JUST SAYING

Why are face masks still mandatory on planes – despite the risks being minimal? Let’s end this nonsense, says Annabel Fenwick Elliott

Since the UK’s rules on face masks in public places were downgraded in July from compulsory to optional, the nation has been divided. Some companies insist on them, many people comply. Others, like me, refuse to be shamed into wearing one and do so only when they have no choice – including, oddly, on planes.

In-flight mask mandates make little sense – not least because we can take them off to eat and drink. It may seem counterintuitive, but airline cabins provide just about the safest contained environment where Covid transmission is concerned. Thanks to hospital-grade HEP (highefficiency particulate) filters, the air is changed more than 25 times an hour – a system that removes 99.97 per cent of airborne viruses and bacteria, the International Air Transport Association states.

According to the largest real-world study to date, by Delta Air Lines, your chances of being exposed to Covid-19 on a flight on which every passenger has tested negative is less than 0.1 per cent. Findings from the International Air Transport Association, from early 2020 (before face masks on flights became commonplace), identified just 44 cases of potential Covid infections among the 1.2 billion people who travelled by air in that period.

So the last place we should be enforcing mask wearing is on planes – especially for vaccinated passengers. Yet there seems to be no end in sight. None of the airlines or industry bodies I approached would comment on when the rule might be dropped, and this month the United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) again extended its masks-onplanes rule to mid-January.

It seems possible that being muzzled on flights will be forever woven into our “safety” measures, as happened after the 9/11

Just 44 cases of potential Covid infections were identified among 1.2 billion fliers

attacks of 2001. Two decades on, billions of air passengers per year are still prohibited from bringing proper-sized toothpaste on board – and no one protests.

Flying is already riddled with rules, despite planes being the safest form of public transport. I can’t see any reason why this one should continue any longer.