European Union Scraps Requirement For Face Masks On Flights & In Airports From May 16, 2022

The European Union has finally scrapped the face mask mandate related to air travel which will cease effective May 16, 2022 and mean that European flights no longer require face masks to be worn.

Some EU countries have already eased individual laws that required people to wear face masks in public transit vehicles and stations including airports but the general abolishment of the face mask requirement by the EU is the latest, more general step that will see masks go away on EU planes.

It seems sanity is slowly starting to prevail even in the halls of power in Brussels as many countries worldwide have already done away with masks on planes including the U.S. where first a federal judge concluded that the mask mandate was unlawful and then the government decided no to challenge the decision in a higher court.

Reuters reported that the EU Aviation mask mandate will cease next week, starting from May 16, 2022:

Face masks will not have to be worn in airports and on flights in Europe from May 16, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said on Wednesday.

“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,” EASA Executive Director Patrick Ky said.

Italy, France, Bulgaria and other European countries been relaxing or ending many or all of their measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

A number of U.S. airlines said they would no longer require masks in April, after a federal judge in Florida ruled that the U.S. administration’s mask mandate on public transport was unlawful.

ECDC Director Andrea Ammon said that even though wearing masks would not be mandatory “it is important to be mindful that together with physical distancing and good hand hygiene it is one of the best methods of reducing transmission.”

Rules for wearing masks are expected to vary after the mandatory requirement is lifted, with airlines told to encourage passengers to use masks on flights to or from destinations where wearing a mask on public transport is still required, the agencies said.

It’s overdue that this regulation disappears. Rules have been all over the place and passengers don’t even know how to comply anymore even if they want to. Others have no interest anymore of dealing with masks at all.

Just a few days ago several sources reported about Lufthansa causing a major incident at Frankfurt Airport where they singled out a good number of Orthodox Jews that were coming in from New York and didn’t allow them to board their connecting flight because apparently some of the people didn’t adhere to Lufthansa’s masking rules. Mind you, Germany no longer has any mask mandate in place anymore.

I’m not going down that rabbit hole as to writing about that situation with Lufthansa again after many bloggers have already done so and the discussion in the comments turned ugly quickly. However Lufthansa has indeed become the Mask Gestapo and it’s about time the airline get’s their act together and drops this nonsense. Flying LH is like attending Boot Camp these days contrary to SWISS for example.

The requirements of masks on board will depend on the rules of the origin/destination country as well. Based on this for example, flights between the U.S. and the European Union should be mask-free while travel to/from Canada still requires wearing a mask. Just perfect for my upcoming flight from Vancouver next week. 🙁

Conclusion

The European Union will no longer require masks to be worn on airplanes and in airports from May 16, 2022 as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced today.

There will still be requirements based on the regulations of non-EU countries on international flights and those may vary from the EU rules, therefore one should be diligent about the published information and do research before the flight.