The wearing of face-masks will still be required on some Air Malta flights owing to regulations still in place in other countries despite recommendations to the contrary by the ECDC.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) issued an update earlier this month to the health safety measures for air travel on Wednesday, paving the way for a relaxation of the need to wear medical masks on board a flight, but noting that a face mask is still one of the best protections against the transmission of COVID-19.
The new recommendations came into effect from May 16 – Monday – but it was still up to each country and airline to decide for themselves whether they wanted to follow the recommendation or not.
“Face mask wearing onboard flights is determined not only by the country of registration of the airline but also by the country of departure and the country of arrival,” Air Malta explained in its statement.
In Malta’s case, Air Malta said in a statement, the necessity for passengers to wear a face mask was removed as from May 16, but this wasn’t the case for other countries.
Air Malta published a table showing the different laws adopted by different countries in order to advise passengers of whether they would have to wear a mask on particular flights.
As of Tuesday, no masks were required for anyone travelling to or from the UK, France, the Czech Republic, and Belgium – including when at the country’s airports.
Meanwhile, masks remain required for those travelling into and out of Austria, Germany, Italy (until 15June), the Netherlands, and Spain.
Masks are not required when travelling to or from Switzerland, but must be worn inside Swiss airports.
Air Malta said that passengers who wish to continue wearing a mask on board flights even though the requirement to do so has been lifted are also more than welcome to do so.
The airline said that updated information about mask wearing onboard Air Malta flights is available here.