As of Monday, travelers are not required to wear masks on planes if they are traveling within the European Union.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency announced the change last week.
The EASA’s executive director Patrick Ky said, “we are finally reaching a stage in the pandemic where we can start to relax the health safety measures.”
The group still encouraged passengers who are at higher risk of infection to continue wearing FFP2 masks and to social distance when possible.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control also encouraged everyone to keep their hands clean as a way to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.
Several EU countries are still keeping airplane mask rules in place, including Austria, Germany Greece, Italy and Spain.
The two agencies also advised airlines that they should keep passengers’ contact information, in case a new variant emerges and they need to do contact tracing.
