According to Wizz-Air boss Jozsef Varadi, it is not an April joke: the low-cost airline will abolish the mask requirement imposed by the corona pandemic on April 1, 2022. The carrier will only recommend wearing mouth and nose covers, but will no longer make them mandatory. However, the announcement of the low coster has a small but subtle catch.

Varadi himself admitted that the mask requirement is not eliminated on all routes. For example, passengers from/to Germany or Austria have absolutely nothing of this for the time being. The background is that both states officially require the wearing of masks, in the case of the Alpine republic explicitly FFP2 masks, and have instructed the airlines accordingly by means of a notam. Put simply, this means for passengers: If one of the two states between which you fly with Wizzair requires the wearing of masks, then you have to wear one on board.

If there is no such official order, then from April 1, 2022 it will no longer be mandatory to wear a mouth and nose protector at the pink low coster. Varadi cited flights between the UK and Romania as an example. Both countries have generally abolished the obligation to wear masks and no longer require them to be worn on board commercial aircraft.

During an aviation conference held in Cluj, Romania, Varadi also said that he expects numerous other states to follow suit very soon and to abolish the mask requirement altogether. It is currently not foreseeable whether Germany and/or Austria will manage to do so. In contrast to Switzerland, for example, the Federal Republic of Germany persistently adheres to masks on public transport, which also includes airplanes. The current Austrian regulation expires shortly after Easter and it is not possible to predict which “Austrian way” will be followed afterwards.