If you don’t wear a corona protective mask, you fly – not in the air, but out of the plane. That used to be the case with Lufthansa. But insisting on it has recently become more dangerous for the staff, reports the airline – and relaxes.
In many areas of public life, the mask requirement to protect against the corona virus has been lifted. For example, customers have long been able to go “topless” in shops again. It’s different on buses and trains. And so far also on the plane. In any case, as long as it starts from an airport in Germany.
Many airlines report that this repeatedly leads to discussions between passengers and flight crew. At Lufthansa, according to its own statements, the quarrels about the piece of fabric have recently increased so much that they are now drawing a conclusion: their crews are no longer obliged to enforce the mask requirement by all means. This was confirmed by a spokesman for the airline headquartered in Frankfurt on Friday on request. Previously he had Spiegel reported.
According to the report, the company sees the increasing conflicts as a safety risk for its employees. And safety has the highest priority – this also applies to the safety of employees. However, the captain still has the last word on board.
Masks are still compulsory
This means that passengers can still be thrown off the plane if they refuse to wear a mask – as has happened in the past. But the crew can now decide against it.
This is not against the law and Lufthansa will continue to remind passengers of their obligation to wear masks on flights to and from Germany. However, the company also cited the fact that all neighboring countries of Germany were no longer enforcing the obligation to wear masks as a reason for the relaxation.
Exclusion of tour group caused criticism
So far, the airline had attracted attention with its rather strict interpretation of the Corona rules. For example, a Jewish tour group of more than 100 passengers was denied further travel at Frankfurt Airport at the beginning of May become, after some of them apparently refused to wear a mask. Then it rained criticism, the airline apologized.
According to a spokesman, the less strict control of the mask requirement will probably not lead to more conflicts between passengers with and without a mask: “Our staff are trained to deal with such situations sensitively.”
In the past few weeks, the company has publicly opposed the mask requirement, which the Hessian state government had extended to other public transport this week with a view to the 9-euro ticket. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the EU Health Authority (ECDC), on the other hand, lifted their recommendation that masks should be worn almost two weeks ago.
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