- Estonia
- France Passengers are required to wear disposable surgical masks or better aboard airplanes during flights
- Germany
- Greece
- Italy Passengers are required to wear FFP2 — or filtering face piece — masks or equivalent aboard airplanes during flights
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Spain
12 countries which are members of the European Union that no longer require passengers to wear face masks aboard airplanes include:
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Denmark
- Finland
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Poland
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Sweden
“Wearing face masks at airports and inflight should be aligned with national measures on wearing masks in public transport and transport hubs”, according to this official document from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. “If either the departure or destination States require the wearing of face masks on public transport, aircraft operators should require passengers and crew to comply with those requirements inflight, beyond 16 May 2022. Further, as of 16 May 2022, aircraft operators, during their pre-flight communications as well as during the flight, should continue to encourage their passengers and crew members to wear face masks during the flight as well as in the airport, even when wearing a face mask is not required.”
In the United States on Monday, April 18, 2022, a federal judge ruled that the federal mask mandate for modes of public transportation in the United States was unlawful in this 59-page document, citing that it exceeded the authority of health officials in the United States during the current 2019 Novel coronavirus pandemic.
Immediately following that ruling, passengers were no longer required to wear masks or cloth coverings for their noses or mouths aboard airplanes in the United States — but the Department of Justice of the United States appealed the ruling to vacate the mask mandate; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officially requested an appeal shortly thereafter.
Final Boarding Call
I not only look forward to the day when masks or cloth coverings for noses or mouths will no longer be required anywhere in the world — with the exception of such obvious places as in certain areas of hospitals as one example — but also the day when the inbound testing requirement for all international air travelers will be expeditiously terminated everywhere in the world. Both are long overdue, in my opinion.
Personnel of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control note that “a face mask is still one of the best protections against the transmission” of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. I do not know why; but to me, that sounds similar to a company reluctantly agreeing to compensation as the result of a situation but without admitting fault or wrongdoing…
Photograph ©2020 by Brian Cohen.
