Norwegian Air will no longer require that passengers on its domestic flights or services between Norway, Sweden and Denmark wear face masks. Other airlines in Scandinavia are reportedly set to follow suit.
Such a policy shift is unusual in an industry where many airlines continue to severely restrict passengers due to global Covid-19 measures.
”Norwegian’s attitude has been to maintain the mask requirement for as short a period of time as possible,” it announced on October 14. “Those who still want to use face masks are of course welcome to do so.” Norwegian added that most airports still required the wearing of face masks.
But the “current infection situation” in Scandinavia and loosening of Covid restrictions, prompted its change of policy. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Norwegian, Widerøe and Flyr will also drop the requirement. Nordic nations have also discarded most of their domestic Coronavirus restrictions and daily life in Denmark, Norway and Sweden has returned to normal.
Covid restrictions sent the indebted airline into bankruptcy proceedings in 2020, forcing it to terminate its transatlantic network and to cut more than 6000 jobs to around 3000.
The airline expected a further boost in the second quarter of 2022 with holiday flights increasing.