EasyJet to drop masks on flights where destination has eased rules

‘Any customers or crew who wish to continue wearing a mask will of course have their personal choice respected,’ says airline

An easyJet A319 (Getty Images)

The UK’s biggest budget airline has joined the ranks of carriers ditching their mandatory mask rule across all flights.

From 27 March, easyJet has announced, it will no longer require passengers or crew to wear masks on flights “where masks are no longer legally required at both ends of the route”.

So, for example, since both England and Iceland have dropped most or all of their Covid travel restrictions, masks would not be mandatory on London to Reykjavik flights.

The same would be true of flights from England to Denmark, Gibraltar, Norway and Hungary - but not between Scotland and those destinations, since Scotland still requires flyers to wear masks.

A statement from the carrier said: “easyJet is really pleased to see the start of a return to truly restriction-free flying for UK consumers, following the welcome removal of all remaining UK travel restrictions last week.

“Following the removal of mandatory mask wearing in a number of countries, we have reviewed our mask policy onboard and have taken the decision that, from 27 March 2022, on flights where masks are no longer legally required at both ends of the route, we will not mandate customers and crew to wear masks onboard the flight.

“Any customers or crew who wish to continue wearing a mask will of course have their personal choice respected.”

However, the airline emphasised that mask rules remain in place in many more destinations than they do not, saying “we must continue to ensure that we and our customers follow the legal requirements of all the countries we fly to”.

Jet2 and Tui both recently announced that they would no longer legally require masks to be worn on most of their flights (from England and Northern Ireland, with Scotland as an exception), while noting that customers would need them for disembarking in most destinations.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic also both announced a relaxation of mask rules, with Virgin implementing a phased easing of the rules starting with flights to Caribbean destinations, and BA similarly no longer requiring passengers to wear masks where their destination does not demand it.

However, all of these airlines suggest passengers continue to wear masks on flights.