The UK's largest airline, British Airways, will abolish the mask requirement effective March 16, 2022. Wearing mouth and nose protection is only mandatory if this is explicitly instructed by the destination via a notam.
In concrete terms, this means for passengers that masks only have to be worn if the destination country requires it. For example, on flights to/from Austria, the notam stipulates that all passengers and crew members in the cabin must wear FFP2 masks.
Many states do not have such a regulation and the previous mask requirement was more of a lived practice, which was prescribed on the basis of house rules. In the United Kingdom there was an explicit order at times, but this has now been lifted in all areas, including aviation.
"When we are clear that the destination you are traveling to does not require wearing a face mask on board, it becomes optional. We ask all our customers to continue to respect fellow passengers' mask preferences in these instances," British Airways said in a statement to the media.
Previously had Jet2, Ryanair and Tui Airways announced that wearing masks on board will no longer be mandatory. Excluded from this are flights to destinations that explicitly require this by means of a notam. Speaking to Aviation.Direct, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary said he expects that By the end of April 2022, the mask requirement on board aircraft will have been abolished throughout Europe.