Air passengers will have to keep masking up on flights for the foreseeable future, aviation experts have warned, with carriers reluctant to end the policy unilaterally anytime soon.
Industry experts reckon mask wearing will stay until there is ‘international consistency,’
"Until there is a harmonised lifting of mask mandates on flights by governments worldwide it is simpler for airlines to keep the rules in place," a source told the Times.
Ryanair’s CFO Neil Sorahan said passengers will ‘have to live with masks for a while longer.’
The carrier isn’t planning to change its mandatory mask policy.
"Masks will be something that will be with us for a while longer to come. If that is the price we have to pay for the next few months, into summer — it’s a small price to pay," Sorahan said.
In the US there is a federal mask mandate and a zero tolerance policy imposing it by the FAA.
That still hasn’t stopped a record number of disruptive passenger incidents.
Nearly 4,000 incidents relate to mask wearing violations since early 2021.
