News that the face masks rule in airports and on European flights had been relaxed came this week. However, if you are getting ready to fly, that doesn't necessarily mean you can go bare-faced. In fact, Ryanair has announced that face masks will still be mandatory on flights to 15 EU countries when the general rule on face masks is dropped from next Monday, May 16.
A number of popular holiday destinations will be affected including Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Malta. Travellers should double check all rules before heading for the airport.
Ryanair said they are acting in line with the new advice from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). The end of the face masks rule was jointly announced by the agencies on the morning of Wednesday, May 11. morning.
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The advice from the agencies came with the caveat that if a country still has mandatory face masks rules for public transport, then the airline should take precautions too. The countries that still have some form of mandatory face mask laws in place are Austria, Cyprus, Czech, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, reported Irish Mirror.
Ryanair chief executive, Eddie Wilson, hopes and expects that the popular tourist countries above will change their own public transport facemask rules by next Monday’s deadline. He said: “We welcome this rule relaxation from EASA and the ECDC effective from Monday, 16th May next. From that date, face masks will be optional on all Ryanair flights except those flights to/from the 15 EU States where masks remain mandatory on public transport.
“We expect these States to relax their face mask rules over the coming days in line with these new health guidelines from EASA and the ECDC. Intending passengers can check the latest EU face mask regulations on the Re-Open EU website.”
Holidaymakers hitting the skies to many destinations will not have to wear masks from next week. The news was announced suddenly by European authorities after the travel safety authorities agreed the masks on planes rule can go from Monday, May 16.
The news comes just on time for families preparing to jet off on their summer sunny holidays in the coming weeks. The agencies announced the move after taking into consideration the latest situation with Covid-19 across the EU, including high vaccination rates and the mass easing of restrictions across Europe already.
